Just Promoted! A 12-Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role, Second Edition: A 12-Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role - Brossura

Betof, Edward H.; Betof, Nila

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0071745254 ISBN 13: 9780071745253

Casa editrice: McGraw-Hill Education, 2010

Riassunto

Hit the ground running—with hundreds of practical, proven suggestions, examples, and tools to help you navigate the challenges of the fi rst critical year in your new leadership role.

"Straightforward advice that can be immediately understood and acted upon. I wish this book had been published three years ago, when I was planning my transition to The Conference Board." -- Jon Spector, CEO, The Conference Board

"A must-read for anyone with ambition." -- Judith von Seldeneck, Chairman and CEO, Diversified Search Odgers Berndtson

Just Promoted! gives you the tools, knowledge, and confi dence to take that next big step in your career. The most complete guide of its kind, this book is filled with essential knowledge--practical advice and proven strategies, handy checklists, tips from the pros, and revealing real-world stories. From moving in to making an impact to navigating changes in your personal life, Just Promoted! guides you day by day through the entire first year.

Updated with critical new information, the second edition includes:

• Customizable tools for your leadership transition process
• Examples of leadership transitions in a wide array of business sectors
• Sections on how to assemble and manage a strong team and methods for handling change management issues
• Potentially career-damaging pitfalls to avoid--including those involving your family, health, and time

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Just Promoted!

A 12-Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

By Edward Betof, Nila Betof

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-07-174525-3

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1 You've Been Promoted, Now What?
PART I MOVING IN: ESTABLISHING YOURSELF IN YOUR NEW ROLE
CHAPTER 2 Entering the Organization
CHAPTER 3 Entering Your Boss's World
PART II ACHIEVING AN IMPACT ON THE ORGANIZATION
CHAPTER 4 Selecting, Building, and Developing Your Work Team
CHAPTER 5 Beginning to Craft Your Vision and Direction
CHAPTER 6 The Diagnostic Process: The Importance of an Effective 
Organizational Analysis
CHAPTER 7 Assessing Your Organization's Health
CHAPTER 8 From Resistance to Renewal: Building Your Leadership Team's 
Commitment
CHAPTER 9 Settling into Your Renewing Organization
PART III MANAGING THE IMPACT OF MOVING UP ON YOUR FAMILY AND PERSONAL 
LIFE
CHAPTER 10 Creating Your New Life Integration
Endnotes
Index

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

YOU'VE BEEN PROMOTED,NOW WHAT?

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to workhard at work worth doing.

—Theodore Roosevelt

To successfully move up as a newly appointed leader, you will need to accomplishthe following:

* Establish yourself in your new assignment.

* Achieve an impact on your organization.

* Manage the impact of moving up on your family and personal life.

In this chapter, there is useful information about the following:

* Great opportunities and hazardous duty: the two sides of being promoted

* The newly promoted leader dilemma

* Examples of the challenges that fuel the newly promoted leader dilemma

* Frequently cited issues that derail newly promoted leaders

* How to overcome the newly promoted leader dilemma: the 12 success practicesfor getting "up to speed" more quickly and effectively than ever before

This book is divided into three major parts:

Part I. Moving In: Establishing Yourself in Your New Role

Part II. Achieving an Impact on the Organization

Part III. Managing the Impact of Moving Up on Your Family and Personal Life

Also, each chapter in the book begins with an overview of the chapter.

Just Promoted! Now What? An Introduction to the First 12 Months in Your NewLeadership Role

Some people move into new management and leadership roles with the grace ofBaryshnikov and the coordination of an Olympic Gold Medal skater. Others, most,experience the first year of their leadership role as if they were tap dancingon marbles. There's a lot of energy expended, a lot happening, but very littlethat is certain, stable, or efficient. The transition after being hired orpromoted is a job in itself and must be tended as if your future depends on it.Many roles will require as much as a year or more to lay a solid foundation forlong-term business or organizational results. During this same period you andyour family may also need to regain a work/life integration and balance that youdesire. This is especially true if your new role is a major change or expansionof responsibility requiring great uses of your time and energy, or if it is arelocation, expatriation, or repatriation. Yet the challenges of your newposition demand that you must move quickly from the start to gain momentum andcredibility.

