Keep strong leaders and improve the bottom line with onboarding
Keep strong leaders and improve the bottom line with onboarding
“…the more positive the overall moods of people in the top management team, the more cooperatively they worked together - and the better the company's business results.”
Daniel Goleman wrote those words in Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence in 2002. This excerpt summarizes the challenge facing businesses today. Good leaders mean strong performance, but finding and keeping these leaders can be difficult. Without sufficient training and support, leaders can have trouble adapting to their new roles and problems can emerge. In the best case, employees may feel alienated and performance may suffer. In the worst case, good employees may leave and the new manager may pay the price by being shown the door.
Savvy organizations have learned that leaders need more than the standard welcome package when they move into a new role. They need proper training. They need a plan for adapting to their new position. And they need support. In short, they need executive onboarding.
Beyond basic orientation
Instead of basic orientation, organizations need a well-defined plan for integrating their new leaders into the culture and environment of their company. Without it, the risk of poor performance and failure is high. Executive onboarding has grown out of traditional orientation to provide a more comprehensive and systematic plan for helping executives transition into their new role.
The term “onboarding” sounds like it applies only to leaders hired from outside of an organization, but it is equally applicable to leaders within an organization who find themselves either transferred between departments or promoted and given new responsibilities. Leaders need to maintain a sense of balance and focus while they adapt to a new corporate culture, become familiar with new decision-making processes and get a handle on the many projects they may be required to manage.
Onboarding reinforces conventional orientation and training programs with highly focused one-to-one leadership coaching, targeted skills development, and timely objective feedback. The goal is twofold: first, ensure that new executives find their footing quickly and avoid costly missteps; second, help them build effective alliances with their direct reports to ensure continuity and cooperation in achieving organizational goals.
Onboarding as smart business strategy
Onboarding may sound like a lot of work – planning, orientation, coaching, training. But when you consider the costs of not doing it, you’ll soon see what a smart business strategy it is.
Kevin P. Coyne of the Harvard Business School conducted a study to learn how changes in a company’s leadership affect the overall business. His research, done between 2002 and 2004, found a turnover rate of 17% in large companies. According to Coyne, a change at the very top can trigger significant turnover among existing executives: up to 22% for organizations that hire new CEOs from outside, and up to 33% for those that promote CEOs from within. The bottom line? High turnover in the executive suite leads to instability and insecurity among existing managers, which will eventually trickle down through the rest of the company.
Companies invest a great deal of time and money in recruiting new executives. When they fail, as the statistics show they often do, the effect on the bottom line is devastating. Some estimates peg the costs at 200 to 250% of an executive’s annual compensation. That figure does not include indirect costs within the organization, in the form of lost productivity and diminished morale.
So how can onboarding turn things around? It gives an organization a planned process to integrate the new executive while maintaining continuity and retaining key team players. It’s like an insurance policy – organizations that invest in onboarding can ensure that they get the results they expect from their new executive.
So, what is onboarding exactly?
Onboarding addresses the critical areas where executives tend to have weaknesses. An effective onboarding program can help new executives:
- identify and strengthen the skills they need most in their new role
- adapt their leadership style with the corporate culture of their new workplace or department
- start building effective relationships with other senior people and direct reports
- get a handle on who makes decisions and how and why decisions are made
Onboarding is a combination of functional performance training, conventional orientation, intensive, highly focused coaching and performance feedback.
How onboarding helps
Think for a moment about how and why new leaders fail. They may lack the knowledge to do their job right, and they may become overwhelmed by the stress of their new position. Onboarding succeeds where conventional orientation fails by using coaching to address these potential pitfalls right from the beginning, easing the transition for the new leader and the business unit as a whole.
Training and retention of knowledge are key parts of any new position. Coaching complements training, ensuring that learning becomes a new behaviour by helping new executives create concrete plans for implementing what they learned, and applying their recently acquired knowledge in their new role.
What all of this means is that coaching supports and reinforces training. As reported in the Training and Development Journal, a study by Xerox showed that without follow-up coaching, 87% of the knowledge gained from skills training is lost. Coaching ensures that learned skills are retained and put to use.
Coaching also addresses issues that orientation and training cannot. Feelings of stress, isolation and frustration can derail even the most seasoned executive when he or she is placed in a new role. Coaching provides objective support for new leaders. Coaches become a sounding board to help leaders deal with the pressure in both their professional and personal lives.
What happens after you’re successfully onboarded?
