Author: avenueleadership

Executive Transition, Leadership

Common executive transition challenges

An executive coming into a new role comes with immense pressure to succeed and take action.  This pressure results in some common executive transition challenges that most transitioning executives face and must combat in order to have a successful transition. Learn about the top challenges executives face during transition and onboarding and how to overcome them.

1. Pressure to reveal a new plan right away

This is the most common executive transition challenge. Any transitioning executive faces many questions early on about what is changing and what the new direction is.  However, a new plan right out of the gates won’t be based on enough information.  Executives should wait until they have engaged the proper stakeholders and received some initial buy-in before revealing new plans.

2. Temptation to rely on their old bag of tricks that worked in previous roles

Another common executive transition challenge is using what got you to your new role to succeed in your new role. Any new role comes with new context and if previous approaches are applied without consider and adaption to the new context, they won’t work as brilliantly as they did before.

3. Taking action instead of taking time to build relationships

To combat the tendency take action and avoid this executive transition challenge remember that leadership is about influence and followership.  Influence and followership is gained through building relationships.  Rushing to action may result in rejection, a common transition challenge or pitfall.

4. Lack of unanimous clear expectations of their role

If transitioning executives are asking the right questions of stakeholders, they usually encounter this executive transition challenge which is hearing different expectations of them from different stakeholders.  Negotiating the role’s expectations and boundaries is often a challenge, that if tackled, will yield to better ability to meet expectations. 

4. Deciding who on the team should stay or go

There is often pressure to make adjustments in talent early on and to rip the band aid off if someone should go.  Immediate decisions should be balanced with taking time to experience the capabilities and motivations of the leader’s direct reports.

Learn more executive transition challenges when assuming a new role and onboarding

Mistakes made in executive onboarding and transitions

8 steps to onboarding an executive

Best practices for supporting exec transition success

Avenue to Executive Transition Success Program

Executive onboarding and transition fundamentals: the what, why, and who of executive onboarding programs and coaching

Causes and solutions of executive transition failure

Executive onboarding and transition timeline, toolkit, plans, and templates

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anna@avenueleadership.com
(269) 220-0053
Richland, Michigan 49083

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Executive Transition

Mistakes in executive transition and onboarding

There are common mistakes made in executive transitions and onboarding that I see come up over and over again, both in my experience coaching executives and in research on executive transitions.  These mistakes are made by the hiring manger, the executive themselves, and the organization. Learn how to prevent these mistakes in executive transition.

Mistakes made by the hiring manager or board in executive transitions

1. Letting the executive new to role figure out onboarding, transition, and integration on their own

They are smart and capable executives after all. Perhaps the sink or swim approach is the usual way at your organization or what you’ve experienced taking on new roles, but this is the not best way to retain executives and accelerate their impact. Learn about the various roles and support needed in executive onboarding.

2. Tasking the executive new to role with creating their own onboarding and transition plan

They simply don’t know what they don’t know and are not experts on onboarding and transition best practices.  Executive’s new to role need guidance on strategic and cultural level onboarding and integration approaches.  Executives should own coming up with detailed 90 day and 6-month plans, but the overall approach to onboarding and navigating the culture should come from an onboarding program and their hiring manager. Find the tools, plans, and templates needed for executive onboarding and transition here.

Mistakes made by the organization in executive transitions

1. Setting expectations for action and implementation too quickly 

Leaders need time to get input, learn, and build trust before they will be successful in leading any change. At least 30 days is recommended.

2. Not providing a structured and strategic onboarding process or program

Structured and strategic onboarding programs like this one makes onboarding efficient and effective resulting in quicker integration into their role and faster execution based on the proper foundation of knowledge.

3. Not providing an executive transition coach to guide the executive’s focus and development during the transition

Learn why a coach is important.

4. Not creating clear expectations of the role

Unclear expectations set all parties up for miscommunication and wasted effort. It’s not fair or efficient to to create a situation where the executive is trying to hit a nonexistent target. When they don’t hit a target that hasn’t been defined, it’s creates wasted energy and engagement. “Unstated expectations are rarely met, and if they are, it’s an accident.” Wayne Woodson

5. Not providing guidance on who the most critical stakeholders are and how to navigate them

Giving the new exec a leg up on who is most important to their work and giving them insight into how to navigate these individuals and groups can cut transition time in half.

6. Not providing feedback on the executive’s performance or transition progress at several key points during transition

Early feedback is the best way to correct small and large missteps and to prevent them in the first place. Anyone in a new role needs to know how they are on or off track. This doesn’t change at the executive level.

Learn more about what organizations can do to prevent executive transition mistakes

8 steps to onboarding an executive

Best practices for supporting exec transition success

Avenue to Executive Transition Success Program

Mistakes made by the executive in executive transitions

There are common mistakes or pitfalls when onboarding or transition at the executive level. This video covers them and describes how to prevent them. They are also listed below.

