Has Your Boss Become Your Blocker? What To Do When Your Manager Is Legacy.
Six months ago, your team made a C-suite (or C-suite-track) hire. You employed two search firms. You interviewed a dozen candidates over three rounds. Your board of directors vetted and approved them. Everyone was equal parts excited and relieved that you had found The Next Exciting Leader. This person would help with growth or talent or strategy or maybe all of that (in which case . . . wow). And now, it has been long enough that the results of all that careful recruitment should start paying off.
But it hasn’t.
What to do when your recent strategic hire is not producing as you hoped.
This is a scenario that I have seen play out many times over the years. Someone has been hired or promoted into a new and impactful role. The board and other members of the hiring team were excited about the choice and expected big new things. Then, after a few months, the new hire just doesn’t seem to be evolving into the leader they expected, milestones aren’t met and deliverables are lagging. They may even seem to be having a disconnect in team building or communication. Notwithstanding whatever promises or assumptions existed when the decision was made, doubts are now arising. Often I advise the following: 1) speak to them to determine your original goals are in sync, 2) confirm whether the messaging throughout the ecosystem is consistent (is this a translation problem, rather than a productivity one), and 3) identify your backup plan and timeline.
Are you on the same page? It might seem obvious, but make sure that your new leader understands the mission. Even if you hired from within the organisation, it’s possible that there is a disconnect between what are the actual deliverables or milestones that have been set. Who was in charge of communicating these goals, and with whom were they established? What was the timeline communicated: six months, a year? (By the way, I’ve written previously about why ninety days for a C-suite hire is not enough.) Who has been helping orientate or integrate the new hire? Was the prioritisation of different goals clear?
The higher the new person is, the more likely they are bringing their own perspective and experience (after all, being chosen for a key role naturally makes us think our decision making is accurate). For the same reason, those who hired that person will assume their perspectives and experience are accurate. The problem is, equally good judgement doesn’t always lead to equal conclusions. They could be making valid, but different assumptions or judgments even if they understood the goal. The ‘mirror image fallacy’ is common in situations like these, where people assume others’ reflect themselves, including their values, emotions and preferences. A new hire might not be failing to perform because of some intrinsic weakness but simply because they are doing things in a way that doesn’t align with what you expected. In all these cases, having conversations can illuminate where the gap is, and what kind of gap (priorities, execution, communication) exists.
Is this a messaging misfire? Sometimes the challenge is even narrower: a translation error. Maybe they are working towards the goals that were set but are doing it in a way that was not as expected. This is even more likely if you hired from outside of the company: they may have a different communication style, or team leadership strategy or sales playbook. These days, communication may be the most essential leadership skill, especially in situations of transition. But communication styles vary from organisation to organisation, from team to team, down to individual preferences. This includes everything from method to means: do you email a large group or only key stakeholders? Do you offer to do a zoom meeting to discuss live? Again, speaking directly to the new leader can help unearth if the gap between goals and performance is actually just a disconnect in how updates are being communicated. Don’t forget that communication style can impact not only information but perception—confirm your hire understands expectations on what to communicate and how to do so in an effective manner for their new audience.
Never stop networking. The need to network may be the current-day corollary of always be closing. The strongest leaders that I have seen remain consistently high performers are always out talking to people. They are staying in touch, either in real life or virtually and have a decent bench of talent available to them. Regardless of whether or not they have an open position at any given time, they keep close to a pool of potential hires. However, eight out of ten times, when I see an organisation concerned about a new leader who isn’t meeting expectations, they don’t have a support system in place. This doesn’t have to be a single individual to step in. It can be a team of people who can take on some of the responsibilities, or partner with the new person on a more involved basis than planned. And ultimately, the hiring team should also have that larger network in place in case a key hire does not work out.
Often the expense and time of a fully new replacement is unwanted and suboptimal. However, perhaps the original role as intended is broader than it should be (in general or for the person hired to do it). A ready network means you can get to pulling on outside resources as well as internal team members if you need to reconfigure the role. One note about networking: did your new hire bring any team members over with them? It can be a red flag when anyone in a leadership position doesn’t at least propose other potential colleagues who they have worked with before. Again, the most successful people that I have seen have a network of those who would be happy to work with them. Both your board and executive team should have a network, and so should those they hire.
In terms of my background and expertise, I have spent my entire career working as a trusted advisor to senior leaders wanting to improve the effectiveness of themselves, their teams and their companies. Prior to starting my own consulting firm, I led the global executive assessment and development team for Cisco. Earlier in my career I held leadership roles with RHR International, PepsiCo, Ashridge Executive Education, Hult International Business School and the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
Dr Robert Kovach
PSYCHOLOGY. LEADERS & TEAMS.
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