This guide is part of a progression set comprised of Core, Advanced, and Emerging Executive Transition practices.

What it is

An executive’s success relies heavily on the people that they surround themselves with and the reputation that they garner. This rings true for both the team they have in place and the stakeholder relationships they cultivate. While each team member provides a critical support system to build and implement strategic priorities, an executive’s stakeholders can make or break the success of an initiative by the amount of support or barriers they put in place. Evaluating the inherited team and how they may be deployed to meet goals and objectives becomes essential to the transition planning process. Similarly, who an executive chooses to support them via their personal mentor system can impact their success directly or indirectly. Carefully identifying mentors and supporters from whom they will regularly meet and soliciting input and feedback is critical to successfully transitioning into a new role.  

Just as important is the brand reputation that an executive creates for themselves. This is cultivated through the executive reflecting on the personal brand they want to build and understanding how they grow that within the organization (and possibly externally as well). However, this is reflected in how the executive shows measurable value and results against their set goals via transparent and concise metrics. As a result, measures of progress and success tied to key strategies and initiatives are core to communicating and promoting early successes and value added by the new leader. The people aspects (team + stakeholders + mentors) and the brand reputation (personal + value delivered) directly influence an executive’s success.

Why use it

While the areas of personal relationships and brand management may seem “soft” to some executives, they have a direct impact on the success they will see in their role. The phrase “a team is only as strong as its weakest player” applies in very much the same way here. The farther an executive climbs up the “corporate ladder,” the greater the importance of soft skills such as relationship and team management, personal brand, and appropriately communicating value delivered. Creating a clear picture of the strengths and possible leveraging of current team members can expose talent gaps that need to be filled relative to the new leader’s goals while establishing the best use of existing team members. Identifying a support network and evaluating stakeholders to create a strengthening plan together build relationships critical to achieving success at the executive level.

Each aspect described above can be evaluated and mapped out to determine an optimal set of actions. Executives need to take time to reflect on the strengths (and potential gaps) of the people surrounding them and the state of the reputation they are building. These steps are imperative to building a strong foundation for the executive’s role.

Outcomes

Adopting these practices creates a clear picture of the team they have inherited, with an assessment of their strengths and weaknesses and how they can be best leveraged to accomplish the goals and objectives that the executive has defined. It engages the new executive in an assessment of their boss and surrounding peers to identify where they will get support (or not) for their general activities and their specific goals and objectives. Through this, a thoughtful plan can be put into place to gain increased trust as a partner, educate and “sell” others on the shared value of their plans, and take other actions to win support and confidence from each stakeholder in them and their plans. They yield a carefully chosen and engaged set of mentors who can guide and support their early successes and integration into the organization and its culture. These create a platform for tracking and promoting goal attainment and successes through carefully curating key qualitative and quantitative metrics that credibly demonstrate progress and achievement levels. They also take a structured approach to identifying and enacting a “brand” by which the executive seeks to be known. By defining certain critical elements or traits, guideposts can be created for them to act, behave, and respond in a manner consistent with those that make an impression of the strengths and values they rely on to lead and create value for the organization.

Practice guides at this level

Assessing the existing team to determine strengths and gaps associated with key priorities.

Understanding each member’s strengths and weaknesses of an executive’s new team to assess needs to be addressed for achieving key objectives.

Evaluating stakeholders to understand supporters and blockers for critical initiatives.

Identifying and assessing key stakeholders whose relationships are necessary for achieving success in critical priorities for the executive’s role. 

Creating a personal board of directors to serve as mentors for ongoing support and direction.

Identifying key mentors to keep the executive up to date with the latest trends, support their career development, and serve as a sounding board for challenges.

Defining a set of metrics to measure delivered value and success in the new role.

Creating measures to track and communicate the new executive’s value and results delivered to the organization.

Developing a personal brand and leadership style that defines and augments the leader’s impact on the organization.

Articulating what a leader desires to be known for through attributes and behaviors that most accurately and effectively reflect the executive’s persona.