If you are about to move into a new leadership position, research suggests more needs to be done to make the transition a success. A paper by McKinsey indicates that two years after a leadership transition, between 27 and 46 percent of those transitions are considered to be failures or disappointments.
Successful or not, leadership transitions are expensive. For senior executive roles, one paper estimated the cost to be 213 percent of the annual salary. The most significant cost was the disruption to the leader's new team and the loss of up to 18 months while the competition races ahead.
There are multiple contributing factors in a failed transition. Still, many leaders have reported feeling they’re not given adequate support when they start, with several commenting that they have been left to self-manage their transition.
A leader’s ability to positively engage with their team during the transition is crucial. Research indicates that poor interpersonal skills are the number one reason why leaders fail to meet the performance expectations of their new role. Understanding this allows you to develop and hone your interpersonal skills to ensure a successful transition.
When you consider the direct and indirect costs of a failed leadership transition, organisations can do more to support leaders – and this process begins with developing a leader’s interpersonal effectiveness.
However, if you are a leader about to step into your first leadership role and are left to self-manage your transition, here are some ways to help set you up for success.
How will you build trust in a leadership transition?
When starting a new role, it’s natural to want to make a good first impression. Doing so will make you more conscious of how you interact with others—being deliberate and purposeful in leading others rather than only being focused on what you want to achieve.
One way to develop this intentionality during a leadership transition is to reflect on the goals of your new position and the leadership practices you will prioritise to deliver results. This exercise will ensure that what you say and do aligns to build trust during these early days of bonding with your new team.
To illustrate: if, as a leader, you believe in the importance of autonomy to motivate others and signal trust in your new team, you will need to think about the actions that align with this belief – for example, by empowering your team to solve problems and being clear on what decisions they can make independently. However, in making this a focus, you should be mindful of remaining committed to this approach, even when you feel pressure to deliver results.
How will you manage self-defeating behaviours?
Starting a new job is a stressful life event. Taking on a new leadership role also brings ambiguities as you get to know your new team and stakeholders and as you explore what needs to change.
This is a challenging period when increased uncertainty will require you to self-regulate your emotions. Self-regulation comes with greater awareness of the emotional triggers that negatively impact your behaviour.
Transitioning leaders need to self-regulate by identifying any unhelpful thinking patterns that might affect their performance. In doing so, they develop proactive strategies to support more effective leadership behaviours in times of uncertainty.
This process of self-regulation will help you develop your resilience and ability to positively influence others during periods of uncertainty and organisational change.
How will you create the conditions for change?
When you transition into a new leadership position, it may not feel like the time to show vulnerabilities. Yet, building a safe environment for your new team is possibly the most important moment if you want to benefit from their knowledge and experience.
It will be a time when your team has a heightened need for safety and is concerned with managing perceptions in front of the new boss. To get the most out of a team, transitioning leaders show their own fallibility and signal that people don’t need to feel the pressure to have all the answers.
As a leader, you must work extra hard to create an environment where people feel secure enough to ask questions rather than be overly concerned with self-protection.
As you get to know your new team and as they get to know you, your ability to explore different perspectives will enhance the creativity, problem-solving and decision-making that will support you in a successful leadership transition.
How will you approach making change?
When you start in a new role, you may feel the pressure to jump into what needs to change and discount what was achieved in the past. However, in doing so, you may alienate those in the team who are still committed to old ways of working and the milestones they achieved, which form part of the team's culture.
Instead, a transitioning leader will begin by taking time to connect with each team member to learn about their values, strengths, and motivations. This relational focus will help you create a genuine dialogue and lead the team through organisational change.
Leaders who are successful in transition periods partner with their team to develop a shared vision and plans that build on past successes while jointly identifying the opportunities for change. It is a process that takes people on a journey, where you are patient with members of your team who might initially resist change, seeing it as an opportunity for you to learn from these different perspectives.
When making your next leadership transition, take the time to reflect on your approach. For you to be successful in your transition, you first need to engage your new team as they move through their own leadership transition.
The leader who is more intentional in their approach brings greater authenticity, clarity, and focus to their leadership, helping to set them up for greater success.