The New VP
Who's responsible when new leaders fail?
The new VP George seemed to have a cup of black coffee permanently affixed to his hand—always a pour over, never Dunkin' Donuts. The coffee mirrored his personality, strong with a jolt of energy. The former VP, while beloved, wasn't technical enough for the growing needs at a scaling startup. George's technical chops seemed the ideal remedy.
George immediately dove into the technical details, sometimes even telling the team how code. He flooded the team's calendar with meetings. George dominated each meeting with opinions about the product and team structure, rarely leaving room for others to share theirs. 1:1s lasted 15 minutes, mostly focused on the technical details of the system, skipping any sort of relationship building.
One month into his tenure, George unveiled a new org chart. Despite missing critical context George plowed forward re-orging the department using the playbook from his last company. The team floundered, departures increased. In his zeal, George missed the tangle of organizational and technical debt he inherited. He didn’t take time to understand the context or which problems were most urgent. He neglected to build trust before making changes. His relationships with other senior leaders wasn’t much better. Rather than easing organizational friction through collaborative effort, the distance was growing. Six months after joining, George was out.
George isn’t alone. While transitions are hard for everyone, they're incredibly delicate for leaders. Leadership at the senior level is not the same as managing others. It's a completely new role with a whole different set of expectations, though though they’re almost never spoken outright. Leaders must make assumptions about what’s needed for a role they've never performed. Under duress, they revert to their old stand by, the skills that served them well so far. Many new leaders flail about, injecting themselves into things trying to prove their worth. Instead they put themselves at risk.
The transition, pressure and lack of support can have a negative impact. Some, like George fall prey to the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Their over confidence makes them closed to alternate opinions, adding friction to the team and stymieing relationship building. In a rush to prove their worth, they focus solely on the end goal through their own effort eschewing collaboration. By the way, in making the transition some leaders make a wholly different mistake — falling into imposter syndrome. Their lack of confidence slows decision making and undermines their influence. Their lack of trust in themselves transmits to the team who begin to doubt them too. (I’ll talk more about this path in the future.)
Either path is treacherous. The trust bank takes longer to fill, if it grows all. Without trust leaders are unable to have influence. Departures follow, existing knowledge along with it. This can put the team in a precarious place and the leader's reputation in question. Some flounder while others like George flame out.
Still, new leaders don’t bear all the responsibility. Leaders like George aren’t just a personal failure, it’s an organizational one too. Most leaders face organizational debt requiring new processes, hiring or even kicking out folks who have turned toxic. These are difficult tasks especially when the trust bank starts at zero. Most don’t get any career development. We expect leaders to be a pre-formed statue rather than what they are — a partially formed piece of clay in need of shaping to reach it's true potential. We expect them to always have the right turn of phrase, never make mistakes. We expect them to have the right combination of confidence and empathy. This perfection expected without much training or support.
New leaders need support to help them manage their inner state, understand where they are in their leadership journey, navigate organizational friction and build influence. They need reminders that it’s ok not to know what they’re doing. They need to know they’re not weak for asking questions. That it’s ok to make mistakes. They need help navigating the organization. They can’t do it all on their own. New leaders need fortifying structures.
If I could wave a magic wand, I'd give every new leader six months with an executive coach. This gives them a specific time and place to be introspective. I’d pair them with another senior leader to provide an extra feedback loop. This person can give them historical context and assist them with navigating the culture. I'd create a library of materials to educate new leaders on the role. Then I'd make a list of what’s expected of leaders at the company and what they need to know about how things get done. Finally I'd enlist the rest of the exec team to aid in the on-boarding of new leaders.
I still think about George. His failure impacted the whole team. It wasn’t good for anyone. George’s ascent into leadership may have been premature. He may just not have been ready. Still, I wonder what might have happened if George had received more support in his transition into his role and the company. It might have turned out differently. There’s still hope for others. If you know a leader who is struggling, I hope you’ll pass this and other resources along to them.
What else to read
A handy guide to the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
This Twitter thread has solid suggestions for identifying blind spots.
My experiences with closely related topic: leader burnout.