Category: Leadership

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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(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

Leadership

Leader Overwhelm Assessment

Being a leader in our current times means facing change daily, being constantly connected to technology, in meetings most of the day, with too much on your plate, working too many hours, while feeling like you aren’t doing enough which can cause anxiety and stress with impact to your health and family.  This is leader overwhelm and if not managed, will lead to burnout.

Take this self-assessmentto see if you are actively preventing overwhelm or if you are in overwhelm, potentially at risk for burnout.

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.

·  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

·  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).

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

Communication, Leadership

Designing Engaging Virtual Meetings

Can virtual meetings be as engaging as those that take place in person? The short answer to this is yes! But, they require intention.

Here are some best practices for making the most of your virtual meetings. 

1)  Create social time. We are social creatures, hardwired to connect with one another. In person meetings provide natural space for social time at the beginning and end of meetings that is lost in a virtual space. Use check-ins, questions, and/or round tables at the beginning of virtual meetings to get people talking. “I’d love to hear from everyone, what was one good thing (or customer interaction) that happened yesterday? Who wants to start?” This also provides a less awkward approach to taking a roll call.  As the leader, check off each name from the attendee list as each person speaks. Invite those left to speak or verify they are not on the call. 

2)  Set norms or guidelines. Some examples we’ve commonly seen are no multi-tasking, all must contribute, silence is not consent. Seek verbal commitment or use a poling tool to solicit input. Let them know they are permitted to answer “I need to think about it” or “I agree with our approach and don’t have anything else to add”. 

3)  Agendas are not optional.  Without a roadmap (agenda), distractions will win the attention of your participants/team. In a virtual environment it is even more critical to offer overt cues about what can be expected. 

4)   Ask specific questions. Nothing invites more crickets in a virtual meeting than “any comments or questions?” If you are struggling for something specific, start with “what did we get right and what did we miss?” If input is required to make a decision, the question should be more specific like “what are any hesitations with this option?” Asking each participant to contribute is also a best practice. 

5)  Get feedback. Ask participants to share their experience of the meeting, ways to improve, topics for the next meeting, etc. Reserve the last five minutes to talk about meeting effectiveness. If your participants know you are learning together and are committed to ensuring the time is valuable, then they will more actively participate each time you are together.