How I Grew from A Difficult Leadership Transition

How I Grew from A Difficult Leadership Transition

I’ve held numerous interesting, exciting, and rewarding positions during my career. Examples include director of the Navy’s worldwide leadership development and command excellence programs, director of safety and health for five manufacturing plants for Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, Airline Pilot for Northwest, CEO for a training and consulting firm, Chief of a federal agency’s corporate university, and as professor of behavioral science served as faculty and Chairman of the Department of Strategic Leadership at the prestigious Eisenhower School at National Defense University. Additionally, I enjoy being a keynote speaker, consultant, and successful author of the 2022 book, Embracing Senior Leadership: Three Critical Factors Needed to /Reach the C-Suite and Thrive.

Despite an exciting career, I thought I’d share a leadership transition that didn’t go well. It was a great learning and growth experience to go through, however.

While I learned much from my successful experiences, I found that the most significant learning occurred through my mistakes and misjudgments. I offer the following example of my transition mistakes when I returned to the Navy. It illustrates the importance of preparing and implementing a thoughtful transition plan. Maybe some of the insights I gained will be useful to you.

My Navy career was unusual. Unheard of at the time, I got in and out of the Navy three times. I guess I was restless. After teaching junior aviators instrument training, I left the Navy to fly for Northwest Airlines. Unfortunately, one of the unions went on strike, and I was furloughed. The strike lasted many months, and I requested a return to the Navy. I was thrilled when they agreed. After a couple of years, I was excited to accept an offer from Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation.

After a year, I realized that though I was doing well, the position wasn’t right for me. Thus, I contacted the Navy to see if they would consider my return to active duty. While staying in the Naval Reserve and promoted to Lieutenant Commander, I knew my chances were almost zero—having left the Navy twice!

To my surprise, they said yes! Furthermore, they offered a leadership position.

Thus, my journey to a difficult transition began.

The Navy offered the command of a logistic aircraft unit on the U.S. West Coast. I was excited and determined to show the Navy that it had made a great choice in assigning me this leadership position. The unit was part of a Wing commanded by a Navy Captain (the Wing included four other aircraft squadrons).

Upon my arrival, I learned that within nine weeks, the headquarters command to which the Wing reported would conduct a significant administrative inspection of my unit. I quickly ascertained that the training records needed to be up to speed, pilot and navigator flight checks performed, and other administrative processes and procedures improved. I worked 12–14 hours daily in preparation for the inspection, including conducting check flights for the unit’s pilots and navigators. We received an “outstanding” on the inspection.

After the inspection—approximately three months upon my arrival to the organization—the Wing Commander (WC) called me into his office. “Congratulations, Jim,” he said, “I’ve selected you to be the new Wing comptroller.” Though I didn’t have any background for the comptroller position, he felt I had the talent to successfully take charge of the new role. Despite his praise for my abilities and the perception that the job was at a higher level, I was very disappointed. I wanted to remain on flight status and lead the unit.

Within a few weeks into the comptroller’s position, I began to suspect the WC fired me from the unit’s leadership position.

I began to think through my actions before arriving at the new command, the initial actions upon arrival, and the actions leading up to the inspection. Reflecting on the experience, I realized I failed to understand the culture—“how things are done here.” I didn’t know that 18 months before my arrival, the unit had physically transferred from another location into the area. Furthermore, the Navy moved very few new people into the unit during its relocation. I was the first officer “new blood” in the unit during the previous 12 months. I learned the unit had won many awards, the previous leader was beloved, and the unit’s people were proud of what they accomplished and what they were doing.

Though correct in my analysis of the areas requiring actions for the unit to pass the inspection, I came in with the attitude they (the unit) needed to be “fixed.” I failed to understand the existing culture and to use that culture to my advantage in making the necessary changes. I was correct in acknowledging the needed improvements but incorrect in how I went about it. Instead of energizing the unit, I was forcing the unit to comply. When I arrived, I needed to respect the organization. The last thing the unit’s members wanted to hear from their new leader was any semblance of disrespect for their service and accomplishments.

You may ask, “How did you recover from this major mistake?” I addressed this point in two ways. First, I worked hard to learn the new comptroller job and understand its culture. In doing so, I gained people’s confidence and restored my credibility. Second, a year into my comptroller’s position, I visited the former WC (who transferred to the major headquarters staff a few months earlier). During our meeting, I stated, “I know you fired me when you assigned me to the comptroller’s position last year.” He initially said he didn’t fire me; he just wanted to use my talents in an area of need. I repeated that I knew he fired me, and if I had been in his position, I would have fired me as well. I noted that I came into a high-performing unit and did not appreciate the unit’s culture and the accomplishments rendered by its people. My attitude was to fix the unit, so I made waves.

From that moment, he became one of my biggest supporters. Why? I had validated his decision to reassign me.

If you are considering a transition soon, I wish you well and hope it goes smoothly. Suppose you desire insights and practical actions to help you plan for a smooth transition before and during the first year. In that case, I provide specific practical steps to a smooth leadership transition offered by more than 60 senior leaders in the final two chapters of Embracing Senior Leadership.

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