In Brief
The “What”
Newly hired leaders must tackle five core transition tasks in their first few months: assuming operational leadership, taking charge of the team, aligning with stakeholders, engaging with the culture, and defining strategic intent.
The “How”
Companies can use the framework in this article to gauge and adjust how much support they offer for each task. Approaches vary widely, ranging from “sink or swim” to accelerated integration through deep discussions, workshops, and other customized experiences.
An executive we’ll call Lucas Jacobsen was ready for a new challenge. So after more than a decade at a Fortune 100 diversified manufacturing firm, where he had risen to lead product development in the power systems division, he decided to move on. He accepted an offer to head up R&D at Energix, a rapidly growing manufacturer of power system instruments. But his previous experience had not prepared him to operate in this much smaller business with its consensus-driven culture. Furthermore, Energix provided virtually no onboarding and integration support. After HR and IT set him up in their systems and his boss introduced him to the team and gave a brief overview of the role, Jacobsen was expected to figure out how things “really worked” on his own. That was a struggle. His hard-driving style—combined with some misconceptions that others had about his mandate—led to difficulties with his new peers and ultimately to his departure.
