Enabling leadership transitions

The new leaders are not making the transition. They are not delivering the expected results; or just as disturbingly, the results are being delivered by their boss [sic]; in turn, their boss’s boss must also drop down one layer to deliver results. This downward pull raises the cost of leadership (since leaders paid to work at level x are working at level x minus 1) and locks higher-level executives in the here and now when they should be much more concerned with the future. 

Managers at lower levels are also pushed down and do lower-level work. While the problem is pervasive, it isn’t a perfect problem. By that I mean that in any given company, some individual leaders may be working at the right layer for a number of reasons; some are working at the right layer part of the time; and some are always working at a lower layer. 

This variance can mask the performance problem, so don’t assume that just because John and Mary are doing the right leadership work for their level that Bill and Joan are following suit. In fact, a better assumption is that at least a certain percentage of your leaders aren’t doing the right work.

Creating risk for the person and the business

Almost every leader makes a transition when she starts her new job. She may transition up from a lower layer or in from another company (lateral moves within a company may not require much of a transition, but they are not as common). 

There is no guarantee that the required skills will be developed sufficiently to enable success in the new position. Therefore, almost every leader is at professional risk until he masters the new skills and achieves the results required by his layer. If leaders are at risk, then the organisation is at risk for the same reason: expected results might not be delivered at any layer.

So this isn’t just a ‘human resources problem’; it’s not an issue that can be addressed just through coaching. Transitions need to be looked at and handled like the substantial business problem they are. While the failure of one leader may not sink the business or the enterprise, the cumulative effect of many poor transitions or failures in very senior positions certainly will. 

Consider that your company may have people in leadership positions who are overpaid for the work they’re doing and aren’t developing the skills required for their jobs. 

Perhaps the biggest risk to the business comes from high-level work – defining the future and preparing for it – not being done. Businesses don’t address this problem with the seriousness it deserves. Fortunately, this chapter provides you with an opportunity and the tools to address it effectively.

Figure out what’s wrong

We will examine some of the key reasons that people end up working at inappropriate levels. As you’ll discover, sometimes the source of the problem is in the company or business; sometimes the boss is the culprit; and sometimes the new manager is responsible for the disconnect. I’ll suggest a variety of solutions, but first let’s focus on the problems.

Problems in the situation

Enterprises have ways of doing things that are embedded in their culture or are accepted practices. Some of them seriously impede layer transitions. 

Transition Problem #1: Choosing the wrong person

Some companies aren’t good at choosing people for jobs. They don’t have the performance data or the assessment methods or the courage to make the right match between an individual and a management position. They may make the safe choice rather than the right one, or they may select someone for political expediency (a customer requests the company to hire his wife’s cousin). Selections based on seniority or loyalty rather than capability or potential are also common. 

Choosing the wrong person for the job will turn happiness into misery. People may be delighted to be selected for a key position, but when they discover that they are ill-suited for the requirements of this managerial level, they become tremendously unhappy. 

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s compelling body of work on happiness makes it clear that this state is achieved when a match exists between our challenges and our skills. 

Pursuing our challenges or goals with some belief in our ability to achieve them generates true happiness. Those who successfully meet their challenges, that is, produce results at their layer, are the most likely to be promoted. 

Becoming a leader or getting promoted to a higher layer puts happiness at risk. Until new skills are mastered and new results delivered, it is difficult if not impossible to feel there is a match. 

Happiness experienced in the previous position may not be felt in the new one for quite some time. If the skills never match the challenge, people will be miserable for as long as they hold their jobs and needed results may never be delivered.

Transition Problem #2: Cultural impediments

Knowing cultures, because they don’t tolerate mistakes or not knowing the answers, make it difficult for new managers to admit that they lack knowledge or skills and to request assistance. As a result,
many managers in these cultures struggle with transitions, because learning required for gaining traction in the new role has to be carried out below the executive radar. 

