CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
FROM THE FASTFORWARD PLAYBOOK
Successfully Transition into Bigger Roles
As the musician and poet Bob Dylan so aptly put it, “The times, they are a-changing.” The rate of change has never been so intense as we have experienced over the past few years. High-potential leaders within the global landscape couldn’t ask for a richer climate than they now have. Economic upturns and downturns, increasing globalization, technological innovations, and an environment poised for change create many opportunities for executives on an upward path.
And business is no longer “business as usual.” A recent Booz and Company report shows that companies across many industries and geographies are hitting the “reset button”; making changes to their portfolios, their business and operating models, their processes and infrastructure, all through a lens focused more closely on what truly creates value for their companies and their customers.1 Many companies have acknowledged that their executive pipelines need to be more robust,2 so it is indeed an opportune time for motivated high-potential leaders to become part of the solution to this organizational issue.
We’re seeing an upswing in the rate at which executives are moving into new roles; transitions take place as organizations merge or are acquired, reposition their business models, grow into different segments and geographies, and as the previous generation of senior leaders continues to retire at a rapid rate. Since 2007, our global coaching alliance Alexcel has partnered with the Institute of Executive Development to study executive transitions: what makes them succeed, and what predictable obstacles high-potential leaders face as they move into more senior roles.3
In our research, we examined how senior leaders (defined here as executives within the top 5 percent of their organizations) best navigate their promotions, whether they entered a new organization or were promoted internally, as well as how many of these senior leaders did not fulfill the promise of their positions. We gathered responses to an online survey from more than 350 leaders and talent professionals across many organizations and geographies consisting of eighteen multiple-choice questions plus more than fifty in-depth interviews to gain additional insight.
We believe that these findings are important to high-potential leaders for the following reasons. First, this is the level to which many high-potentials aspire. In addition, knowing the culture, success factors, and “watch-outs” for the top layer has great implications for determining who will successfully move up . . . and who won’t.
So what did our research uncover? We found that the rate of failure at the top 5 percent of the organizations we surveyed continues to be unacceptably high. One in three leaders brought into these roles from other organizations were not successful in meeting organizational expectations by the two-year mark.
The more surprising finding is that one in five leaders promoted to the top from within failed to meet their organization’s criteria for successful performance within two years. This bears repeating: 20 percent of leaders who were successful enough in their roles to earn a promotion or lateral move to a bigger and broader role did not succeed in the new role. They weren’t necessarily fired—companies are loath to dismiss many of these internally grown leaders—but their lack of success likely meant the end of the road for their upward mobility.
What is the clear learning from our survey? We’re confirming that, to paraphrase Marshall Goldsmith, what gets you to one level won’t necessarily be sufficient at higher levels.4 Let’s take a closer look at our findings.
What derails leaders at the high-potential and senior levels? Failure here is seldom about technical knowledge; it’s more about relational intelligence and cultural alignment. Seventy-three percent of our survey participants listed interpersonal and leadership skills as a significant factor in executive underperformance. For one in three respondents, it was listed as the most important factor. So as individuals move up the leadership pipeline,5 keep in mind that relationships are an increasingly important factor in more senior roles. Why? Simply put, each turn of the pipeline increasingly forces leaders to get more done through others. So we recommend that executives who want to climb the corporate ladder find ways of addressing this challenge. This includes understanding how others see you, developing conscious awareness of the culture, and learning to flex your own leadership and communication style. In this way, good intentions have a greater probability of being perceived clearly by others.
One senior leader whom we interviewed commented, “Last year I hired four MBAs from the most competitive business schools. Within a year, we fired them all.” He went on to say that although all four were blazingly smart, driven, and had great technical skills, they were arrogant know-it-alls convinced that they had all the right answers to the business challenges facing them. They didn’t take time to understand and respect the culture of the business units and teams they inherited, pushing so hard that they engendered great resistance from their stakeholders. Morale plummeted, turnover increased, and results suffered.
In our work we see this scenario all too often, which is the reason we created the FastForward program for leaders moving into new roles. It’s not easy balancing new role demands, new matrix and reporting relationships, as well as the pressure for results and often the mandate for implementing change. Too often the relational aspects of a new role are left to languish.
Contrast the failure cited above to the case of one leader, whom we’ll call Mitchell. As part of his company’s program to develop high-potentials, he was moved from a corporate marketing role to a regional operations role in an underperforming region; in this role, he was expected to drive higher performance in sales and production. Mitchell felt good about this move; as he was close to the global strategy team, he felt that he knew the business inside and out. He saw his move as an opportunity to shine as he imagined teaching the region more about the “view from the strategic balcony.”
What Mitchell did not anticipate was the difference in the culture of the regional business, and the degree to which his regional colleagues felt at odds with corporate initiatives, which were often seen as unrealistic and short-lived. He quickly saw that he needed to consciously navigate his new territory and that he needed more than a good strategy and business case to assure his success. Triumph in this role demanded that he rapidly build trust within his new matrix.
As Mitchell and I worked together to craft a six-month plan for his transition, I asked him to reflect on the culture within his new team and the regional business. What were its hallmarks? What was the balance between the emphasis on stabilizing process and the emphasis on innovation? Was the culture more collaborative or bottom-line driven? What was Mitchell used to and how did his current situation echo or differ from the type of culture that was most comfortable for him? He described his former culture as strategic and innovative. “I was encouraged to think up new ideas for how we could establish beachheads in the marketplace,” he recalled, “whereas in the region, our focus is on efficiency and process.” Clearly he needed to shift his perspective and his style to fully appreciate and adapt to his new culture.
