Supporting Leaders New to their Role

When new C-suite leaders begin in their roles, most companies are optimistic. The successful candidate understands the company challenges, has experience solving complex problems, and knows how to deliver on key strategic goals.

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So why is it that a high percentage of new leaders fail? Research shows that more than 40% fail in the first 18 months, regardless of whether they were hired externally or promoted from within.

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The costs of recruiting and promoting are high, but the costs of failure are higher still: missed financial targets, disappointing team performance, and team disruption. 

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Providing a new leader with the right support early in their tenure can’t be left to chance.

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Onboarding is NOT Integration

Almost all companies have programs to onboard, but less than half take the extra effort to facilitate alignment between leaders and teams, and less than a third help executives adapt to the political and cultural climate (HBR, Onboarding Isn’t Enough, May-June 2017). Without the tools to navigate the complexities, it’s difficult for new leaders to succeed. 

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Helping leaders succeed

But the opposite is also true. When executives are integrated effectively, success rates climb. While there’s no magic bullet for guaranteed results, companies can position their executives for success by following a focused New Leader Integration (NLI) program. 

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Going far beyond onboarding, NLI accelerates the progress and success of new leaders, ensuring their understanding of the company, culture and politics are not left to happenstance, and helping them avoid the cultural missteps, wrong expectations, alienating staff and peers, and the long-term costs associated with failure.

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Think of the game of Snakes and Ladders. Without NLI, a leader trying to navigate their new role may regularly run into snakes – untested assumptions, political minefields, low relationship collateral that derails their progress and sets them back – in relationships, business goals, and cultural capital.

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NLI moves the leader away from the Snakes and towards the Ladders – helping them learn faster, avoid pitfalls, understand roles, and achieve results more quickly.