Talent Management Perspectives

Published April 2008

In With the New: Leader Dos and Don’ts

Agatha Gilmore

If art imitates life, surely politics imitates business.

In this case, the much-publicized downfall of former New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer highlights more than just morality issues. His quick resignation and the sudden ascension of then-Lieutenant Governor David Paterson into the position represents a familiar changing of the guard that many organizations deal with on a regular basis. The question resounding in Paterson's camp is the same question newly appointed business leaders and their talent managers often ask themselves: What now?

"I think that part of the problem with an understudy taking over from a boss is that sometimes there's a lack of appreciation of the shift in roles that is required," said Rick Lash, North American director of the leadership and talent practice at Hay Group. "There's a lot of excitement around being able to finally move this high performer into a senior-level role, only to sometimes watch them fail or struggle much more than what [was] anticipated."

To that end, Lash has come up with five critical pieces of advice to help make the transition a smooth one:

1. Don't step into the old leader's shoes.

"I think there's often a temptation to try to emulate the persona of the person who was leaving, [and] that's particularly difficult if the person was a very well-liked leader," Lash said. "You have to be very careful not to run a popularity contest with your predecessor or be overly concerned with making the same kind of mistakes that your predecessor made."

Instead, new leaders should be true to themselves and make sure they understand the lay of the land as well as the underlying reasons behind a previous leader's decisions, Lash said.

"Once you have that data, it puts you in a much better position to make different kinds of choices," he said.

2. Stand up for what you believe in.

"A leader demonstrates values, beliefs and behaviors that other people aspire to," Lash said. "In order to be able to do that, the first thing that you need to do is to be very clear about what you stand for."

Talent managers can help leaders craft personal vision statements so they can communicate their values most effectively, Lash said.

3. The great pretender.

Whenever you delve into new territory, there's the fear of being ill prepared and unequipped — it's only natural.

"Everybody feels a bit of that imposter phenomenon," Lash said. "The reality is that the majority of leaders feel that they don't know what they're doing."

But the difference between the leaders who succeed and those who don't is how they deal with that anxiety, Lash said. For example, good leaders will accept that they are apprehensive and learn to manage expression of that emotion while building a constructive plan to rectify their knowledge gaps.

Therefore, new leaders should trust themselves to make some of the important decisions they are facing, even when they don't feel they have the experience to back it up, Lash said. Also, the higher up leaders get, the more they must learn to let go of their high-potential personas that are often based on technical competence and task accomplishment.

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