transition coaching – Nourse Leadership Strategies

Successful executive coaches draw upon evidence-based theories to achieve tangible results for their clients. One helpful framework recognizes how leaders evolve according to predictable stages. Consider the case of a newly promoted leader who nearly derailed and how leadership stage theory informed our coaching approach.

Susan is a newly promoted healthcare leader to her role in revenue reporting with four staff members. As a new manager, she felt overwhelmed trying to learn all she needed to know about her role, manage her team, and respond to her boss’s demands. In her role only a couple of months, Susan damaged many key relationships because of her overly assertive communication style. Her manager, the CFO, voiced his desire for her to delegate more downward to join his strategic planning meetings with the CEO. Susan started to doubt the wisdom of taking the promotion and feels exhausted as she works most weekends trying to learn more about the technical aspects of her direct reports roles.

Overview of Stage Theory

Numerous theories explain the process of how one becomes an effective change leader. Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs developed an agility framework that explores leader evolution based on developmental stages. This type of model provides a valuable roadmap for executive coaches support the growth of their clients based on predictable stages of development. As leaders evolve through these stages, they are better able to lead increasingly complex change initiatives successfully.

The five stages include expert, achiever, catalyst, co-creator, and synergist.

Expert level managers focus on the subject-matter competence and solo efforts to get things done. As a result, they are generally capable of leading simple change projects. Approximately 45% of managers are functioning at this level.

Achiever-level managers are attuned to strategic views of their role and organization, as well as producing results. Research suggests that 35% of managers function at this level.

Catalyst-level managers can build capacity by developing and empowering people, building innovative organizational cultures, and adaptive communication capabilities. Approximately 5% of managers function at this level.

Co-creators are skilled at building shared purpose, collaborative relationships, and service to others. Researchers estimate that only 4% of managers function at this level.

Synergists embrace a holistic perspective that integrates their life purpose with their vocation. Only 1% of managers reach this stage of development. Synergists are capable of navigating the most complex types of organizational change and transformation.

Susan as an Expert Stage Manager

Through initial conversations with Susan it became apparent she was functioning at the expert stage of leader development. Susan experienced limits to her ability to lead change projects – mostly incremental process improvements. These limitations stem from her limited ability to think strategically, over-reliance on her capabilities versus leveraging others’ talents, and limited self-awareness.

Coaching Approach with Susan

As her executive coach, I began with a 360-degree assessment to help Susan understand how others perceived her. We then created a development plan and met with her manager to align on coaching’s successful outcomes. Our goal was to help Susan begin advancing toward the next stage of development: Synergist.

My approach to working with Susan included:

Enhancing self-awareness, including her assumptions, self-beliefs, emotional triggers, and unproductive patterns.
Reframing what it means to be a leader from subject-matter expert to building relationships with others and leveraging their talents to augment her weaknesses.
Building her skills in learning how to enlist and engage her stakeholders instead of overusing assertive advocacy skills and talking at them.
Adopting a broader view of her role to examine interdependencies with peers and the organization’s broader direction, including strategic priorities that could influence her focus.
Leveraging her talent better by explaining her expectations, providing feedback, and helping team members step up more so she could delegate more.

Coaching Outcomes

After working with Susan for six months, she achieved some notable improvements:

She became more aware of her emotional triggers and learned to avoid reacting at the moment, helping improve trust with others.
Focusing her efforts more on creating successful outcomes instead of overemphasizing her technical expertise.
Developing trusting relationships with her peers and building greater alignment, enabling her to break down silos that limited her department’s effectiveness.
More successful outcomes from change projects she was managing since she leveraged others’ talent and skills to augment her capabilities.

Stage theory is a valuable way for executive coaches to support leader growth by defining critical developmental milestones on the journey to the top. These frameworks can be a big difference in helping new managers accelerate their growth and impact as highly effective leaders.

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Dr. Kevin Nourse has more than 25 years of experience developing transformational change leaders in healthcare and other sectors. He is the founder of Nourse Leadership Strategies, a coaching and leadership development firm based in Southern California. For more information, contact Kevin at 310.715.8315 or info@nourseleadership.com.

By Kevin Nourse, PhD

When new leaders join a new organization, it’s a time of great excitement and promise – as well as potential for costly career-limiting mistakes and derailment. The key is a new leader onboarding process that helps accelerate an executive’s integration into a culture, enabling them to create impact and achieve results quickly.

The Case of Simon

Consider the case of Simon, a highly skilled physician leader whom a major medical center hired based on his experience and compelling vision for improving patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. Excited by his new role, he started his new job with gusto. His organization provided little new leader onboarding guidance other than a standard new hire orientation.

