08.2013 - Leadership Transitions Managing Leadership Transitions The New Way vs. the Good Olde Days
Here are just a few scenarios that unfold all too often.
- Existing leaders and new leaders press to get their own preferred cultural norms, practices and procedures adopted.
- Rumors fly around the organization; front-line workers wonder which set of beliefs will emerge triumphant.
- Different departments emerge as “favored children.”
- The “Good Olde Days” and “The New Way” are both sanctified and vilified (depending on who is talking!).
- Competition emerges for resources and turf.
What Can Leaders Do?
If any of the predictable results listed above is sometimes true as your organization experiences leadership transition -- with the expectation that THINGS ARE GONNA CHANGE!, here are a few possibilities for increasing your odds at success and averting the predictable hazards of leadership transition.
- Create an easy-to-understand vision that helps everyone clearly see the shape and flavor of the new culture.
- Build in lots of opportunity for social interaction. The stronger people’s relationships, the easier it will be to create shared understanding.
- Squash rumors immediately and disseminate relevant information regularly.
- Identify the best of the “Good Olde Days” and bring it forward to merge with “The New Way.” Clarify what about the “Good Olde Days” needs to be banished.
- Re-write organizational documents in clear simple language to ensure that people see the best of the emerging culture reflected in all written documents and organizational symbols.