Generally, knowledge is not willingly shared since it is a source of power, so the newly appointed or promoted leader might have trouble finding answers. At best, the transition process will be slow and incomplete. In some instances, managers in knowing cultures end up doing their previous jobs since they lack access to skills and knowledge required to operate effectively at their new level. 

In many instances, family cultures use seniority or loyalty as the basis for promotions rather than capability or potential. Those who have been there the longest or have supported the boss most vigorously get the promotion. Management often fails to assess ability to perform sufficiently, so promoted leaders may not be up to the new challenge. They will cling to the old work for security and safety. The company may not notice this problem if the promotions are always done on the seniority and loyalty basis. What seems ‘normal’ may in fact be destructive to performance across the whole company.

Highly siloed cultures present a special challenge for enabling effective transitions. Silos are essentially walls that inhibit the free flow of information and block relationship formation. A lack of dialogue with other functions or organisations makes it difficult to adjust to a new layer. 

Transitioning managers often struggle to learn from a broader peer group, both from those outside their function and sometimes from those within it. Typically, these managers learn narrowly and dysfunctionally; they learn not to share, and they are soon part of the problem. Over time it becomes ‘normal’ to segregate themselves from other functions or organisations in the enterprise. Job definition and expected results are truncated, not robust or complete, because their frame of reference is limited to what they can see or touch.

I should also note one other type of organisational environment that impedes performance—a low-performing culture. Of course, no company consciously strives for such a culture or admits that it exists, but it is more common than you might think. Its telling traits are: doing just enough, almost meeting budgets, passing reports upward that contain factual errors and tolerating poor performers. 

The new leader knows, or soon learns, that ‘good enough is good enough.’ Making a full transition and delivering all the needed results isn’t likely to happen since standards are low.

Transition Problem #3: Poor organisation design

Many businesses and companies aren’t organised very well, so roles aren’t well defined; connections that enable a smooth flow of work and information aren’t in place; and expected results aren’t clear. One natural consequence of these conditions is poor delegation. 

Leaders become detail-focused out of self-defence. In order to be sure that important work will get done, they micromanage every step in the process because they don’t have confidence in the organisation. When companies reflexively form committees and task forces to address problems and opportunities, it’s a sure sign of poor organisation. When the organisation works right, new challenges go to the appropriate manager and are not given to a committee or task force. Certainly these groups are warranted at times, but well-organised companies don’t form them at the drop of a hat.

Newly promoted leaders in poorly organised companies find it almost impossible to transition to and work effectively at their new layer. They don’t really understand the job they had, and the new job is equally ambiguous. Even more damaging to performance, the most highly skilled and productive people are usually the ones assigned to the committees and task forces. So they have one or more time-consuming special assignment, and these assignments in turn may spawn additional roles and projects. Substantial confusion and uncertainty inhibit the transition. A new title isn’t enough to clarify requirements for a new role at a new layer.

Problems That Come from the Boss

The boss’s role is critical to transition success and helping people perform at peak capacity, yet as we’ll see, they don’t perform their role effectively for two reasons.

Transition Problem #4: Negligent bosses

When I use the word negligent, I’m not suggesting that these bosses neglect to talk to their recently promoted people about expectations, goals, challenges, the strategy, problems, and people to meet. 

Bosses are often negligent, however, when it comes to addressing the transition requirements: what to leave behind, what will be different, required changes in how time should be spent, and the consequences of not making the transition. Newly appointed leaders also find it difficult to bring up these topics – they don’t want to be seen as uncertain or weak during that first conversation with their boss – and so these important issues don’t surface completely. 

It is incumbent on bosses to initiate these conversations and, given that they once went through the same transition themselves, they should know the importance of talking about these subjects.

Just as significant, the boss orchestrated the selection process for the position and, therefore, should have a good sense of the promoted person’s strengths and deficiencies for the new position. 

