May

25

5 tips on making a successful leadership transition

Filed Under Personal Leadership 

Talent Management has a great article “In With the New: Leader Dos and Don’ts” that provides some tips of leaders who are transitioning to a higher leadership challenge, from team member to team leader, from manager to senior manager, from senior manager to director. All of these transitions place a higher demand on our leadership capability.

  1. Don’t step into the old leader’s shoes. “‘I think there’s often a temptation to try to emulate the persona of the person who was leaving, [and] that’s particularly difficult if the person was a very well-liked leader,’ Lash said. ‘You have to be very careful not to run a popularity contest with your predecessor or be overly concerned with making the same kind of mistakes that your predecessor made.”‘
  2. Stand up for what you believe in. “‘A leader demonstrates values, beliefs and behaviors that other people aspire to,’ Lash said. “In order to be able to do that, the first thing that you need to do is to be very clear about what you stand for.‘”
  3. The great pretender. “Whenever you delve into new territory, there’s the fear of being ill prepared and unequipped — it’s only natural. ‘Everybody feels a bit of that imposter phenomenon,’ Lash said. ‘The reality is that the majority of leaders feel that they don’t know what they’re doing.’ … But the difference between the leaders who succeed and those who don’t is how they deal with that anxiety”
  4. Listen and learn. “In the first 30 days of office, new leaders need to spend an enormous amount of time figuring out where they will get the data they need to make good decisions, and much of that involves listening to others and keeping an objective and open mind, Lash said. ‘The worst thing a new leader can do is be so consumed with taking action that they don’t take the time to listen,’ he said…. While the tendency might be to prejudge people or speak only to other executives, new leaders need to get down into the trenches and listen to as many perspectives as possible, Lash said. And while obtaining hard data is important, it’s having the soft data — the perceptions, attitudes and emotional underpinnings of the company — that allow a leader to excel.”
  5. Seek advice. “New leaders get to where they are because they are competent high potentials who are widely esteemed in the organization. But sometimes living up to that reputation can force self-reliance, Lash said. ‘What you end up doing is you try to protect that trait or that image at all costs,’ he said. “You tend not to reach out to others; you tend to try to solve all the problems yourself. And you somehow assume that if you don’t know something that you’ll just have to figure it out because you certainly can’t go to other people…. The best leaders, however, recognize and acknowledge their weaknesses and seek out trusted advisers to help them”

Leadership transitions are always challenging, causing us to stretch a grow. Whilst leadership transitions are exciting, they are risky and need to be managed carefully. These tips provide a great starting place for preparing for a leadership transition.

 

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2 Responses to “5 tips on making a successful leadership transition”

  1. Six leadership transition lessons from the new CEO of Citigroup : The Practice of Leadership on June 3rd, 2008 22:14

    [...] list of guidelines can assist in your leadership transition and compliments a previous post "5 tips on making a successful leadership transition". Another great resource for planning a successful leadership transition is the Harvard [...]

  2. What Leadership Demands - More on Leadership Transitions on June 7th, 2008 13:22

    [...] first article is entitled “5 tips on making a successful leadership transition“. The second article [...]

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