Common pitfalls

  • Not taking enough time to read the politics and culture
  • Implementing too fast
  • Not creating a shared vision
  • Not staying at the highest strategic level of the role
  • Difficulty adjusting to being constantly evaluated and receiving distorted information
  • Not creating partnerships through relationships and trust
  • Allowing expectations to remain unclear
  • Suffering with Imposter Syndrome
  • Not setting healthy personal boundaries from the start

Key phrases to avoid

Last, there are also some key phrases that new executives use that rub people the wrong way and create an unfavorable first impression that is difficult to overcome. Learn what they are and what to say instead in this video.

Learn more about causes and solutions of executive transition failure

Causes of exec transition failure

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Richland, Michigan 49083

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Communication

Conflict: The Tension that Creates Connection

We all engage in some conflict avoidance; it is uncomfortable, difficult to navigate, unpredictable, and time consuming. Adding complexity to this natural fear of conflict is having to interact more frequently in a virtual environment where conflict can be even more challenging because it’s harder to tell when people disagree, read non-verbal’s, and to jump in with ideas.

Why we fear conflict:

  • Emotions may arise in me that may be difficult to manage and if I don’t, I may damage my reputation or breach trust. 
  • Sharing my views may elicit hurt or anger in others. It may feel like a personal attack. 
  • Calling out my disagreement or a different viewpoint (or asking others to do it) might damage relationships. 

As coaches, a great majority of leaders we encounter have shared a desire to improve in both their ability to navigate conflict and seek tools and techniques for mining for productive conflict because they know: 

  • Passionate debate results in better ideas and solutions.  
  • Assumptions can be revealed and challenged resulting in better understanding and outcomes.
  • Important and difficult issues can be identified, clarified, and then resolved.  
  • Building trust requires that team members are able to embrace each other’s similarities and differences. Having opportunities to share different viewpoints opens us to new ways of thinking and knowing one another.

Navigating conflict requires respect and understanding of the real fears that exist while having the courage to engage in it because of the benefits. The key is to keep it productive make it a practice. We have a tool that will help you develop this skill for yourself and your team that is designed for both in-person teams and those who work in a virtual environment.

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anna@avenueleadership.com
(269) 220-0053
Richland, Michigan 49083

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Leadership

What is normal? Change is Normal!

What is normal, usual, or typical feels like a moving target these days. Our everyday world has been collectively upended more in the last few months than most of us can ever remember. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to challenge and change the world. Yet, at the same time there is a resounding call for change and action for justice and equality.  Discussions on racism in America are continuing and the call for social justice is resonating. In addition, the US Supreme Court ruled to apply Title 7 Employment Anti-Discrimination to the LGBTQ+ community.

These events give us an opportunity to open dialogue and re-evaluate some critical aspects of how we do our work. As a leader, navigating change, conflict, ambiguity, and uncertain times effectively is what most of us are called to do – though even for seasoned leaders, this is often most difficult part of the role.

In our practice, we have the opportunity to see change leadership in action – though it is never straightforward or easy, many leaders we know are figuring out how to leverage change into resiliency and connection. The key is that leaders don’t wait for normal, they facilitate it. Specifically, there are two things that these leaders are doing: 

1) looking at what isn’t changing about the team and organization; the values and behaviors that drive the Mission and  

2) asking what do we need to do differently to ensure our team remains aligned to the Mission while responding to our new reality.  Instead of getting “back to normal”, he/she/they reflect, refine, and redefine the behaviors that are Mission critical. 

We’ve developed a tool that can help discover the norms that have remained as well as establishing new behaviors that support your team’s Mission. This tool will help foster and evolve a “normal” that serves as a foundation as the team navigates uncertainty together.  Additionally, discussing team norms is a great opportunity to talk about what behaviors create and support diversity, equity, and inclusion on the team.

Communication, Leadership

Feeling Overwhelmed? Consider Delegation

If you are like many leaders right now, you have too much on your plate and are overwhelmed.  Everything seems like a priority and it’s hard to find time to be strategic.  Delegation to others may be a tool that gives you the strategic time you need. 

Leaders hesitate to delegate because of a fear of passing overwhelm to others or that the task/project won’t be completed as effectively as if you did it yourself. However, in many situations there are more upsides to delegation if done thoughtfully – developing others, creating greater engagement and retention, and providing organizational exposure. With planning and clear communication, delegation can yield all the benefits, while minimizing the drawbacks.  

Download this delegation tool which helps leaders plan and communicate to ensure nothing is missed during the delegation conversation.

For other tactics to reverse leader overwhelm enroll in:

Overcoming Leadership Overwhelm: Time, priority, and energy management.

This course is for leaders at all levels who want to make changes in how they manage their energy, time, and priorities.

·  This program is not focused on teaching you a lot of new theories about time and priority management.  Instead, it will help you implement the most important vetted practices to prevent burnout including time in each session for planning, practice, and accountability (reporting back to the group on what you are implementing).

·  8 one-hour weekly live virtual Zoom sessions with only 10 people per class

·  Focused on implementing practices and adapting them to your reality while learning successful techniques from peers.

Program Takeaways:

·  Prevent burnout and devote more quality time to your family, health, and what’s important to you

·  Rank order priorities to structure your day and manage your time 

·  Manage your commitments and triage your to do list

·  Implement communication protocols to combat 24/7 connection

·  Construct a self-care structure and manage your energy

·  Increase your bandwidth by reducing multitasking and implementing automation