You’ve just learned that you will soon have a new manager. What can you do to help your new leader launch successfully? You can help your new leader by actively onboarding them.from Egon Zehnder, there are three main reasons why onboarding leaders derail: 1) They fail to understand how the organization works; 2) They don’t fit with the organizational culture; and 3) They struggle to forge alliances with peers.
Where you focus your attention will depend significantly on the situation. If your new manager has been promoted from within, they may already understand a lot about the culture . So, the focus is likely to be more on technical learning and political learning . “Being part of a large, global organization, there are mountains of data,” said one team member. “When our new CHRO was coming, the team identified the most important historical information and shared our key success metrics. We also had talent, culture, and leadership data that helped our new leader better understand her team. She was grateful for the information and found that it speeded up her acclimation.
One leader joined a consumer packaged goods company with a long and rich history. Looking back, he realized the difficulty of navigating the culture. “When giving a PowerPoint, the expectation was that the company brand colors were used in a particular way,” he recalled. “However, they didn’t share that with me. After presenting a proposal without using these colors, another leader told me it damaged my credibility. While it was an easy switch, it hurt me not knowing this from the start.
Great insights!