new leader transition

After many years of successfully transitioning leaders, we know what every one of them needs. More importantly, we make sure they receive it.

New Leader Transition

0 %
likelihood that teams meet their 3 year performance goals
0 %
less attrition in the team

– Successfully Transitioning to New Leadership Roles, Keller and Meaney, McKinsey 2018

Here’s a sobering fact: Our research shows that the third month of a new leader’s employment is often a time of reckoning, when they weigh their decision to join the organization.

“Have I made a mistake?” “Are the assurances they gave me turning out to be empty promises?” “Am I really going to meet my full potential here?”

Fortunately, here’s another fact: the Connect the Dots New Leader Transition Solution not only anticipates these questions, but it also helps to assure that the answers are all in their and your favor.

This is no simple feat. Which is why the program can run up to 12 months. After all, successfully integrating a new leader doesn’t happen overnight.

But the new leader and your organization can enjoy the benefits of onboarding from the day they receive their letter of acceptance, all the way through their forging a long-term career with you.

Our New Leader Solution is a guided process that positions the new leader for success

  • Establishes clear onboarding objectives
  • Identifies strategies for navigating the organization’s culture
  • Builds strategic relationship with key stakeholders
  • Assesses the leader’s team and prepares a plan to leverage strengths and address gaps
  • Identifies the right deliverables at the right time

At the core of our New Leader Transition Solution is our proven on-target® transition coaching program.

Every new leader, and every organization, wants the same thing: quick integration into the organization and the ability to deliver what the new leader was hired to do.

How those dual goals can be achieved is what our on-target® leadership transition coaching was designed to deliver.

Here’s how: First, we assemble the most vital information about the position and the person hired, including objectives and expectations for the first six months. We then help to build a customized plan that includes key stakeholder meetings with purpose, not your typical “meet and greets” that are often not connected to or initiate meaningful work. Also included are primary touch points with the hiring manager and HR Partner to support the leader’s transition.

Next, we organize and apply that valuable knowledge and information into the actionable on-target® coaching plan. This results in far fewer surprises and disappointments, and far more opportunity for what you and the new leader want most: success.

Along the way, we get the new leaders what they need to be successful.

What they need And what they get

Let’s break it down by the month.

Prestart

What the new leader needs:

  • Knowledge about the company, function, and role
  • Connection to the hiring manager and HR partner
  • Support for personal transition

What the new leader gets:

  • Information about the company history, current state, and high-level objectives
  • Validation of their decision to join
  • Purposeful interaction with the hiring manager and key stakeholders

Month 1

What the new leader Needs:

  • Focus on learning the function and role
  • Clear early objectives, meetings with key stakeholders
  • Understanding the culture and how to navigate

What the new leader Gets:

  • Transition plan, integrating daily work with learning
  • Strategy for building relationships with key stakeholders “meet and greets”
  • Input and support from HR partner and hiring manager

Month 2

What the new leader needs:

  • Strong key relationships and feedback about cultural “fit”
  • Team assessment and action plan to address gaps

What the new leader gets:

  • Strategy and support for assessing team
  • Structured meetings with hiring manager and HR partner to track progress
  • Early feedback with our are you connected?® measuring transition and cultural fit

Month 3-6

What the new leader needs:

  • An ongoing strategy for key relationships, and actionable feedback
  • Assessment of success against onboarding objectives

What the new leader gets:

  • Feedback data about how they are perceived
  • Achievement of shared objectives and expectations
  • An action plan for transition to performance management and development

What they need And what they get

Let’s break it down by the month.

What the new leader needs:

  • Knowledge about the company, function, and role
  • Connection to the hiring manager and HR partner
  • Support for personal transition

What the new leader gets:

  • Information about the company history, current state, and high-level objectives
  • Validation of their decision to join
  • Purposeful interaction with the hiring manager and key stakeholders

What the new leader needs:

  • Focus on learning the function and role
  • Clear early objectives, meetings with key stakeholders
  • Understanding the culture and how to navigate

 

What the new leader gets:

  • Transition plan, integrating daily work with learning
  • Strategy for building relationships with key stakeholders “meet and greets”
  • Input and support from HR partner and hiring manager

What the new leader needs:

  • Strong key relationships and feedback about cultural “fit”
  • Team assessment and action plan to address gaps

 

What the new leader gets:

  • Strategy and support for assessing team
  • Structured meetings with hiring manager and HR partner to track progress
  • Launch are you connected? survey to gather 360 feedback regarding transition and cultural fit

What the new leader needs:

  • An ongoing strategy for key relationships, and actionable feedback
  • Assessment of success against onboarding objectives

 

What the new leader gets:

  • Feedback data about how they are perceived
  • Achievement of shared objectives and expectations
  • An action plan for transition to performance management and development

on-target® LEADERSHIP TRANSITION COACHING BENEFITS

  • Creates alignment between the new leader and hiring manager for objectives and deliverables
  • Provides the new executive with early, actionable feedback
  • Allows the executive to get up to full speed faster, thus reducing the time to create a return on the organization’s investment
  • Positions the leader to successfully align his/her team around his/her vision and strategy, thus decreasing the risk of low engagement and retention

are you connected?® gathers invaluable feedback early on — instead of when it’s far too late.

To us, it’s unforgivable if a new leader stumbles or fails primarily because the information needed to make the right decisions and deliver the expected results were never made clear. It’s as if the new leader were set up for failure.

Enter our are you connected?® survey — early on — asks all the right questions that all too many companies don’t.

This vital feedback, gathered in a web-based 27-question 360º survey, gives hiring managers the information and insights at a critically early point in time for the new leader.

