Leadership transitions

Organizations use a range of training and development programs to identify future leaders and accelerate their ascension to leadership roles. Scott Keller and Mary Meaney in their book Successfully Transitioning to New Leadership Roles, have analyzed that the most common approaches have had spotty results.

“Organizations most often try to help newly appointed leaders by supplying them with mentors or informal “buddy” networks. Yet only 47 percent of external hires and 29 percent of internal ones find these helpful.

Standard orientation programs are the second most common approach, but only 19 percent of externally and 11 percent of internally recruited executives consider them effective.”

They determined that the little used option of coaching is highly effective.

“Some methods—for instance, tailored executive coaching and customized assimilation plans—have been shown to double the likelihood of success, but only 32 percent of organizations use them.”

I realize as a 16-year executive coach, to use a quaint expression, I’m “tooting my own horn”. However, I’ve seen first hand the impact coaching can have on helping a potential leader with identifying their authentic leadership style and helping them make the difficult changes to build inspired followers.