Right from the beginning, including before your hire or promotion is announced,you must manage the events that occur around you during this period very well.Taking the right steps from the beginning and gaining early traction is vitalfor your success. Should you experience serious early missteps, it may behard—and sometimes it is impossible—to recoup time, credibility, andprogress lost.

There are many terms used to describe the first 12 months of leadershiptransition. Some call it the "perils of promotion," and others refer to it as"hazardous duty." Whatever it is called, it is a period of excellent opportunityfor you and the business, organization, school, or team that you lead. It isalso a period fraught with clear and not so clear challenges and dangers.Strikingly, evidence over the past two decades from several sources hassuggested that when an individual is promoted or assumes a new or differentleadership role, there is approximately a 40 to 44 percent likelihood of his orher demonstrating disappointing performance and/or being terminated orvoluntarily leaving the position within 12 to 18 months.

During your first 12 months in a new role, either as a first-time manager or asa tested leader, you will often experience a wide range of thoughts, emotions,and reactions to events as they unfold as well as to what you are discoveringabout your business and organizational challenges. We have asked severalthousand newly promoted leaders what they thought and how they felt shortlyafter they were notified that they had been selected for an important promotionor appointed to their new leadership responsibilities. Those we asked includedfirst-time managers, leaders with relatively short managerial careers, and thosewith deep leadership experience. Most of these individuals expressed excitement,pride, happiness, and a feeling of relief that they had been selected. Quite anumber also expressed their gratitude for having been chosen for the role.Interestingly, many of these very same individuals, and other leaders with whomwe have had similar discussions, also expressed reservation, anxiousness, andsometimes deep concern about their ability to successfully step up after theyhad actually agreed to accept the promotion. It is common for the emotions of aleader to swing between elation and concern and back again during the difficulttransition of assuming a new and challenging leadership role. Some used theadage "Be careful what you wish for" to communicate this self-doubt.

One leader recounted the story of the morning that an official announcement ofhis promotion was circulated by e-mail throughout his company. He immediatelybegan receiving congratulations. He felt great about his new role and therecognition of his previous achievements. That afternoon, he had the first ofthree scheduled debriefs with the incumbent who had announced his retirement.After twenty minutes, one of his legs began to shake as he began to hear andlearn about the role from the person who knew it best. Several minutes later,both legs began to shake in an up and down fashion. The incumbent, recognizingwhat he was seeing, suggested that "we can discuss more on Wednesday" and gentlyended the meeting fifteen minutes early. Reality does have a way of setting inquickly when you realize that you have moved from being a what-if candidate forthe role to which you aspired to that of the actual designee or brand-newincumbent.

This early phase of your leadership transition can be quite sobering andeye-opening. But, in its own way, this period can also help you establish yourpersonal hopes and aspirations for building a truly winning organization. Infact, great excitement and a sense of pride are the dominant reactions byleaders once they know that they are moving up and have been asked to take on anew role and new responsibilities. They express a readiness to "bring it on."

The many leaders we have taught and coached have provided the inspiration fortwo caricatures that depict the range of thoughts, feelings, and reactions thatare typical of newly promoted leaders in the days and weeks following theirpromotion. This is the first of the caricatures:

Just Promoted!

Once the announcement of your promotion has been made and you begin to prepareor have actually stepped into your new role, an additional set of dynamicstypically comes into play. Members of your team or organization will want todetermine how, if at all, their personal situations will be affected. Otherswill also wish to know if their business, function, or team will experiencemajor changes. These kinds of questions, and many others, are all very naturaland even predictable. In Chapter 2, specific communication suggestionsare provided to help ease concern and help you shape the initial positiveimpressions you desire to have with others. However, you should anticipate thatright away, as the new leader, you will be asked questions, many questions. Eventhough it is not rational or logical, people will often have every expectationthat you will be up to speed the day you begin your new role. Of course, thereis no way you could be that ready in your role that quickly. But no one eversaid that being well received as a leader was a logical and rational process.You will be perceived through others' lenses and out of their needs, not yourown. It is very important to know and understand this distinction before youstart in your role.

