Leadership Transitions: How to Do It Right

The arrival of a new leader at the helm of a department, division, or organization typically follows the same ritual. The leader benefits from a few months of relative calm, the honeymoon period, where he or she is not expected to have answers yet or be fully effective. The clock is however ticking and the leader feels increasing pressure as the days go by.  The mature leader will know that this is the period to withhold judgment and decisions and explore as openly as possible the new situation. Meeting people one-on-one ads up to hours and weeks of exploration. The leader collects the many views, often in conflict, and has to decide for himself what is real. We commonly see transition periods stretching out to 6 months.

This process is not effective; our experience is that with the support of the organization, the new leader can be have a fully operational team in a matter of 3 months. Join us as we discuss a different approach.