Next, I had him map his matrix of new stakeholders and create a template of conversations he needed to have to understand the different points of view he must navigate. His task was to go on a “listening tour,”6 which is different from the “speaking tours” on which many leaders embark. In these conversations, he discovered important events in the region’s history, key sources of information and influence, and the political minefields that existed. He identified two potential mentors who could help him with ongoing connections and sponsorship for the change initiative he was tasked with executing.
Mitchell also took time to reflect on what he knew about himself. His strength for driving business results became a liability when he drove himself and others so hard that he neglected to acknowledge others’ contributions. To ensure this did not delay building trust within his role, he decided to deliberately practice seeking others’ input and asking questions before expressing his opinions, so that others (especially his direct reports) would feel comfortable telling him the difficult truths. He quickly learned that if he slowed the pace of his communication, he was more effective at getting his point across. These are simple practices, but ones that high-potential leaders often forget to exercise in the urgency of seeking results.
When I suggested that Mitchell ask his manager and other key stakeholders to define “success” in his role, he initially pushed back. He had that discussion in his job interview, and he’d attended the town hall meetings. He eventually relented and was surprised to find that some of his manager’s measures of success had not been on his radar screen at all. He had not anticipated, for example, that he would be measured on his development of others as well as on quarterly results. Knowing this, he was able to decide on which “early wins” would signal that he was developing his people, and he had to ensure that he carved out time on his schedule to address this, which was new for him.
I encouraged Mitchell to continue seeking regular input to ensure that his progress was perceived as forward movement by key stakeholders. His discipline allowed him to catch early mistakes and misalignments and “course correct” before trust was eroded. This was important for Mitchell given his tendency to rely on hard numbers as measures of progress; yet many early “wins” do not yet translate into hard numbers.
One year later, Mitchell has seen visible progress in turning his region around. He’s in the succession pipeline for an even bigger role. He’s already doing some preliminary investigation about the microculture he will enter in that geography and business unit. Through his developmental roles, he’s gathering both the breadth and depth, about the organization and about himself as a leader, which will enable him to move into broader enterprise-wide roles.
Accelerating Success in New Roles: Actions You Can Take
If, in addition to your technical and business knowledge, you can, as a high-potential, successfully navigate the interpersonal, political, and cultural challenges as you take on new roles, you will be positioning yourself for success as you advance in your organization. Following are a few areas to consider as you move into bigger and broader roles.
Prepare for Challenge
- Assess the culture and know that there are many microcultures within each organization. You must understand and acknowledge culture before you have any chance of producing lasting change.
- Assess yourself and be conscious of your default settings. Our greatest strengths, taken to excess, become weaknesses; and we’re often the last to notice when we cross that boundary.
- Ask yourself and others: what’s the new “balcony position” you must adopt? Each successive move up the pipeline presents new strategic demands . . . and to effectively act on strategy, you will need to let go of some tactical activities.
Develop Your Network
- Peer relationships are of increasing importance for high-potentials. They encompass centers of influence, knowledge, and connection. Don’t underestimate their importance.
- Leverage multiple mentors to get the view from different perspectives. You can never have too much assistance on the way up.
- Actively develop others and serve as a mentor yourself. You’ll create a great learning experience for yourself as well as for those you take under your wing.
Measure Success
- Ask your manager and other key stakeholders: what will success in my role look like six months down the road? Don’t assume you know the correct answers.
- Follow up regularly and seek future-oriented feedback. By doing so, you will create a climate of open dialogue where misalignments can surface and be managed before they become immovable obstacles.
- Celebrate success regularly. Remember, in the fierce urgency of now, to pause and acknowledge benchmarks, milestones, and even small wins, to yourself as well as to others.
Patricia Wheeler, PhD, is managing partner of The Levin Group, a global leadership advisory firm, and an expert in leadership development and executive coaching. Her specialty is helping technically talented executives become more effective leaders, raising the bar for their own performance and the performance of their teams. She holds a PhD in psychology; she served as assistant professor for the Emory University School of Medicine and is guest lecturer in the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. She publishes the executive resource Leading News (www.LeadingNews.org) in collaboration with leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith, and is a contributor to the Best Practices in Leadership Development Workbook and the AMA Handbook of Leadership.
Notes
1. Paul Hyde, Roman Regelman, John Rolander, et al., “Five Industries Hit the Reset Button,” Strategy + Business, (Jan. 14, 2011). http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00060?pg=0.
2. Towers Watson, “Strategies for Growth,” white paper, (December 2010). http://www.towerswatson.com/assets/pdf/3371/Towers-Watson-Strategies-Growth.pdf.
3. Alexcel Group and the Institute of Executive Development “Executive Challenges Remain Challenging,” white paper, (2010). http://leadingnews.org/TransitionStudyReq.htm.
4. M. Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (New York: Hyperion, 2007).
5. Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel, The Leadership Pipeline (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2006).
6. L. Levin, Top Teaming: A Roadmap for Navigating the Now, the New and the Next (Bloomington, IL: iUniverse, 2011).