Besides questions about job status and security, expect questions about theoperational procedures and the current and future states of your business,organization, team, or school for which you are responsible. On day 1, othersmay also want to know how Problem XYZ will be solved. Right away, many willexpect you somehow to define direction, solve standing issues, and know answersto just about everything.

You will begin to quickly appreciate the scope of the challenges and thecomplexity of the problems to be solved in a way you could never have donepreviously. You immediately own the role and the accountability. You have justbeen promoted, and the challenges and expectations will become real and verypersonal rapidly. We can remember situations in our careers when we looked in amirror and rhetorically asked why and how we had ever managed to put ourselvesin these circumstances.

As noted, it is very common for tempered emotions to quickly replace yourprevious feelings of excitement and pride. Many report what feels to them like atug-of-war between their confidence and their concern about being successful.When things pile up quickly, as they often will, many newly promoted leadersoften describe themselves as frenzied and periodically being nearly out ofcontrol. As we recall our own reactions in these situations as well as the manyinterviews and discussions we have had with newly promoted leaders, we thinkthat this second caricature is quite representative:

After Six Months?Weeks? Days?Hours?

This wide range of feelings and reactions after accepting a new leadership roleis so pervasive that you should expect it regardless of your role as adepartment head, team or plant leader, general manager, executive director, orschool principal or superintendent. What is actually going on is one of the mostimportant concepts discussed in this book. It is called the newly promotedleader dilemma, and it can be described in the following way:

The Just Promoted Leader Dilemma

Today's organizations have

• Very high expectations for results, probably higher than ever before

• Low levels of organizational patience and shorter time frames than ever beforefor achieving the results

For many years newly promoted managers and executives experienced a luxury thatexists in very few organizations today. It was called the "honeymoon period,"and it was common practice up until about the late 1980s or 1990s when so muchchanged in the work world. The honeymoon period frequently was as short as 2 to3 months in some organizations and as long as 9 to 12 months in others. Duringthis period the new managers could progressively learn the job, meet customersand staff, and build relationships. They would gradually diagnose what workedand what did not. The sense that new managers must "deliver results now," rightfrom the start, was not as common then as it is today in many organizations. Itwas generally understood that during the latter half to two-thirds of whateverthe honeymoon period was in an organization, new managers or executives wouldgain increasingly greater momentum in their roles and would somewhat graduallybecome highly productive and strong contributors.

Over the past decade we have asked several thousand participants in courses andseminars the following question: "How many of you work in an organization wherea honeymoon period of two or three or more months is the common practice?" Theresponses to this question suggest that 10 percent or fewer organizations haveany kind of significant honeymoon period of several months or more. Today'snewly promoted leaders must become highly productive, and very rapidly! In mostorganizations there is no honeymoon period. There is little slack. There arehigh expectations and little, if any, patience for delivering results. Theseconditions create the "perils of promotion" that so many newly promoted leadersdescribe. Some leaders who thrive during this tenuous period are often, andprematurely, tagged with being "high risers" or "high flyers." Other leaders getoff to a slower start. They may begin to experience performance andorganizational problems during their early weeks and months in their role. Thiscan be a function of an extended learning curve as well as other factors. Inmany of today's organizations, you just can't afford for that learning curve tobe too long.

You should expect that the conditions that create the newly promoted leaderdilemma will be in play in your organization. Be delighted if they are not. Ifthis is the case, your organization would be the exception. Nevertheless, youwill want to do everything you can to land smoothly on your feet and become veryproductive in as short a period of time as is possible. This book is designed tohelp you do just that.

Here is a list of transition challenges that you can anticipate. Most leadersface a variety of these challenges when they begin in their roles or veryshortly thereafter. These challenges fuel the newly promoted leader dilemma.

