Human Resources: Executive Transition Success: Connect With Your Stakeholders

By Patricia Wheeler
Steve was both excited and anxious about his upcoming promotion. A talented man and engineer by profession, he had worked for over 10 years in his organization. For the past two years he had been in the field successfully leading a turnaround of an underperforming business unit, far away from the home office.

He was moving into a role inside the corporate office, where his day to day contacts would again be with people inside his company. He would be responsible for creating an effective matrix organization within his new business unit. His challenge was to quickly build relationships with peers with whom he had little to no contact for the past two years.

Steve was worried about his new role: having been largely outside the loop, how could he quickly build the traction that his manager expected? Corporate eyes were upon him, all the way up to the C-suite. He knew that time was short to make a great impression and to create results.

According to our survey research, Steve had reason for his concern. Our coaching alliance, The Alexcel Group, and our friends at the Institute for Executive Development decided to seek answers to a number of questions about transitions that senior leaders make. We wanted to know how often failure happens at the senior level, and we were especially curious about how often leaders fail when they move into new roles within the same organization….companies where they had been successful enough to earn a promotion.

We asked not only how many failed, but why they failed; and what are the factors that distinguish success from failure?

So what did we find? In our survey of over 150 respondents, HR and talent management leaders as well as business leaders, we discovered that one in five senior executives taking new roles within their current organization did not meet the expectations of their new role by the 2 year mark. This statistic brings looks of surprise and dismay to the faces of leaders and talent management professionals as we share our results.

What was the top “failure factor?” Two-thirds of respondents said that interpersonal skill gaps were a significant cause of failure for senior leaders in their organizations. This included their ability to create collaborative relationships within and across the organization, their ability to influence even where they did not have authority, and their ability to “crack the culture” of the informal organization. Not surprisingly, we found that lack of technical or business skill is rarely a cause for failure at the senior level.

Before Steve made the transition, he and I met to plan an approach for successfully moving into his new role. We knew his strengths included diligence, detail orientation and eagerness to please. His gaps included a tendency to over-worry in the absence of clear feedback from those in authority. And when he worried, he tended to keep his distance and keep his office door closed, leading others to perceive him as distant and uninvolved. He also did not spend the needed time building relationships with those who could be important stakeholders in his success, tending to focus on sharing technical information. He knew he had to quickly build stronger relationships with peers with whom he had little to no recent contact to be successful going forward.

Since this was not something Steve naturally did well, we approached the challenge by creating a “stakeholder roadmap” detailing existing peer relationships and additional relationships he needed to begin cultivating within the next ninety days. With his project planning skills and attention to detail, Steve created a comprehensive spreadsheet where he tasked himself with learning the roles and responsibilities, current and emerging challenges of his stakeholders. He looked at potential intersections between departments and how, with his recent experience in the field, he could be of help to them. He even created columns for listing their spouse and children’s names and outside interests. He then set out targets and expectations for himself for initiating and maintaining contact with all stakeholders and found ways of holding himself accountable for scheduling these meetings.

Four questions he asked every stakeholder:

What do I need to know about you and your role in order to be helpful?

What do you need to know about me, and about my role?

How should we best keep in contact with one another?

How shall we address obstacles and challenges with one another and our teams when they occur?

The result? Steve exceeded his (and his manager’s) expectations for building traction with his peers. Creating an effective matrix organization was difficult, but with Steve’s diligence around keeping dialogue alive and moving forward, he and his peers were able to overcome a number of obstacles that had stymied them in the past. And within two years, he accepted a promotion to an even bigger role….in which he still has to manage his tendency to “go technical” rather than “stay relational,” which he does by keeping his stakeholder roadmap in action.

As you move into bigger roles and challenges, what plan must you put into place to keep connected with your most important stakeholders?

Copyright 2009, Leading News

Patricia Wheeler is an executive and team coach who helps smart people become more effective leaders. As Managing Partner in the Levin Group LLC, she has spent 15 years consulting to organizations and coaching senior leaders and their teams. You may contact Patricia by E-mail at Patricia[at]TheLevinGroup.com or by telephone at 001.404.377.9408.