Leaders can course correct, get clarity & make adjustments rapidly – all allowing them the full and fair opportunity to deliver the results both of you want and can achieve. are you connected?® provides critical feedback when it matters most.

are you connected?® MEASURES THE 7 INDICATORS OF ONBOARDING SUCCESS

Organizational Knowledge

Business/Market Knowledge

Cultural Fit

Peer Relationships

Team Assessment

Stakeholder Perceptions

Personal Transition

are you connected?® BENEFITS

  • Provides hiring managers with a structured, targeted resource for facilitating feedback discussions with their new leaders
  • Gives new leaders qualitative and quantitative feedback early enough to act
  • Increases engagement, speed-to-performance, and retention of your new leaders
  • Facilitates relationships with key stakeholders and aligns the new leaders with the culture

more about our Leader transition onboarding solution

View our Real Leadership in Under a Minute video about the onboarding a new leader

Do you need to onboard new hires?

You only get one chance to successfully onboard your new hires. Learn how to get it right the first time.

Real Leadership in Under a Minute

View our real leadership in under a minute video about New Leader Transition.

New Hire Transition

Get information about onboarding your new hires.

Onboarding News & Updates

Onboarding

News

Erika will be a featured speaker at the Gulf Coast Symposium on HR Issues address the topic: Onboard Like a CEO: Strategies from the corner office to engage and develop your new hires

Description:

Onboard new hires like a CEO? What would an “executive experience” look like and how could it impact your new hires’ engagement levels? Per Gallup, 88% of employees don’t think their current organization is good at onboarding and 76% of HR don’t think they are doing a good job at onboarding employees. Robust onboarding addresses organizational challenges – attracting top talent, engagement, productivity, and high turnover . You’ll get six strategies “borrowed” from executive onboarding you can implement immediately, including how to quickly build organizational knowledge; build key relationships and deliver timely feedback to adjust and avoid negative turnover.

Onboarding

News

Brenda Hampel & Erika Lamont, co-founders of Connect the Dots Consulting, were recently featured on the podcast series: Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future as onboarding experts.

More than 40% of new leaders fail within 18 months. Why?

Don’t blame the leader; look at the organization instead! Most organizations don’t onboard a new leader well, if at all. They assume a person’s success at one company will automatically transfer to theirs – but there are far too many variables at play to bank on that. Instead, an onboarding plan that goes beyond HR protocols and benefits sign-up is necessary: a plan that considers company culture, history, team dynamics…even quality of life differences if the new leader is coming from out of town!

Brenda Hampel and Erika Lamont of Connect the Dots share tips, tricks, and outright wisdom from years of experience helping organizations maximize the success of their new leaders.

Here’s what Brenda, Erika, and host Maureen Metcalf cover:

  1. The three main components of a good onboarding plan;
  2. Why overlooking help with personal transitions – including spouse and children – is a key reason for new leaders leaving your organization; and
  3. Why how you handled your workforce during the COVID pandemic is the ultimate litmus test for a leader considering your job offer.

Onboarding

News

Based on feedback Brenda Hampel, Managing Director, Connect the Dots received in her presentation at a recent conference, many organizations continue to look for effective ways to ensure their onboarding practices meet the expectations and needs of new employees.

Over 75 HR professionals attended her session “Disrupt Your Onboarding Experience,” designed to help participants:

  • Identify the strengths and weaknesses of their onboarding processes and
  • Integrate the newest onboarding technology practices and tools

The presentation included several real-time feedback polls to assess the current state of onboarding at participants’ organizations and help CTD tailor its content delivery.  The following charts outline the feedback we received during the session.

Why “disrupt” your onboarding experience?

HR professionals in attendance were most motivated to improve their onboarding systems to increase retention of new hires and engage employees, and get employees up to speed faster (38% and 33%, respectively).  Getting new hires up to speed and improving ease of manager participation were much less likely to be the drivers of participant’s onboarding focus.  No participants indicated a specific need to address the multi-generational workforce with onboarding.

What is the current state of onboarding in your organization?

All session participants reported that they conduct some onboarding activities in their organizations; however, about half focused mainly on orientation activities.  Nearly 20% also included training activities, and an additional 24% also include some socialization.  Only 10% of respondents reported having a formal, structured process with an onboarding plan, defined roles, and feedback.

What type of technology are you currently using for your onboarding experience?

Over half of participants were not using any technology to support their onboarding processes.  The remaining participants implemented a branded onboarding website (24%) or email and calendar planning only (24%). No participants reported using social media to connect with new hires or linking their systems to existing HRIS systems. 

 

Your Onboarding Experience

Where is your onboarding program hitting and missing the mark? What best-practice updates can you make to better meet your organization’s needs?

Take a look at our onboarding solutions for the new hire as well as for new leader transition to see how we help dynamic companies effectively onboard their team members

 

Our team-connect Survey Process

 

We start with thoughtfully diagnosing the team’s current culture by using available data, assessments and interviews.

This provides the team leader with a clear view of what is getting in the way of the team’s success.

We design a series of structured team sessions that:

  • Share the team culture analysis
  • Give team members the opportunity to talk through both processes and behaviors that need to be addressed
  • Productively provide feedback to one another
  • Develop both team and individual commitments that will lead to the team’s desired state

 

Measure progress by leveraging CTD’s team-connect Survey to:

  • Drive accountability and measure progress by collecting team feedback specific to one another’s engagement and behavioral change
  • Provide the team’s leader with a clear understanding of what he/she and the team need from each other to enable and support the team’s success
  • Share team and individual survey result reports