Career EQ

By Dr Alicia Karwat, KeySteps Pty. Ltd.

Have you just accepted a new role? Are you a new leader on the block? Or perhaps you are going to become one shortly? If so, this discussion is for you. The fact is the failure rate for new leaders, in particular for the senior outside hires, is high. The first three months in a new role are crucial for leaders at all organisational levels and your success or failure is largely dependant on actions you take during the first few months.

You have just moved to a new role, and perhaps to new role in a new organisation. This is an exciting time and you love the challenge in front of you, otherwise why would you accept the role in the first place. Together with the excitement there is some anxiety. Regardless at which level in organisation you are, as a new leader you face a daunting challenge during your first 90 – 100 days in the new role to make your mark and to get on top of the things quickly.

Your boss and the organisation expect you to take charge and help drive the organisation’s strategy and its objectives from the first day on the job. Statistics show that the failure rate for new leaders is high, and your appreciation of the challenges will determine your success or failure. A good mentor or a coach can help you to deal with these challenges.

I wonder if you have ever thought or have gone through similar experiences.

Some of Your Challenges as the New Leader

1. You were good in your old role, and you knew what worked and what did not work. Are the same strengths and behaviours leading to success in the new role? Realistic and immediate assessment of your strengths is critical in the new role as well as the identification of blind spots.

2. How will you identify quickly critical issues in your role and in the organisation? What are the roots of poor performance and success contributing factors, what are challenges and opportunities you are facing? What is the organisation’s culture, its politics and who are the people who hold the decision making power? How will you go about developing your learning agenda?

3. The higher you are in the organisation the more important is that you make an accurate diagnosis of the business life cycle you are facing, with all its challenges and opportunities. Your actions and behaviours will be different depending on the business life cycle, for example a turnaround calls for a different set of skills and actions than a sustaining success situation. How are you going to make the sound diagnosis of the business cycle? How will you go about developing the right course of actions?

4. You do not work in isolation and there is no single person in organisation that could achieve success without a team effort. Your new boss is one of the most important factors in your successful transition in the new role.  Do you know what he or she expects from you, what is important for him or her? Have you thought how to clarify and negotiate realistic expectations? What is the best way for you both to work together? How will you go about developing productive working relationship with your boss?

5. You know what is expected of you and you understand the challenges of the business situation you are facing in the new role. You cannot do everything at once and you have to decide quickly what to do first that will make most impact. How are you going about the identification of high impact actions and early wins to quickly establish your credibility, and visibility in the organisation?

6. As a new leader you have to build and develop your team. You cannot do everything and you have to get other people to do things well and effectively to accomplish organisational and your goals. How will you go about the evaluation of your team? What type of skills and strengths do they have? What are the gaps? Who would you like to keep and who would you like to let go? To lead a team and get best out of your team you need people acumen and well developed emotional intelligence. How do you assess yourself in this compartment?

7. Emotional intelligence and people acumen also manifests itself in building your networks and critical influential alliances.  Recent McKinsey’ study on informal employee networks showed how much information and knowledge flows through them and how little through official hierarchical and matrix structures. How are you going to develop your social internal networks and alliances, in particular if you are an outside hire? Who you are with in alliances largely determines how most of your real day-to-day work gets done and has crucial impact on your internal visibility and establishing your credibility.

Your Say 

If you faced similar challenges or perhaps you are going through some of these experiences as a new leader, maybe you would like to share your thoughts with others. We would love to hear from you.