Examples of the Challenges That Fuel the Newly Promoted LeaderDilemma

* Needing to rapidly turn around a business, team, or function

* Dealing with increased and unfamiliar responsibilities

* Overcoming a low or stagnant performance culture

* Acquiring needed knowledge and skills quickly

* Handling local, national, or global organizational structures that result indual or multiple reporting relationships

* Needing to build networks of effective relationships with stakeholders

* Managing expectations of multiple stakeholders, some of whom may be halfwayaround the world in today's global business environment

* Managing initial impressions

* Needing to build early momentum and credibility by achieving short-term wins

* Needing to gain acceptance for longer-term strategies

* Making the right people "calls"

* Juggling organizational and out-of-work personal demands

* Anticipating 24/7 news reporting and social media—including theInternet, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn—that can makecontroversial issues that could affect you instantly available to potentiallymillions of people

* Economic conditions that require you to do more with decreasing head-count andstaff support

* Shortages of experienced leaders who can share responsibility and who candevelop a talent pipeline of currently less experienced leaders andprofessionals

The challenges we have just looked at can often create situations in which thereare problems that, if unresolved, can derail newly promoted leaders. Let's takea look at these problems.

Frequently Cited Problems That Derail Newly Promoted Leaders

* Confusion over one's "appointment charter"; that is, confusion over what isreally expected of you

* Failure to identify stakeholders and build key partnerships

* Learning the role too slowly

* Failure to mesh with the existing culture or conversely to build the type ofculture that is needed

* Unresolved differences with other key individuals in the organization

* Overuse of, or overreliance on, existing professional or managerial strengths

* Having to rely on previously untested skills or flaws

* Failure to deliver on performance expectations

* Failure to achieve the necessary integration between work and personal life

But wait. There is good news ... very good news! You can take powerfulsteps to effectively deal with the newly promoted leader dilemma. Here are 12practices that are at the heart of successful transitions for you and othernewly promoted leaders.

How To Overcome The Newly Promoted Leader Dilemma: The 12 Success Practicesfor Getting Up to Speed More Quickly and Effectively Than Ever Before

In order to deal effectively with the newly promoted leader dilemma and achievesuccess in the first 12 months in your new leadership role, you will need toaccomplish the following:

1. Confirm and deliver on your "must-do" priorities for your first 3, 6, 9, and12 months.

2. Confirm the full scope of your responsibilities, available resources, levelsof decision-making authority, ways in which your performance will be measured,and desired ways to communicate with your report-to leaders.

3. Begin to learn the essence of your role very quickly, preferably well beforeyou actually begin in your position.

4. Determine who is "on the bus" and who is not.

5. Make excellent initial impressions, and convey your key leadershipcommunication messages and strategies with conviction and enthusiasm.

6. Personally connect with your team and one-to-one with team members.

7. Build strong internal and external stakeholder partnerships.

8. Mesh with the existing culture, or decide to build the type of culture thatyou believe is necessary.

9. Decide what needs changing. Then execute, execute, execute!

10. Create and implement a robust leadership development and talent managementplan.

11. Leverage your top strengths, but do not overuse them.

12. Manage the impact of your moving up on your family, health, and time.

Let's take a closer look at these success factors and preview how they will beaddressed throughout the book.

In order to deal effectively with the newly promoted leader dilemma and achievesuccess in the first 12 months in your new leadership role, you will need toaccomplish the following:

1. Confirm and deliver on your must-do priorities for your first 3, 6, 9,and 12 months. You will need to confirm your must-do deliverables with vitalinput from your report-to leader or leaders and also important stakeholders.Once these priorities are confirmed, begin to set objectives related to thesepriorities with your team and organization. You can build positive momentum byachieving short-term wins. Then, through careful and inspiring work with yourleadership team, develop longer-term business and organizational vision,strategies, and goals. Your must-do priorities are the goals and objectives "forwhich forgiveness will not be granted" no matter how many distractions arise orhow busy you become. These top priorities should be identified in the JustPromoted Leader Tool we call Confirming Your Appointment Charter. Another tool,Your 12-Month Road Map, will help you plan, by quarter, the milestones you mustmeet to achieve your priority goals. Both of these tools will be introduced inChapter 2. You should anticipate that other priorities and distractionswill pour over the transom throughout the year and challenge your focus,resolve, and execution skills.

(Continues...)

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Just Promoted! by Edward Betof, Nila Betof. Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: McGraw-Hill Education
• Data di pubblicazione: 2010
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0071745254
• ISBN 13: 9780071745253
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero edizione: 2
• Numero di pagine: 320
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: Ufficio Anagrafiche Messaggerie; 0039 0245774342; ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it; ; Via Verdi, 8.; Assago Milano; 20090; Italia