Andrea was just hired into a Chief Sales Officer role at a mid-sized global consumer products company. While technically this was a promotion for her, she was coming from a Head of NA Sales position at a much larger technology company. In essence the size of the team and revenue potential were comparable, but the opportunity for business and professional growth was much higher. Andrea was incredibly excited when she joined but she quickly realized that she had more hurdles to overcome than she anticipated.
In her previous role, Andrea was hired to turn around the NA Sales team. They were underperforming and missed their revenue targets for 3 consecutive quarters. The team was experiencing more turnover than usual and the leadership team was growing incredibly frustrated and impatient. They recruited Andrea based on her reputation of delivering solid results at a similar organization. After a few months into the role, Andrea started to make some drastic changes which began with replacing the leadership team and challenging the new leaders to create a more performance based culture. She worked with the corporate HR team to revamp the sales incentives plans and restructured the team to be product based rather than regionally focused. Ultimately, Andrea was quite successful in this role and was able to turn the company's performance around but it wasn't without breaking a lot of preexisting processes and structure.
Upon starting at the new consumer products company, she realized that her strategy and performance at the technology company created a leadership reputation that followed her. Her new team members and colleagues did their research on her. They looked her up online and read articles about the changes she made, they scoured her LinkedIn profile and activities, and they reached out to previous colleagues who worked at her prior companies to learn more about what she had done. For better or worse, Andrea became known as a leader who came in with big changes in mind. Naturally this made her new team very apprehensive and ready to push back on her ideas.
The new role that Andrea moved into did not require a turnaround strategy so she did not have any initial intentions to make the same kind of changes she had to previously done. But she did realize that she had to adjust her reputation and leadership brand to align more appropriately with her new goals in order to be effective and gain support.
The Importance of the Search Process
If you've proactively worked on being aware of your leadership reputation then it'll be easier to develop a strategy earlier in a transition process. As you consider new opportunities through the search process, you are evaluating the details of the role to assess the fit, level of challenge, and growth opportunity. You should also be assessing whether or not the situation matches your current reputation. With every area that does not match, there's a need to adjust. And with each area that is aligned, there's an opportunity to reinforce.
If you haven't developed a good sense of your current reputation then it's important to start that process well before you accept and start a new role. Consider conducting a 360-degree assessment or leverage a coach to gather honest feedback on your reputation. Learn what others say about your approach, your results, and what it's like to work with you. If you don't do this work, you should know that your new team and organization will certainly do the research themselves and you may have a critical blindspot that will get in the way of a successful transition.
Luckily for Andrea, she realized her reputational barriers early in her transition process and was able to address concerns quickly. She met with her team in small groups and communicated her vision with great detail. She made herself very approachable and open to transparent feedback and questions. She met with her colleagues and communicated her plans while assuring them that she was aiming for mutual success and shared goals. She took her time to develop strong relationships and gained trust from those around her.
The Importance of Managing Your Narrative
The most common way a reputation is developed is through "word of mouth" that starts with a person's observations of a leader, whether it be direct or in passing. That person will then share their perception with others and so on. Many times these perceptions may be filled with biases or misinformation but, regardless, this is what will be used to develop a leader's reputation. This is why it's incredibly important for each leader to maintain their own narrative as much as he or she can to minimize the misconceptions.
Learning how to control the output and portrayal of your story requires an intentional strategy on your part. Consider leveraging various ways of communicating your successes and efforts such as through company announcements, regularly scheduled updates, social media, speaking engagements, public releases, etc. Develop an approach and strategy that focuses on what you want others to know and say about working with you and then provide the stories and proof that supports that message.
Andrea was known to bring results to a sales organization so she leveraged and reinforced her skills when necessary to gain the confidence from her stakeholders. But she knew she had to balance that with reassuring her team and colleagues that she was also able to adjust her leadership to the needs of the organization. She communicated the team's goals and progress across the broader organization by leveraging events such as the town halls, interviews with the press, and her own social media presence. And she continued to deliver a consistent message until she built a new reputation as an agile and innovative leader who focuses on how change is made just as much as the results the changes bring.
Address the Barriers
Every leader will have their own set of gaps and barriers to address and each leadership situation will require a unique approach. The key is to remain agile and make your reputation and strategy relevant to the situation at hand. Once you know what the potential gaps are that may get in the way of a successful transition, consider working with a coach to develop an action plan to address each of those gaps.
For Andrea, a key gap that she identified was the fragility of the trust that her team felt in her ability to support and defend them. While working with a coach, she built a plan that focused on developing each unique relationship and remaining grounded and authentic with each interaction. This required some time and a well thought out process but she was able to build bonds that later helped her accomplish some challenging goals.
Lean In and Leverage What You Can
As mentioned earlier, sometimes a leader doesn't need to adjust their reputation but, instead, they should lean in and leverage the strengths that they are already known for. If the situation calls for more of the same, then reinforce what has already been established.
Andrea came to the organization with a history of successful sales and growth results. She was known to have a very clear connection and obsession with the customer and a keen ability to meet their needs. As she reinforced this customer focus and obsession to her new team, they grew energized and learned from her. They gained the ability to make autonomous decisions in order to meet customer needs which allowed them to learn from their actions. This resulted in better customer experiences but also growth in the team's capabilities.
A Note To The Hiring Team
It's important for a leader to assess their reputational match during the interview and search process in order to develop their own transition strategy. It's equally important for the hiring organization to assess this as well and provide the support a leader needs to address the potential gaps and barriers. The hiring team has more knowledge about the organization's culture and challenges. Without their guidance and support, a new leader may be at risk.
I have found that the executive onboarding and transition plan that an organization puts together should be customized to each leader and situation. It should address what may already be heard and known about the new leader as the "word of mouth" spreads and stories are developed about what may happen. Take an intentional and active approach to address this. Provide an open and safe opportunity that allows employees to address their questions and concerns and consider providing a transition coach to the new leader as they face unexpected situations throughout their first few months in the role.
About HEXA Executive Search
An McLeod is an Executive Recruiter and Executive Coach who helps high-growth companies build their leadership teams and bench strength while also preparing the leaders for continued growth and successful transitioning. With over 20 years of both in-house search leadership and external coaching experience, she focuses on critical transitional moments from search to succession planning.
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