There won’t be a better time to discuss these assets and liabilities than day one. When bosses don’t take advantage of this knowledge in a timely manner, it’s negligence, since new managers need to know in what ways they aren’t prepared to perform at the level. Then they can do something about it.

Transition Problem #5: Overwhelming with information

Bosses sometimes overwhelm a new or newly appointed leader with too much information. In most cases, bosses commit this sin in two distinct circumstances: when the new leader is supposed to be a saviour and is hired to fix many problems; and when the boss is overloaded or feels overwhelmed due to tough market conditions, declining business performance, or an underperforming team. Full disclosure during the selection process in troubled situations is rare, so many new leaders find themselves hit with a ton of bad news on day one of the new job. 

Typically, these leaders respond to the dire situation by doing the urgent rather than the important. They rush to clean things up rather than take the time to think through the transition and set the appropriate agenda. New leaders often jump on treadmills that they can’t get off and they are too hurried and harried to perform at their level.

Problems That Come from the Person Just Promoted

Digging in to a new job can be exciting, fun and motivational or it can be threatening, frightening, and overwhelming. Many newly appointed leaders or first-time leaders react in highly emotional ways, even when their bosses deal with things in a pragmatic, unemotional manner. Very difficult challenges emerge because intense feelings can cloud judgement and cause people to act irrationally.

Transition Problem #6: Doesn’t want the job

People who are successful, enjoy their work and connect well with co-workers look ‘promotable.’ So they get asked to move up. Most people accept offers to be managers at higher levels because of the status, money and power associated with these new positions but, consciously or not, they may not want to do the new work.

They may have loved the work and their colleagues at their previous position and feel like they’ve been ‘coerced’ into accepting a promotion. Lacking the motivation to learn, grow and tackle unfamiliar or difficult assignments, they perform adequately at best. What they don’t do is perform at the level required.

Transition Problem #7: Doesn’t value the new work

People who are educated or trained in a particular discipline, successful in that discipline, and rewarded or recognised for that success are unlikely to give it up. Moving into management for the first time or moving up into higher-level management roles doesn’t mean that they willingly let go of what’s been meaningful to them for years. First-time managers especially struggle with this issue though it often occurs at higher layers as well. 

Working with customers, touching the product or services personally, analysing the numbers, and bringing in new talent are usually highly valued. Consequently, most people judge their worth on their work in these areas. 

Teaching, coaching, giving feedback, working on the future with no short-term output, and dealing with poor performers aren’t usually valued as highly in most organisations. To perform at the appropriate level, therefore, often requires a fundamental change in work values; at higher managerial levels, teaching, coaching and so on are crucial. If the work values don’t change, the work performed will not change.

Transition Problem #8: Can’t relate to peers

Despite the improvements in status, the new peer group may not be much fun to be with compared to the prior one, or they may be less effective as a team. Whatever the reason, a distance exists between newly named leaders and their groups. Frequently, people just starting in an unfamiliar leadership position no longer see themselves as a member of the club; they are missing the camaraderie that existed in their previous job. 

In fact, this belief that they are on the outside looking in may stem from a previous experience with a boss at this layer—the new leader was poorly managed by this boss or had negative experiences with someone else at this layer. Consequently, the newly promoted manager will revert to the previous work and associate with old friends. The transition is lost at that point.

Transition Problem #9: Narcissism

Some leaders take on their new jobs and call for a stop to all work until they understand what is going on and approve it or agree with it. Subordinates usually find this frustrating or destructive; they find that the tasks they believe are important have been scuttled by a ‘neophyte.’ Leaders who halt work in this way want to get comfortable, knowledgeable and in control, yet they fail to realise that they’re making the job ‘all about them’ rather than the other people in the group. 

When they conduct painful reviews, demand rejustification of projects and go over a lot of old
ground, they alienate their people. Even worse, narcissistic leaders usually don’t notice the pain they are causing. Thus, the enmity they create hurts their acceptance as the leader and often lowers the performance of their people.

