Advice & Counsel - Transitions: For Leaders In A New Role


Whether hired from outside or promoted from within, it's tough enough to succeed in the top job when the organization is successful and the environment stable. But it's much more difficult if things are not at their best, expectations are high, and the board & investors are demanding change quickly.

These situations call for a new strategy that produces more innovation for top-line growth, new ways of operating that bring greater efficiencies, and better ways of winning customer loyalty. It's vital to master the political & personal challenges that most new leaders face for the first time (such as putting in place new organization structures, replacing people who have been inherited with a new team more up to the challenge, forging supportive relationships with the board or a new boss, and managing the inevitable stress that comes with the job).

Dan's advice & counsel helps the new leader prepare for and then navigate the all-important transition period as he begins a new era for his career as well as for the company. It is then that first impressions are shaped, relationships formed, and the tone of the leader's tenure is set. If hired from outside, he faces new norms and a different political environment, but has left behind a support system that helped make him a success. If promoted from within, he is now managing people who were peers or bosses. In either case, time is compressed and pressure increased.

Dan helps by: