If you were given £100,000, how would you feel?
If that £100,000 was then withdrawn and you were asked for
another £150,000 how would you feel?
You might question whether you had made the right decision to
take the £100,000 in the first place. You might also feel
annoyed, frustrated and bewildered to have to pay 2 ½ times that
amount for the privilege.
Well believe it or not, every time a newly appointed senior
executive with a £100,000 salary doesn’t succeed, your overall
cost is £250,000. Can you afford that sort of ROI on your
valuable assets?
People are what make any organisation successful, ignore them
and fail to invest in them and you wave goodbye to any ROI.
All too often, the higher up an organisation an individual
progresses, the lower the level of investment and support. Newly
appointed senior executives are often left to “sink or swim”.
There is an assumption that they are already at the level
required to effectively deliver what is required of them and
they know how to do that. There is also an assumption that they
therefore do not want or need any support.
These assumptions are what cost £250,000.
So what’s the alternative?
Firstly don’t assume, secondly, provide support and thirdly, do
it from before day 1.
Michael Watkins, in his book The First 90 Days: Critical Success
Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, suggests this is a
critical timeframe through which a newly appointed senior
executive needs to have a support structure and a clear plan.
There is key knowledge that needs to be acquired. There are key
relationships that need to be built. There are key performance
objectives that need to be agreed.
There are a number of strategies that need to be adopted to
accelerate the successful transition of the newly appointed
senior executive into their new company. The timely execution of
these strategies accelerates your ROI. In simple terms the
success of your newly appointed senior executive’s first 90 days
impacts your bottom line.
So what are these strategies? Michael Watkins suggests there are
10 key strategies and when condensed down, they focus on 3 areas
of learning, relationships and performance.
Learning
Newly appointed senior executives need to take the time to
understand what they need to learn, how they need to learn it
and how and when they need to apply the learning. All too often
diving straight into action is the course adopted. Their need to
be seen to be taking action often clouds their judgement. They
take first impressions as the right ones and act on those. They
fail to take adequate account of a range of opinions and
information. They fail to put a learning plan in place and this
lack of planning can lead to a lack of focus in the right areas
at the right time.
The type and timing of learning can differ from company to
company according to the situation that company is within their
market e.g. the speed of action required for a newly formed
company is different from that of a company in trouble. Learning
about the past, present and future of the company will give a
rounded picture of how the company got to where it is today,
what the current state of play is and what the priorities are
moving forward.
Relationships
The value of creating and maintaining internal relationships is
often what makes or breaks a newly appointed senior executive.
People are what make any organisation work.
When starting a new role finding out the movers and shakers, the
cynics and fans is crucial in understanding what make the
organisation tick. Once again creating the time to meet a range
of different people is key in the first few weeks and months.
It’s the people that will tell you “how things get done around
here”. It’s the people that will deliver new initiatives and
ways of working. It’s the people that will help a newly
appointed senior executive understand what needs to be done and
what he/she needs to focus on short, medium and long term.
The direct relationships of team, peers and boss need to be the
first priority. Next on the list should be indirect internal
relationships of key people in associated functions or business
areas. Another area, which can be useful, is that of external
relationships. That includes suppliers, customers, competitors,
strategic partners and respected business analysts, all of whom
will have a view on how the company functions and to what degree
changes needs to be made.
Performance
Performance is the ultimate measure of success. How a newly
appointed senior executive will be measured and on what they
will be measured needs to be established from day 1. It is the
responsibility of the new appointee to obtain clarity on the
results expected and the method or standards by which they
should achieved.
It is up to him/her to meet with their boss and be clear on 3, 6
and 12 months goals. Priorities need to be established and these
need to be communicated across the organisation in order that
everyone understands how and on what the new appointee will be
spending their time during the first few weeks/months. Cross
organisational clarity is key to avoid misinterpretations,
relationship difficulties and assumptions being made.
The first 90 days are critical to the successful transition of a
newly appointed senior executive which, in turn, is critical to
the achievement of a good ROI of that executive which ultimately
makes a positive contribution to the bottom line.
The development and implementation of a clear learning plan,
which focuses on knowledge, relationships and performance, is a
key factor in the achievement of a good ROI. The adoption of the
sink or swim mentality will not deliver a profitable ROI and at
the end of the day a successful organisation needs people that
add value.
|
