Chapter 5: Supporting Leaders in Transition: A Peripheral View

Leadership roles in organizations are typically very challenging. Leaders often find themselves in rapidly changing environments caught between the expectations of the executive team and the expectations of their staff. When a leader transitions into a new role, the risk of not meeting the expectations of both can be high. Moreover, not meeting expectations can result in a lack of effectiveness and subsequent turnover. According to Watkins (2003) one of the most challenging situations in a leader’s career might be entering an organization as a newcomer. When a new leader enters a new role with a new team, organizational change happens. It is not necessarily “planned” change beyond hire and acceptance, or large scale transformational change caused by shifting external influences, but a type of change that is caused by the new leader’s style, values, and practices. The team of direct reports managed by the new leader has to acclimate to a new style and often a different set of expectations. New leaders may expect that routine things like staff meetings and reporting are done differently. Moreover, they may also expect that team members work on new projects and initiatives. It is not entirely uncommon that new leaders make personnel changes, ask for justification for current projects, and halt current initiatives altogether. To that end, at no time in a leader’s career are they more vulnerable than when they are in transition. Leaders often lose a valuable network of colleagues and need to establish new relationships quickly. To that end, Watkins (2003), who authored the popular book The First 90 Days, states that roughly 25% of the managers in a typical company take new jobs each year. Furthermore, Watkins estimates that more than one-half million managers enter new positions in Fortune 500 companies alone.