Executive Transitions – The Critical First 100 Days

Transitions into new leadership roles are nothing less than corner-office crucibles. They can be a tricky time for any new leader. Transitions test new leaders on every level from day one, with pressure to diagnose, strategize, delegate, and communicate effectively. The intense pressure to create change and deliver results can be untenable. Think that’s an overstatement? Just take a look at any of the myriad of survey results that show a 60 to 75% departure rate of senior management, a 40 to 60% departure rate for new leaders within their first three years. Most HR professionals would agree that transitions into new leadership roles can be the most challenging times in a leaders’ professional life and that success or failure during the transition period (the first 100 days) is a strong predictor of overall success or failure in the job.

While every executive transition is unique – there are specific processes, procedures and best practices that a new leader can learn, adopt and implement to help avoid land mines and dreaded “rookie mistakes”. In this course leaders will learn a variety of fundamental principles that will accelerate their immersion in to a new role, new company or new business situation. Leaders in transition reflexively and often mistakenly rely on the skills, beliefs and strategies that worked for them in the past with the assumption/presumption that these directly contributed to their previous success and are the key to future success. That is a potential disastrous mistake that participants in this class will learn to avoid.

What You Will Learn

• The importance of a systematic and structured learning process to accelerate your learning curve
• Best practices to analyze and understand the current business situation – internal and external, team members and customers
• Best practices to test for alignment of strategy, structure, technology and culture
• How to generate credibility, trust and momentum with early wins
• Best practices to achieve success and support with your direct supervisor
• How to create organizational respect, trust and credibility with peers, functions and other business units
• How to avoid the new leader landmines and rooking mistakes associated with culture, style and political norms