Professional Services

Onboarding New Leaders and Their Teams in Transitional Environments

Executive Coaching for New Leaders and their Team in a Transitional Environment
A customized learning and development process and approach designed to accelerate the new leader and the management team.

The engagement centers on:

• Defined organizational challenges facing the new leader and the individual leadership implications and organizational leadership implications
• Coaching across three key roles and three key actions that drive performance
• Targeted outcomes and areas for development in the transitional environment and culture change
• Equipping the leader and the team with the tools and support to leverage their maximum efforts to succeed and add value to the organization

Tackling the Challenges in the Transition
Even the most seasoned managers who have a strong complement of skills will need to improve their competence in the more important skills needed in a transitional environment. Learning (on the fly) the demands on the business, identifying the challenges that one faces in a new role, are only the beginning. The best of leaders in these situations typically are below the line of adding value for their first one hundred days or so and the climb in the learning curve is steep and fast moving.

Typically, we recognize the skills abilities a degree of ambition and successes in the past, are what defines this leader as a high potential and contributes to what get’s them the new role. Grounded in their ability to be decisive, problem solve, manage direct reports, take personal responsibility and thrive in tough assignments, and see the future and think big picture tackle complex issues, many of them at the same time, and project them onto the future map – there will be formidable challenges to the new leader’s attributes and skill set.

Not the least among them is how one addresses situations and problems will likely include how they’ve been successful in the past. This can subject the leader to overusing strength in a new situation. Additionally, the need to build a team – getting the work done through others – becomes paramount and the ultimate test of the leader achieving desired results.

The Executive Coaching Approach
Executive coaching with organizational leaders is about ongoing personal and team development. We address this by using the feedback that is collected, in addition to what others may have suggested the manager work on developing. In the coaching process the manager can consider what to select to enhance, master, or build into a towering strength within their skills inventory, and what to do to increase their leadership effectiveness.

To explore new behaviors – particularly in a transition situation – we establish requisite competencies and build new mental models – on e needs new information – otherwise we keep doing things the way we always have. The most useful information needed to grow as a leader is about their behavior patterns and their innate psychological preferences and needs.

Typically, we explore as a source of this new data, a comprehensive self-assessment with appropriate inventories, to secure important feedback. Additionally, timely feedback from others can also provide a valuable perspective, such as using a 360 multi-rater on-line inventory. Feedback like this can facilitate specific learning opportunities for targeted change and growth, while also providing motivational potential to the client.

Our experience in coaching executives and building high performance teams utilizes a customized approach for each of the key factors; the unique challenges, and approaches by defining what the individual or the team needs, through individual and/or 360 degree feedback or sourced information by collecting of appropriate data against an urgent timeline.

The Team Challenges in the Transitional Environment
The changes in the transitional environment, be it a merger, or taking over a new organization, are typically defined by a new strategy. An organization in transition cannot move in a different direction if its approach to leadership does not change. The leadership implications of strategic shifts are different for different parts of the organization and for individuals. A change in strategy may mean that certain functions will have to take the lead, while others must step back and collaborate more. Leaders may need to respond to the business challenges with new or significantly different behaviors; or, placing greater emphasis on current behaviors.

A Team Coaching Approach
Given the organizational climate and the desired business outcomes, we target learning and development opportunities that will best benefit the incoming leader and his or her team.   Typical factors most important to team performance and likely to present the greatest challenge to the team include:

• Trust is critical to any high functioning team and at the baseline of supporting team results; successful teams have to trust one another, and a shared mindset is essential.
• Alignment, addresses how well a team is aligned around deliverables the degree to which members have a common mindset and a common purpose and set of goals, while keeping the big picture in mind.
• Teaming skills, concern how a team runs itself how it functions as an operating unit; successful teams run themselves efficiently and effectively, employ sound decision making and learn and use team process skills.
• Team Leader Fit, how well matched the leader is, along with his or her ability to develop teams; does the leader have the necessary skills and ability to strategize, is the leader strategically capable; do they empower the team, can they take the heat, etc.  
• Individual and Team development Priorities, speak to the needs of the team to influence, and develop remedies, possess the agility to function at a high level in a changed environment.    

Creating a map of the challenges in the environment can focus the leader and his or her team on the critical organizational challenges, matrixed with the individual leadership implications and organizational leadership implications; this becomes the work of the coaching. 

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