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The Leadership Approach Research Paper
Find a current business event from The Wall Street Journal that represents a leadership challenge. Now, imagine you have been asked to step into the leadership role to manage the challenge.
Discuss the steps you would take in the first 90 days of your leadership. Explain your approach by applying learning from the lectures, videos, and readings this week, as well as any relevant concepts from earlier in the course.
Note: Be sure to include a link to the article you are discussing in your post.
Post your initial response by Wednesday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.
My research shows leaders who derail or under-perform in their new roles often fall into common traps in their First 90 Days. Have you fallen into any of these traps? Have you seen others do so?
Trap #1: Not adapting to the new culture
Leaders who move between companies (or even units of the same company) risk stumbling into cultural minefields. When new leaders act in ways that are inconsistent with the culture, they risk triggering an organisational immune system attack.
The result is that they become increasingly disconnected and isolated from the flow of critical information about what is really going on in the organisation. This further increases their vulnerability to making bad calls, and contributes to a vicious cycle that ends in failure.
Trap #2: Not engaging in social learning
New leaders can become isolated because they spend too much time reading and thinking and not enough time meeting and talking. Sometimes this happens because the new leader wants to “know” the organisation, by reading everything available, before venturing out into it.
But the resulting isolation inhibits the development of important relationships and cultivation of sources of information about what is really going on. If this goes on for too long, the new leader may rapidly be labelled as remote and unapproachable.
Impressions, ideas, and strong feelings about how to deal with issues are often more important than financial analyses in making crucial early decisions. New leaders must get out and into their organisations quickly.
Trap #3: Coming in with “the answer”
Another common trap is to come into the organisation with “the answer,” a well-defined fix for the organisational problems. New leaders fall into this trap through arrogance or insecurity or because they believe they must appear decisive and establish a directive tone.
But employees who perceive leaders to be dealing superficially with deep problems are inclined to become cynical, making it difficult to rally support for change.
When employees believe their leaders’ minds to be made up, they may become reticent to share information, thereby effectively impeding the latter’ learning about broader, more complex dimensions of the situation.
Trap #4: Staying too long with the existing team
New leaders, especially those with a collegial style, often believe that the subordinates they inherit deserve as much opportunity as possible to prove themselves.
Some perceive this to be an issue of fairness; in others, it springs from arrogance (“I can make these people change better than my predecessor did”) or hubris (“All it takes is hard work, listening, giving them support, and just plain leadership”). Whatever the source of the impulse, retaining team members with a record of mediocre performance is seldom advisable.
This is not to say that new leaders should be unfair, expect miracles, or fire people summarily. What they should do is impose a time limit—3-6 months is a good rule of thumb, depending on the severity of the problem—for deciding who should be on the playing field.
Trap #5: Attempting too much
Some new leaders try to do too many things at once, believing that “If I get enough things going, something is bound to click.” Such leaders are effectively trying to send a message that winners are active and quick and able to handle diverse challenges simultaneously.
What this approach usually accomplishes, however, is to confuse and overwhelm people rather than spur them to action. New leaders have to experiment and try different approaches to discover what works and what doesn’t. But excessive experimentation can deprive promising change initiatives of the requisite critical mass of resources and attention.
Trap #6: Getting captured by the wrong people
The arrival of a new leader in an organisation inevitably precipitates jockeying by those who have exerted influence in the old regime.
Among the many people vying for a new leader’s attention will be those who (1) cannot help because they are not capable, (2) are well-meaning but out of touch, (3) actually wish to mislead, or (4) are simply seeking power for its own sake.
New leaders must exercise care in deciding to whom to listen and to what degree. If selected internal advisers do not represent a broad enough constituency, have skewed or limited information, or use their proximity to the leader to advance partisan agendas, others might inadvertently be alienated and valuable input lost.
Just as one is known by the company one keeps, so judgements about new leaders are based on perceptions of who influences them.
Trap #7: Setting unrealistic expectations
Finally, new leaders get into trouble when they assume that the mandate they negotiated before they entered the organisation (or in the early days on the job) is the complete story, that it will remain unchanged or that it represents a blank check.
New leaders should never presume that an initial mandate will or should remain unchanged. Rather, they must devote considerable effort during the transition to negotiating with their superiors to clarify their mandate and set expectations.
Often, this means understanding the nature of key constituencies’ expectations and then carefully deflating those that are dangerously high, while taking advantage of those that can be useful.
Why don’t company support leaders making challenging internal moves? Check out my new HBR piece to find out.
Week 9: Becoming the Leader
The challenges of the first three months in a new leadership position can be significant, whether you are becoming the leader of a team, a department, or an entire organisation.
A lot is at stake regarding organisational effectiveness and career success – both yours and those of the people being led by you. Leveraging a proven model will help ensure that you make a successful transition into the new leadership role.
This week, we will explore practical steps you can take to make your move into a new role successful and to embrace the challenges the new opportunity presents.
Leading in the First 90 Days
Four common types of business situations must be understood for you to select the most effective leadership strategy: startup, turnaround, realignment, and sustaining. These business situations can be particular to a team or department, or they could apply to the entire organisation.
Startups and turnarounds give new leaders the opportunity to start fresh. For these situations, courage is essential because difficult decisions are often required early on. Realignments and sustaining conditions present a different challenge.
A new leader must quickly assess what to preserve because it is successful, and what to change to move the organisation forward. Once the type of business situation is identified, two fundamental choices must be made:
- A decision whether to focus on learning about the organisation or taking action In turnarounds and startups, the emphasis is typically on immediate action.
Often, early decisions will be required even without complete information. The new leader does not have the luxury of a protracted analytical phase, and must focus on quickly identifying what is needed to manage the tactical elements as quickly as possible.
- A decision whether to proactively pursue new initiatives or to defend the current position of the company
While the best strategy may integrate elements of both, a new leader must decide which to emphasise initially. Of course, for a startup, the emphasis is on active pursuit of new initiatives.
In a turnaround, the strategy is to find the core strengths and work to protect them. For a realignment situation, identifying new initiatives is important, as is defending the current position. For sustaining an organisation, the best approach is typically to support the current company position.
Early Wins
What comprises an early win is different for each business situation. Devising a clear strategy and forming the right team are essential wins early in a startup situation. In a turnaround, it is also important to get the right team on board, as well as to determine which core components of the business to focus on.
In realignments, because employees often do not see the need for change, an early win is building urgency and buy-in regarding the need for change. For sustaining situations, the important early win is when others in the organisation know that you understand what makes that organisation successful.
The 10 Key Transition Opportunities
- Promote yourself – let go of the old, take charge of the new
- Accelerate learning – focus on what you need to learn first, given the situation
- Diagnose and match strategy to the situation
- Secure early wins
- Build a good relationship with your new boss – refer to Week 7 for ideas about how to do this
- Focus on strategic alignment to ensure the business’s strategy, structure, systems, and capabilities are aligned
- Build your team – apply candor, differentiation, and transparency
- Build alliances – review Week 7 material for useful approaches
- Build your network – find others to help you keep your perspective and provide counsel
- Support everyone’s transition to your leadership
Your Leadership Journey
- If you are new to leadership, think about how to establish some early wins in your new role.
- If you are already a team leader, consider the transition traps that you may face when you are moving from a past leadership role into a new position.
- If you are a senior/veteran leader, consider how you – and your direct reports leading their teams – can embrace crucibles as poignant leading experiences.
