You're in Charge - Now What? Aligning expectations

You're in Charge - Now What? Aligning expectations

Whether you’re coming into a company from the outside or being promoted you’ll have certain expectations about your colleagues, the organizational culture, quality of products and services, relationships with shareholders and competitors and the operating processes. These will help shape your agenda.
Each of your stakeholders also has an idea of what should be accomplished in the first 100 days and how you should go about doing it. If these perspectives don’t align on fundamental points, you’re in for a rocky ride that is likely to end in failure.
Ideally you would have a chance during your candidacy to make sure there is common understanding as to the important issues the company faces, but in reality that’s often not possible. There may not have been the time, especially if you’re entering a company in crisis.
Aligning expectations is crucial. Failing to do so is one of the top 10 traps for the new leader. Agreement on the main issues forms the basis of your future success.
Managing expectations, finding common ground
Managing through a mass of expectations means reassessing your own expectations of success; how things work; your colleagues; problems and how to fix them. This takes skill, insight and patience and the ability sometimes to admit you were wrong, as Tom Ryder, CEO of Reader’s Digest discovered: “I walked in and thought I knew exactly where the problems were and what I was going to do. I turned out to be wrong.”
You also have to align others’ expectations of you. Your reputation will have preceded you and, when you’ve come into a company from outside, others will be weighing you up and comparing themselves to you.
Internal promotion also creates tension. Just because you may have been the heir apparent, this doesn’t mean everyone will accord you credibility.
It’s not only colleagues and employees who’ll be watching you but also the board, wanting to ensure that they made the right choice. Suppliers, too, will want to know how you will affect the status quo while the financial community will vote with their trades. You have to set appropriate expectations for you and your employees and align those expectations to the market.
Assimilation
Many companies provide formal assimilation for new leaders allowing their colleagues and co-workers to exchange concerns and expectations. This offers the new leader a chance to discuss his/her background, leadership style and agenda.
Remember that first impression lays the foundation for future interaction. You should take note, too, of four other precepts:
You don’t have all the answers – and no one expects you to
Address doubts and fears
Neutralize lingering resentment
Don’t disrespect your predecessor
Defining the new reality
As you gather information, your own picture of reality will sharpen giving you a better sense of what the problems are and who you can depend on to help you fix them. At the same time, your actions and decisions will help colleagues form their reality. The two will sometimes differ and a leader who makes decisions on the assumption that his or her reality is the only one, could be in for a shock.
The new reality should be a process of getting agreement on what needs to be done, how to do it and who will be involved.
Without a shared reality, “you’re in the ditch” says Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer. You need to get buy-in for your reality to get the support of the organization behind you.
At first, just listen
When you assume a new role you are in a state of temporary incompetence – you don’t have all the answers and your responsibility is to help produce them. Your most important tool is a questioning mind. Learn about the issues people want you to deal with; the people who can help you; how things work. In the process, your colleagues will learn about you: how you work; how you make people decisions; how you communicate; your strengths and weaknesses; and how you can help the organization’s success.
Before you do anything, listen. Former CEO of Lucent Technologies, Henry Schat: “The first thing you should do if you’re the new person in charge is nothing. Resist the temptation to hit the ground running. It is almost certain to be wrong.”
The initial adrenalin rush makes this difficult but it is important to process information, integrate it with your prior understanding and then cycle it.
Even in a crisis situation, take as long as you can to find out exactly what you need to be doing and to secure the commitment of the people you’re going to need.
Question others on what they think are the real issues – these will typically boil down to a few major concerns. While you listen, you also have the opportunity to build a rapport. Take your questioning outside the company to suppliers, customers, business partners, regulators and the financial community – and the board.
Your questions should cover the market, product, finance, people and processes and the answers will help you refine your understanding of the issues the company faces and what needs to be done.
Conclusion
It may be reassuring to note that studies show that it is not so much what people do that leads to success but rather, that they create certain conditions that allow for the successful execution of that change.
The pace and sequencing of change is considered far less important than the creation of an environment in which change can thrive. In other words, assess your expectations, measure them against reality and then find the common ground that will create the conditions to nurture success.



Walter Sonyi, Jr.1-800-376-8176


Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann


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