Prevent derailment in new assignments for leaders at all levels

Every newly appointed leader has the eyes of the organization upon her. The fact is, even very competent and experienced executives often falter or “derail” in new assignments requiring a new level of leadership skill. This is usually a lapse in interpersonal skills or emotional intelligence, both of which can be strengthened through coaching.

The Discovery Process

The first step focuses on helping the new leader become clear about expectations of their manager and senior colleagues. This ensures their understanding of priorities, targets, timeframes and measures for delivery of results, along with other milestones, during the first year.

The second step is to gain an understanding of the organizational culture, or ‘the way they do things around here’. Often new appointees are there to be change-agents, and this can include changing culture. As such, it’s important to know where the organization is coming from, culture-wise, as well as where and how fast it is headed with the newly appointed person’s leadership. The coach helps the new leader compare and contrast their own leadership strengths and weaknesses to organization’s strengths and weaknesses. The process enables the leader to identify and leverage their leadership strengths for maximum impact.

We do this by employing techniques and tools most appropriate for the situation that may include:

• Interviewing others in the executives’ sphere of influence
• Organizational Culture Assessment
• Having the executive complete a series of self-assessments
• Clarifying core issues and targeting strategies for success

Working closely with their coach, the new leader will establish a Roadmap to Success™. This Roadmap is clearly defined, focuses on achievable goals, and defines and tracks measureables to demonstrate progress. Armed with techniques to reinforce strengths and manage potential de-railers, the executive will be able to dramatically improve their likelihood of success in their new leadership role.

Managers and Executive Leaders promoted to a new position or those newly hired for a leadership role.

A recent survey of why newly appointed leaders fail showed that executives often derail because they don’t manage relationships well:

• Eighty-two percent fail to build partnerships and teamwork with subordinates and peers
• Fifty-eight percent are confused or unclear about what is expected of them
• Fifty percent lack the required internal political savvy.
  

According to the Harvard Business Review, 2 out of 5 new CEOs fail in their first 18 months on the job. The cause was found to be ego and a leadership style out of touch with modern times. The gap is caused because leaders often see themselves differently than how others see them.

New Leader Coaching provides an avenue to build a leader’s self-awareness and emotional intelligence, improve decision-making and interpersonal relationships, transition into new positions and cultures and challenge an individual’s thinking and behaviors so the leaders can continue to grow and develop to their fullest.

ROI?

While a failed manager or executive can have a significant impact on your business in real dollars and lost opportunity it’s important to focus on what can be gained by engaging a new leader coach: In a 2008 global study of 2,165 coaching clients in 64 countries by Price Waterhouse Coopers, coaching was found to provide a nearly 3.5x median return on investment for client organizations.