Executive Outlook No more flameouts Lower the volatility of executive transitions with the help of an expert. www.kornferryinstitute.com
1 Introduction If you hired 50 executives, what percentage would fail? Why is it that the success of executive hiring is not treated with the same intensity as product or service quality? When we ask organizational leaders or boards this question, we rarely receive a confident answer. Often we get a perplexed stare. And yet when we ask the same people how they measure quality in their product or service, they often have precise answers. Why is it that the success of executive hiring is not treated with the same intensity as product or service quality? Isn t executive hiring a process? Doesn t it have a clear workflow that can be tracked and analyzed for process quality? Statistics over the last decade on executive hiring failures include: Harvard Business School reported a 40% to 60% failure rate of US executives in 2003. Right Management consultants indicated that about 30% of new managers and executives fail at their new jobs and leave within 18 months. The Corporate Leadership Council reported that nearly half of new executive hires quit or are fired within the first 18 months at a new employer. No matter the precise percentage, this is too high and too expensive. Can t the point(s) of failure along this workflow be identified? Of course they can. And with focused attention, these shortcomings can be rectified. The cause of most hiring failures is not poor candidate selection, but rather what happens (or doesn t) during onboarding. This stage in the executive hiring process is too often left to chance: The company simply hopes new executives successfully navigate assimilation into the organization.
NO MORE FLAMEOUTS 2 Most organizations believe they have robust onboarding processes. They seek to ensure that new executives get the administrative support to make settling into the office somewhat painless. They occasionally arrange a series of meetings with peers, subordinates, and senior executives across the company. Sometimes they even use feedback surveys to gauge how others perceive new executives. Even with all this, executives still too frequently fail. So what s missing?
3 The 'fit' expert. In the context of an executive transition, poor fit is code for poor relationships in the new office. What s missing is someone to actively manage this executive transition. Call it onboarding plus. An executive transition expert is an outside consultant who is well versed in what contributes to executive success at the start of a new role, is fluent in behavioral competency language, is a skilled facilitator with executives and senior teams, and can effectively influence senior leaders. An internal facilitator, by contrast, is rarely positioned to gather and relay the kind of frank feedback a new executive requires during a transition. Internal professionals also are restricted in how openly they can provide reporting and offer guidance. A process led by an executive transition expert will mitigate risk and accelerate results by starting with building new relationships. Executives arrive in a new office brimming with knowledge, skills, and experience. What they ve left behind, however, is the network of colleagues who played a role in their success. New relationships must get built quickly and effectively. If not, executives will fail in what is often referred to as fit. In this context, poor fit is code for poor relationships in the new office. How is it that these relationships go sour so fast? For some, they were sour before the executives started. Often key people in companies important stakeholders would like to see new executives fail or at least are not invested in their success. Creating shared accountability for new executives success should be part of any hiring and onboarding process. For new executives, listening is also crucial during the transition. The adage You have two ears and one mouth is a good governing concept. Executives too often leap into action, having failed to listen enough to make better, more credible decisions. This begins the relationship death spiral. A proper executive transition is customized to each situation. Typically
NO MORE FLAMEOUTS 4 it touches on the following interpersonal pairings and focuses on establishing specific things with each group: Bosses: Focus on alignment for what needs to be done in the first year. Peers within the matrix: Ascertain their perspectives on new executives interpersonal skills, integrity, approachability, and qualifications. Facilitators, much like marriage counselors, allow hard-to-address topics to surface openly and manage them toward a positive outcome. Subordinates: Establish credibility, vision, caring, ability to succeed, open-mindedness, and respect for subordinates. Facilitating such communication enables all parties to address differing views, find common ground, or even just agree to disagree. When these differing views go unrecognized, they become the cancer that is the single biggest reason for the eventual failure. Facilitators, much like marriage counselors, allow hard-to-address topics to surface openly and manage them toward a positive outcome. Delivering results Your Executive Moment Addressing gaps Recalibrate and succeed Critical success factors Key stakeholder relationships Building credibility Accelerate Role alignment Cultural queues Calibrate Initiate T-5 to start 30 45 days 90 120 days