Transition Problem #10: Focussing on the big idea too soon

It is very tempting to start a big new job by making pronouncements about great new strategies
and plans. 

‘Things are going to be different around here’ seems to be a favourite opening line, particularly in higher-level positions. Pronouncements like these elicit fear, anger, euphoria, enthusiasm, or uncertainty. There isn’t any guarantee that the desired effect will be achieved. Focusing energy on the big ideas rather than addressing performance obstacles or fixing problems may hurt results. 

Execution often requires getting the small things right and when everyone is focused on learning the new big picture, little things slip through the cracks. In addition, direct reports may not throw themselves into work on the big idea until they understand what it involves and accept their part in it. I’m not suggesting here that leaders should eschew big idea thinking, just that they need a reasonable break-in period before springing it on their new direct reports.

Transitions and Neuroscience

Transitions and Neuroscience

For almost forty years I have been looking for ways to help people make transitions successfully. Behavioural science was of some help but never answered the core question, ‘Why don’t newly appointed leaders do the right job ?’ Logically, it shouldn’t be that difficult; specific requirements can be identified with a little effort. Yet all types of people—the motivated and less motivated, the smartest and the slowest—often struggle to deliver the performance required of them. The Leadership Pipeline certainly helped diagnose problems but something was going on in people’s brains and driving counterproductive behaviours that I didn’t understand.

At a CEO’s off-site meeting outside Sydney, Australia, I shared facilitation of the program with Peter Burow. Peter is an author and consultant, based in Brisbane, who has focused on the application of neuroscience at work and in personal life. Most neuroscientists focus on understanding how the brain works, not on applying the learning. 

Peter is one of the few working on practical application of the insights in the corporate world. I really appreciated his information. Working together, we have come up with a dynamic tool that facilitates transitions to new layers. This tool takes into consideration how the brain works, recognising why some behaviour (such as failing to deliver results at a given level) doesn’t appear to be rational.

The brain has both a rational system and an intuitive or emotional system. The rational brain is used to deal with new situations that we have never experienced before. In contrast, the emotional or intuitive brain enables us to respond quickly to routine situations by allowing us to access emotional memories of similar situations in the past and apply what we did last time almost instantly to the current situation. 

While the rational brain is slow and deals with one thing at a time, applying learned principles or frameworks, the emotional brain is fast but often gets it wrong because it assumes the new situation is a carbon copy of an old one. Both systems influence the choices we make.

In practical terms, the events in the world around us are usually filtered by the emotional system first. If the situation is brand new, as in new work at a new layer, the information is sent to the rational system for evaluation and the development of an appropriate situational response. If this new response lines up with past experience, the individual will translate the new idea into action. 

If, however, no similar action has been experienced and the anticipated outcome is unfamiliar, the new idea will often stay frozen in the rational part of the brain as an intention or an idea. Only when the emotional part of the brain feels comfortable will behaviour change to align with the new idea. To act without emotional validation is often referred to as being outside the comfort zone, and it takes courage.

If an employee is promoted and the new environment looks and feels like the one he has just come from, the new challenges may simply bypass the rational brain and instead access the habitual centres of the emotional brain – and there is no change in behaviour. This explains why people who are not transitioning properly don’t seem to be behaving rationally, that is, not doing their job.

What they are doing appears to be consistent with the logic and habitual patterns around the old job – and is usually completely unconscious. 

The remedy for this lies in using a sequenced approach that helps individuals integrate their rational and emotional systems in a way that fosters the desired change in behaviour. This means taking people out of their habitual comfort zone and creating an environment that gives them the ability to make the shift. 

The brain has six primary functional networks or ‘needs’ in this transformation process. If all six are addressed in the right sequence, the change takes place. However, most of us focus on just one or two needs that we are aware of, leaving the other four or five unsatisfied, and so we get ‘stuck’ along the way. 

