Early Impact or Assimilation Coaching

1. Stranger in a Strange Land Peg Bowers Leadership Specialist Mick Palestina Executive Coach

3. Introductions

4. Assimilation is about accelerating your ability to facilitate your transition and contribute in your new role. The president gets 100 days. You get 90 days. But it can take people 18 months. Assimilation

6. Assimilation can take 18-24 months (not 90-100 days!) – Stages of Assimilation ASSIMILATION PHASES ASSIMILATION ACTIVITIES Introduction (Months 1 - 3) Convey Expectations Set Priorities Identify Early Wins Clarification (Months 4 – 6) Clarify Critical Goals Eliminate Self-doubt Broaden Exposure Adaptation (Months 7 – 12) Review Progress Test Commitment Cement Key Relationships Integration (Months 13 – 18) Acknowledge Early Success Develop Long-term Plan

12. Important Distinction Profile of a Great Leader or Position Capability Profile of a Great Transition or Transition Capability =

13. People and Relationships First

14. Strive for Collective Wins First Achieve quick wins and results with your teams Not in spite of them!

15. Derailer Behavior

16. Blueprint for Support New Leader and Team Assimilation Meeting Organizational Development Consulting Services Transitional Coaching Services Direct Manager Support and Feedback Peers and Direct Reports

18. LHH New Leader Acceleration/Early Impact Coaching 1. Reading the Culture One of the first goals in successful on-boarding into a new company or into a new work group is to help the executive identify the cultural norms and styles of the organization, manager, peers and direct reports. This is a critical step in understanding the similarities and potential mismatching between the executive’s style and the company’s culture. This understanding provides a foundation for addressing key strengths and potential pitfalls in the executive’s new environment. 2. Building Alliances/ Influencing Others A new executive needs to establish meaningful and genuine connections with peers, board members, customers, community members and employees, to build trust and credibility quickly. However, moving too quickly to what one can deliver without building a positive alliance can alienate others, undermining essential cooperation and support. Even the best individual efforts also need sponsorship from the appropriate constituencies for visibility and access to resources and to help remove barriers. While the newly positioned executive will be leveraging their personal leadership strengths and experience, they need to build and leverage organizational or “political” capital simultaneously.

19. New Leader Acceleration/On-Boarding Coaching 3. Determining/Aligning Expectations Understanding what business results are expected, by whom, and in what priority is the next phase of successful on-boarding. Key to this step is establishing agreement among all parties on what success will look like and how it will be measured. 4. Self Assessment It is important for the executive to understand what has worked for him or her in the past, and the degree it may or may not work in this new role and environment. This awareness helps the leader identify areas where adjustments in his or her leadership style or behaviors are needed. We typically recommend one to three self-assessments if the individual has not already experienced them: MBTI, Personal Directions from the Management Research Group, company preferred assessment tools (e.g., those already used in the organization) as well as interviews with their managers, and each of their team members.

20. LHH New Leader Acceleration/On-Boarding Coaching 5. Focusing on Early Impact Projects It is with the best intentions that most new executives try to make a broad and significant impact quickly. However, this can result in a lack of focus on what is important today with little significant impact actually occurring. If the new executive tries to spend time on every possible project or initiative, the efforts will be significantly diluted. It is critical to identify and focus on the key projects that will deliver the most significant impact upon identified expectations in the most rapid and realistic timeframe. This is the final step in creating the action plan. 6. Driving the Agenda As an executive embarks on the selected initiatives, it is imperative to create a convincing leadership vision and communicate it to the executive’s team, peers, and other key constituencies. They need to develop a formal and informal communication channels to keep the initiatives visible and the messages clear. 7. Sustaining Momentum Balancing the diverse needs of fast paced positions is a challenge for most executives. Pacing themselves and still achieving impressive results is critical to keep the executive in top performance. Executives need to develop approaches to retaining the enthusiasm and energy they felt as they were initially hired or newly promoted. Retention of top performers after the initial surge of activity requires helping them identify new challenges and develop new skills to keep them learning, and creating personalized recognition and rewards for their accomplishments.

23. Key Take Aways

25. Thank you for your participation today!

26. What do you see?