5 Steps to a successful transition. The first 120 days of a facilitated executive transition includes four phases: Pre-work/preparation. All available data is assembled into a comprehensive situational analysis that informs a roadmap for new executives first 120 days. This would include: Stakeholder input. What is the culture like? What promotes success or creates obstacles? Also, information on specific role expectations, a mapping of crucial relationships, prior incumbents imprint on the role, the nature of the team, and impressions of new executives garnered during hiring. Critical review of what the new executive brings to the job. What are the executives leadership and stylistic strengths and weaknesses? Impact on others? Where will the learning curve be steepest? This information may come from a variety of sources including proprietary assessment methodology, available reference information, and expert assessment regarding technical capabilities. Analysis of relevant research on integration issues such as: common derailers, the significance of first impressions, ways to have the most impact in various situations, the potential risk of executive overconfidence, and the value of having an objective sounding board early on. Establishing mechanisms for concrete feedback for new executives on performance and impact across the first few months. Phase 1. Transition experts consult with new executives and facilitate key meetings with stakeholders. Ideally, these meetings begin before the first day in the new job, but never later than two weeks after
NO MORE FLAMEOUTS 6 starting the new role. This phase includes at a minimum: One-on-one meetings between transition experts and new executives to draft specific goals and a plan of action based on the comprehensive situational analysis. A facilitated conversation with stakeholders to gather information regarding their expectations and goals. Immediately following, transition experts conduct a second session to review outcomes and create a revised action plan with new executives. Second stakeholder meeting to share the revised and integrated action plan and get more feedback. The anticipated result of this phase is aligning stakeholders and new executives regarding the path forward, with identified responsibilities/ accountabilities for all those involved. Phase 2. Beginning 30 45 days into the new role, transition experts: Collect stakeholder feedback on new executives performances to date (e.g., success in relationship building, establishing credibility, aligning goals and expectations, and any other issues identified in situational analysis). Hold an individual session with new executives on their view of early performance on the above issues. The focus is identifying alignment and/or misalignment of perspectives. Probe for other obstacles or issues and discuss any recalibration or course correction that may be beneficial. Result: New executives have an action plan for the next 45 60 days.
7 Companies that bring a quality-control mindset to the transition of new executives can mitigate those human capital and real financial risks. Phase 3. The next sessions transpire 90 120 days into new executives tenure. As part of this phase: A formal 360 survey is conducted with targeted questions for new executives and their bosses, peers, and direct reports. Results of this survey are aggregated and summarized. Additional feedback about performance, relationship and credibility building, and initial action plan is gathered from internal stakeholders via informal conversation and review. The results of all feedback are reviewed with new executives, and an action plan for next three to six months is designed to address areas that require more attention or recalibration. Phase 4. This last stage includes ongoing coaching and feedback through new executives 6- or 12-month marker. Individual and team coaching sessions are provided as needed to correct where performance may have gotten off track or resolve alignment issues with stakeholders. Executive transition experts also provide reporting to senior executives/boards as relevant to executives transitions. With hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct costs and likely millions in indirect costs at stake, the old-fashioned way of transitioning executives is no longer prudent. But companies that bring a quality-control mindset to the transition of new executives can mitigate those human capital and real financial risks.
NO MORE FLAMEOUTS 8 About the authors. Alan Guarino Vice Chairman, Global Financial Markets +1 845 206 8199 alan.guarino@kornferry.com Christine Fuchs Senior Director, Assessment Services +1 212 973 5848 christine.fuchs@kornferry.com
About Korn Ferry At Korn Ferry, we design, build, attract and ignite talent. Since our inception, clients have trusted us to help recruit world-class leadership. Today, we are a single source for leadership and talent consulting services to empower businesses and leaders to reach their goals. Our solutions range from executive recruitment and leadership development programs, to enterprise learning, succession planning and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). About The Korn Ferry Institute The Korn Ferry Institute, our research and analytics arm, was established to share intelligence and expert points of view on talent and leadership. Through studies, books and a quarterly magazine, Briefings, we aim to increase understanding of how strategic talent decisions contribute to competitive advantage, growth and success. Visit www.kornferry.com for more information on Korn Ferry, and www.kornferryinstitute.com for articles, research and insights. Korn Ferry. All rights reserved. 102014EXECSFAIL