This gives rise to an emotional core belief pattern that gives us certainty about life at the expense of our flexibility. We dig in rather than change, and feel very strongly about why this is the right thing to do. 

For a more complete treatment of this subject read NeuroPower by Peter Burow.

The MEALER Model

The model Peter and I have developed for helping people transition from one layer to the next comprises six phases. The central idea is to address the individual’s needs in the order that they emerge so that the emotional and rational parts of the brain work in unison and the individual feels comfortable about the transition we are asking him to make. 

By addressing these emotional and rational needs in a structured way, we can engage the person on a transformative journey from an individual contributor to a Manager of Others, or a Function Manager to a Business Manager, and so on. We have to break down the emotional resistance to this transformation.

Our process has six steps – see figure below:

The Six Phases of Personal Transition
(Source: NeuroPower and Drotter Human Resources)

Value Creation

Meaning - The individual gets meaning for the company and himself through absolute role clarity and a new identity.

Engagement - The individual uses the knowledge and power of the position to empower others, and resists the temptation to compete with them. This involves being less egocentric and more centred on the needs and aspirations of the team. The performance problems and obstacles are defined and solved in ways that facilitate teamwork and team performance.

Action - The individual creates a clear course of action, makes her intentions known, and creates opportunities for the team. She has the courage to take action that translates the strategy or operating plans into appropriate results-oriented actions.

Learning - The individual reflects, thinks, and adjusts on the basis of feedback. He conquers his fear of failure. This involves clearly identifying the relevant business or personal principles and role requirements, and using them rather than politics to drive plans.

Value Realisation

Embedding - The individual finds ways to embed in the business team training and systems gains that have been made at previous phases. She looks at the successes and duplicates them throughout.

Reinvention - The individual runs the risk of complacency when he doesn't want to lose what he has, but anything else seems like a lot of hard work. Instead, he moves from potential disillusionment to being discerning of future goals as well as personal strengths and weaknesses. He discovers the energy for reinvigoration.

Overcome three critical ‘sins’ of personal transition

• Selfishness

• Fear

• Indifference

Meaning

The individual builds meaning for the company and for himself through absolute role clarity and a new identity. The layer/theme definition provides the role clarity. The required identity—being not one of the gang but a leader of the gang and one of the leaders—has to be transitioned right at the beginning. To feel that we belong is our most basic need, and we develop our identity largely on the basis of where we feel most accepted and valued. This means that bonding with his new layer is critical to the individual’s transition. Do this badly, and the individual will believe they are unique and ‘special’ (‘I’m not like them’) so the transition they are required to make to the next layer just doesn’t apply to him.

Engagement

The individual uses the knowledge and the power of the position to empower others and resists the temptation to compete with them. This involves being less egocentric and more centred on the needs and aspirations of the team. The performance problems and obstacles are defined and solved in ways that facilitate teamwork and team performance. Overcoming selfish or narcissistic tendencies is critical at this stage. The strength and value of teamwork has to be understood and internalised. The individual’s realisation of their own narcissism and willingness to let this go rarely happens without outside support. Some help and assistance from the boss or
HR may be needed and is certainly recommended. Do this badly, and the individual will start competing with their team.

Action

The individual then creates a clear course of action and makes their intentions known. Courage is required to take actions that translate the strategy or operating plans into appropriate results-oriented actions. Action as the third step is one of the ideas that make this model different. Action that is not anchored in doing the right work at the right layer or not focused on empowering the team leads to early disaster. If this step is not done well, the new leader becomes bullying and demanding and becomes the impossible boss—burning out staff, taking unduly high risks, and driving the team into the ground.

Learning

The individual reflects, thinks, and adjusts according to feedback. They must conquer the fear of failure. This involves clearly identifying the relevant business or personal principles and role requirements and using them rather than politics to drive plans. The actions taken in step 3 provide real-life experience, which the individual and the team, boss, and peers can use for learning. By being open to feedback, the learning about what works and what doesn’t, provides powerful motivation for going forward in the right way and working on the right things. If this step is done badly, the new leader becomes paranoid and stops sharing information within the team, and instead focuses on politics and managing up. Performance drops as politics and siloing information become the focus of attention.

