Why new leaders can’t succeed alone

We all know that it’s lonely at the top — even more so for new
leaders — but the math says it’s actually pretty crowded too. Let
me explain.
I took one of my current roles (CEO) just about 10 years ago, and
picked up the other (Chairman) about six years ago, so my first
90 days were about 3,000 days ago. This begs the question,
“What do I know about being a new leader?”
My answer? While on paper it looks like it has been a long time
since my first 90 days in role, in reality they began just
yesterday.
That’s because any organization that is designed to thrive is in a
constant state of reinvention , and as leaders we must routinely
start anew. I lead a very different company than the one I took
over. We are roughly four times the size, have different
investors, a different capital structure, a wildly different set of
products, and a continually evolving set of leaders and markets.
Understanding ongoing reinvention was not unique to us, we
decided to look more closely at the roles of new leaders and their
transitions. We support about 6,000 companies globally with
revenues ranging from $100 million USD to well into the billions,
and the number of leadership transitions we discovered in this
population alone startled us. More surprising, we learned that for
something so frequent, transitions continue to be treated as a
very rare event.
To build better succession planning databases, we have tracked
turnover levels at the top levels of companies for a number of
years. To average out a whole bunch of variables – across roles,
levels and economic cycles – we estimate that the turnover rate
is roughly 25 percent. Even if you assume the term “leader”
applies only to C-levels and their direct reports (around 40
people per company), 10 members of the top team turn over
each year. Across our 6,000 companies that yields 60,000
transitions a year – or roughly 300 per working day. If you
extend the term leader more broadly within these organizations
(or to smaller companies, or the public sector, or to startups, or
to newly launched projects and initiatives), the number grows
exponentially.
Conservatively, it’s safe to say that more than 10,000 people
step into new leadership roles every working day. That’s a pretty
crowded type of lonely.
The good news is that large data sets lend themselves to
analytic rigor, and 10,000 transitions gave us a rich data set to
examine. More importantly, the data allowed us to understand
the positive economic impact of great transitions and to identify
steps leaders and organizations can take realize that impact
themselves. Our whitepaper offers in-depth findings, but I wanted
to share a few lessons that struck me as I began my leadership
journey anew:
The economic stakes are high. Well-managed
transitions drive profit up by to five percent (5
percent), yet activities of similar value get much
more focus.
Context matters hugely. Is this a new role? Are you
following an icon or a train wreck? Was the
predecessor effective but overstayed her/his
welcome? The path to success depends on
accurately assessing the situation and adapting
plans accordingly.
If the transitioning leader alone is held accountable
for success, they will likely fail. Peers,
subordinates, and senior leaders all must be part of
a vital (and accountable) support network.
The 90-to- 100-day construct woefully understates
the timeline of an effective transition, which can
often take more than a year. If anything, this tends
to give false comfort – or worse, reward “quick
wins” at the expense of real accomplishment.
Lastly, the organization must treat a leadership
transition as an everyday activity (because it is).
As I start my most recent “first 90 days,” I’ve benefited most
from the third finding — a leader doesn’t succeed alone. I’ve
enjoyed mentorship (and tough love) from my Board, along with
support and (when needed) dissent from my team. More
importantly, on our best days we “swarm” new leaders
throughout the organization to make them successful and
continue to do so well past their first three months.