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Don’t move too quickly
There’s an interesting issue that arises when organizations bring leaders in from the outside explicitly to be change agents. One would expect in circumstances like that that they would not adhere to the current culture. That they would explicitly do things to push the boundaries to really push the culture in new directions. And in fact, that is often what happens, but it’s typically very dangerous for people to begin to do that from the moment they arrive in the organization.
What typically works a whole lot better is to learn and understand and even appreciate the existing culture and to be seen as to be part of the place before you start pushing the boundaries too hard. The risk if you don’t do that is that transitions of new leaders from the outside is like an organ transplant and the new leader is the organ. So you really have a risk that you’re gonna get organ rejection phenomena. The immune system of the organization will really begin to attack the new leader.
Understand the situation
The way you transition depends a lot on the type of situation you’re transitioning into. There’s a world of difference between taking over a startup where things are just really getting going and off the ground, versus something that is in an accelerated growth mode where the premium is really putting new processes and systems and structure in place to support rapid growth versus dealing with more successful and mature organizations where the fine art of sustaining success is really what’s crucial.
In addition, there are different classes of problem that happen in organizations. For example, the difference between a turnaround which is the classic burning platform situation and realignment which is a more subtle often more proactive change challenge. The beauty of the turnaround is the problem teaches the people. the urgency is built in, the platform is burning. You can make the case that fairly radical things need to happen. Coming in from the outside and acting very differently is not as dangerous as it is if you’re dealing with a more successful organization.
It’s very different if there’s not broad recognition that there’s really a need for change in the organization. There you need to be in more of a kind of education mode. You need to teach people there’s a problem. You need to be building coalitions in support of change. So as you go into your new role, focus hard on what kind of change am I there to lead and make sure that you’re not applying the wrong strategies to the right situation.