Embedding

The individual finds ways to embed in the business or organisation, team-appropriate training and method improvements on gains that have been made. The individual looks at successes and duplicates them throughout. This is where real improvements in productivity or capability become institutionalised. If this step is done badly, the wrong models and approaches are duplicated. Rather than duplicating success, teams may play to the ego of the leader, or the leader merely duplicates things they enjoy.

Reinvention

The individual runs the risk of complacency when they don’t want to lose what they have and new goals seem too hard. They may have achieved the original goals established for them by the boss or by the strategy. They have to move to new and probably tougher goals so that performance will continue to get better. They must discover the energy for reinvigoration or risk becoming just another plateaued ‘placeholder.’

As you can see, the transformation process required for making a layer transition is complicated and challenging.

Some can do it on their own, but most need the guidance of a supportive boss and the help of a trained HR person. Transition doesn’t end in a week or a month. It should continue until new goals are established and met as a matter of natural process. 

Fortunately, it has been well proven that the brain can and will evolve. The wiring isn’t fixed.  There is one last complication. Each step builds on, encompasses, and transcends the previous. This suggests that the meaning step establishes the terms of the engagement, which in turn determines the action and the learning and finally the embedding. 

From this perspective, meaning is the most critical of the steps and sadly the one botched most often.

The common error is to focus on the action and learning steps rather than getting the meaning and engagement steps right. This flawed method for transition creates the short-term illusion of success through activity but quickly descends into firefighting and no transition. Beware of transition plans that are all ‘action.

Recommendations for the Boss

Bosses who have hired transitioning leaders have primary responsibility for making these transitions work. Whether they believe it’s up to individuals to make it on their own or they are uncertain what to do to ‘ease the transition, they often fail in their responsibility. 

To enable the transition using the MEALER Model, here are eight steps that will prove useful:

• Treat the transition like the business problem it is. You may be creating management risk through your current actions—or inaction. Think it through, put time in your calendar, have a plan, let the new person know what to expect from you, and be supportive. Consider all you would do for a new and very important customer. The new employee can make your life pleasant or miserable.

• Use this transition as an opportunity to make needed changes. Tell the current team individually and collectively how you feel about their performance and what they need to change (if anything). Get rid of unnecessary work, terminate projects that aren’t going anywhere, move on poor performers, and get really clear about roles and responsibilities. Build a performance pipeline to help create clarity for everyone.

• Make sure you are working at the right level. Examine your calendar objectively to see where your time really goes. Delegate the lower-level work that you enjoy but shouldn’t do. Have a talk with your boss about this and agree that you will both work at the right layer.

• Get some help from HR, and use the MEALER Model. HR should be able to participate in many of the sessions and help you judge the new person’s progress. Be sure you understand and accept the MEALER Model. 

• Get involved from the first minute the new person is in the job. Communicate the results you expect and when you expect them. Go over the MEALER Model with him so that he will understand how the transition process will work. Let him know that output from him isn’t expected until he has established meaning and engaged properly.

• Deal with the naysayers and others who might not cooperate. Make it clear that the new leader is your choice, has your support, and should be given a chance to prove herself. Talk with those who have expressed an interest in the job but weren’t selected. Help them see what their future opportunity might be. In siloed cultures, reach across the wall to help improve connections with other organisations for the new person and for the rest of your team.

• Create a community in which individuals can undertake and experience transformation. There may be others on the team who have been at their level for a while but have not transitioned properly. Everyone needs to be at the right layer to maximise the value of your team.

• Control the urge to dump every bit of information on the new person on day one. Think through how the information should be clustered and sequenced for best understanding. Check if the person is grasping the requirements from the first discussion before starting the second one.