5.4. Common Challenges in Executive Transitions (part 4)

I didn't know who to connect with, how to do it and what to say...

In my previous articles we learnt that?nearly half of executive transitions fail[1].?We also learned that there is?little good guidance out there?when it comes to successfully mastering executive transitions. Furthermore, we know that there are?successful strategies?for existing transitions?[2]that can be learned and embodied. Among them?using a skilled Executive Transition Coach can substantially reduce the risk of failure and accelerate the transition by +50%.

What are the most common challenges of executive transitions?

According to Master Your Next Move[1]?by Michael D. Watkins there are 8 types of executive transitions. Note that most moves to new leadership roles involve?multiple?types of transitions often occurring at the same time. The more types of transitions an executive is experiencing simultaneously, the greater the overall challenge will be. And I would like to add another 4 to make the list of top transition challenges that I have helped executive coaching clients of mine over the years. Today we will look at challenge #4:?The Corporate Diplomacy Challenge.

The Corporate Diplomacy Challenge

With higher level promotions there typically comes an increased need to be influencing key stakeholders indirectly and more skilfully. But how to do this? Who are the key stakeholders, where to locate them, should I be using organisation charts? And even if I did, how do I reach out to them and make connection? Nobody wants to come across as being awkward, sending a coffee invite to a board member and not being exactly sure why they are reaching out and what they are going to say should that meeting take place.

So in order to make this happen more effectively, a proper mapping of key stakeholders needs to be done, as well as a robust engagement plan that addresses key messages and the frequency of those to relevant stakeholders.

This also requires a much more in-depth understanding of identifying critical decision makers, their agendas, as well as building the right support networks and allies. Every interaction counts, particularly at the highest levels in an organisation. A wrong first impression is often extremely hard to be reversed and sometimes bites back the executive at crucial moments in their career.

The biggest challenge is often to find those! And I don’t know about you but as a new leader, most of my executive transition coaching clients aren’t able to locate these people on organisation charts or going by job titles.

It takes many conversations, a structured approach next to a nose for organisational insights and dynamics in order to locate these critical and influential stakeholders.

Possessing high levels of emotional Intelligence is critical here, also in order to read the (board) room and other interactions among fellow executives.

And sometimes the conversations at the water boiler and short causal conversations from the lift to the board room can be more revealing than the corporate dashboards and formally available corporate information stored in data warehouses.

"Working with many executive transition coaching clients, one of the biggest challenges they are faced with is to masterfully “reset” past and existing relationships professionally, when they are in a similar situation." Navid Nazemian, PCC

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[1]?Watkins, Michael D., “Master Your Next Move”, HBR Press, April 2021