Simon’s excessively blunt analytical style did not mesh well with the medical center’s culture

However, after two months on the job, things began to unravel. Simon’s excessively blunt analytical style did not mesh well with the medical center’s culture. He shared his vision for the center with the managers and staff but was not transparent about the underlying rationale for the reorganization. In addition, his combative style of debating issues and ideas came across as attacking staff. As a result, he grew more frustrated with the unspoken resistance to his reorganization and the lack of engagement during staff meetings.

I began coaching Simon to salvage his career and improve the likelihood of implementing his vision. Initially, this involved collecting feedback from critical stakeholders, clarifying his priorities, end enlisting the support of his boss. While Simon ultimately recovered from nearly derailing in his role, I have seen many leaders who do not.

What is a leader transition?

A leader transition is a significant shift in a leader’s role due to a promotion, expansion of their role, or joining a new organization. One of the most critical factors impacting the success of a transition into a new organization is the ability of a leader to understand and adapt to the culture so that they can gain support for their efforts and achieve results quickly. Many researchers have argued that understanding an organization’s culture is an essential element of a new leader onboarding process.

Consider these examples of culture clashes impacting leaders:

A newly hired leader in a healthcare organization tried who enhance his power by frequently citing his achievements in past jobs but was instead perceived as arrogant.
A newly promoted medical director in a pharmaceutical company edited documents shared by peers without being asked, thereby damaging these relationships.
A senior leader who used an iPad to capture notes in meetings was unaware that this practice was taboo in the eyes of his boss, who automatically assumed he was checking emails.

Cost of new leader derailment

Recent research suggests that 40% of new leaders do not last more than eight months in their roles, primarily due to cultural missteps. There are far-reaching implications of newly hired leader derailment and turnover. The most obvious impacts are hard costs associated with turnover, including recruiting costs. The less apparent consequences include:

Lost organizational opportunities associated with change efforts that go unfulfilled by new executives.
Poor decisions.
Front-line staff and other stakeholders lost confidence in the senior leadership team.
Senior leaders who take on the responsibilities of derailed senior leaders and risk burning out.

Despite the frequency of derailment and high cost, many organizations provide only a basic new hire orientation that is inadequate in addressing the onboarding needs of new leaders. While these sessions help new leaders understand the mechanics of functioning as a manager, they don’t address the unique challenges associated with integrating into an organization’s culture.

Preventing derailment

The ideal solution to prevent derailment and turnover among newly hired executives consists of three parts:

An onboarding plan that outlines specific time-bound outcomes for a new leader and has the support of a newly hired manager’s boss
Executive coaching provided by a professional coach to provide external support during the transition, including a 360-degree assessment at the end of 90 days
An internal network of mentors with a positive reputation based on a track history of peak performance

Onboarding Plan

An onboarding plan, jointly developed between a new leader and their direct supervisor, creates an informal agreement outlining success. Well-developed plans include:

An assessment of risks faced by the new leader such as negative impacts the by former leader in their position or challenges in their organizational portfolio
Success outcomes for the first six months, such as execution of crucial initiatives or development of an organizational assessment
Critical supports for the new leader such as an executive coach and internal mentors.

There are a couple books that address the elements of a onboarding plan I really like: The New Leader’s 100 Day Action Plan and The First 90 Days.

Executive Coaching

An executive coach can provide valuable insight for supporting a newly hired executive in a confidential setting, including:

Navigating crucial conversations with their manager
Making sense of cultural norms, taboos, and patterns
Navigating setbacks
Enhancing their grit and resilience to navigate the overwhelming challenges they face in their new role
Gathering feedback from organizational stakeholders in the form of a 360-degree report to help surface perceived strengths and weaknesses

Internal Mentors

Mentors internal to the organization can play a crucial role in supporting the successful integration of a newly hired executive. Ideally, these mentors are formally selected and have positive reputations in the organization. Internal mentors can provide critical support for a new leader:

Insights on cultural norms among the senior leadership team, such as navigating conflicts, decision-making, and power
Insider perspectives on various parts of the organization such as their key priorities, personalities, historical perspectives, and relationships with organizational units
Support for building relationships throughout the organization by making introductions and sharing feedback with a new leader

Landing a new leadership position is filled with excitement and opportunity. Unfortunately, many new managers never successfully integrate into a new culture because of deficient methods for leader onboarding. However, with a new leader onboarding process that includes three key elements, new leaders can survive and thrive in their roles.

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Dr. Kevin Nourse has more than 25 years of experience developing transformational change leaders in healthcare and other sectors. He is the founder of Nourse Leadership Strategies, a coaching and leadership development firm based in Southern California. For more information, contact Kevin at 310.715.8315 or kevin@nourseleadership.com