Many executives find that even after their initial orientation period is over, they appreciate and even depend on the valuable support an executive coach offers. A study in the Manchester Review (Volume 6, Number 1, 2001) on the ROI that executive coaching delivers showed that 93% of those coached would recommend coaching to others, and the ROI averaged nearly 6 times the initial investment in coaching.
HR departments can ensure their leaders start off on the right track with effective onboarding, and stay on the right track with continued coaching and leadership development.
Keep strong leaders and improve the bottom line with onboarding - To learn more about this author, visit Cassandra L. Gierden's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Keep strong leaders and improve the bottom line with onboarding
“…the more positive the overall moods of people in the top management team, the more cooperatively they worked together - and the better the company's business results.”
Daniel Goleman wrote those words in Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence in 2002. This excerpt summarizes the challenge facing businesses today. Good leaders mean strong performance, but finding and keeping these leaders can be difficult. Without sufficient training and support, leaders can have trouble adapting to their new roles and problems can emerge. In the best case, employees may feel alienated and performance may suffer. In the worst case, good employees may leave and the new manager may pay the price by being shown the door.
Savvy organizations have learned that leaders need more than the standard welcome package when they move into a new role. They need proper training. They need a plan for adapting to their new position. And they need support. In short, they need executive onboarding.
Beyond basic orientation
Instead of basic orientation, organizations need a well-defined plan for integrating their new leaders into the culture and environment of their company. Without it, the risk of poor performance and failure is high. Executive onboarding has grown out of traditional orientation to provide a more comprehensive and systematic plan for helping executives transition into their new role.
The term “onboarding” sounds like it applies only to leaders hired from outside of an organization, but it is equally applicable to leaders within an organization who find themselves either transferred between departments or promoted and given new responsibilities. Leaders need to maintain a sense of balance and focus while they adapt to a new corporate culture, become familiar with new decision-making processes and get a handle on the many projects they may be required to manage.
Onboarding reinforces conventional orientation and training programs with highly focused one-to-one leadership coaching, targeted skills development, and timely objective feedback. The goal is twofold: first, ensure that new executives find their footing quickly and avoid costly missteps; second, help them build effective alliances with their direct reports to ensure continuity and cooperation in achieving organizational goals.
Onboarding as smart business strategy
Onboarding may sound like a lot of work – planning, orientation, coaching, training. But when you consider the costs of not doing it, you’ll soon see what a smart business strategy it is.
Kevin P. Coyne of the Harvard Business School conducted a study to learn how changes in a company’s leadership affect the overall business. His research, done between 2002 and 2004, found a turnover rate of 17% in large companies. According to Coyne, a change at the very top can trigger significant turnover among existing executives: up to 22% for organizations that hire new CEOs from outside, and up to 33% for those that promote CEOs from within. The bottom line? High turnover in the executive suite leads to instability and insecurity among existing managers, which will eventually trickle down through the rest of the company.
Companies invest a great deal of time and money in recruiting new executives. When they fail, as the statistics show they often do, the effect on the bottom line is devastating. Some estimates peg the costs at 200 to 250% of an executive’s annual compensation. That figure does not include indirect costs within the organization, in the form of lost productivity and diminished morale.
So how can onboarding turn things around? It gives an organization a planned process to integrate the new executive while maintaining continuity and retaining key team players. It’s like an insurance policy – organizations that invest in onboarding can ensure that they get the results they expect from their new executive.
So, what is onboarding exactly?
Onboarding addresses the critical areas where executives tend to have weaknesses. An effective onboarding program can help new executives:
- identify and strengthen the skills they need most in their new role
- adapt their leadership style with the corporate culture of their new workplace or department
- start building effective relationships with other senior people and direct reports
- get a handle on who makes decisions and how and why decisions are made
Onboarding is a combination of functional performance training, conventional orientation, intensive, highly focused coaching and performance feedback.
How onboarding helps
Think for a moment about how and why new leaders fail. They may lack the knowledge to do their job right, and they may become overwhelmed by the stress of their new position. Onboarding succeeds where conventional orientation fails by using coaching to address these potential pitfalls right from the beginning, easing the transition for the new leader and the business unit as a whole.
Training and retention of knowledge are key parts of any new position. Coaching complements training, ensuring that learning becomes a new behaviour by helping new executives create concrete plans for implementing what they learned, and applying their recently acquired knowledge in their new role.
What all of this means is that coaching supports and reinforces training. As reported in the Training and Development Journal, a study by Xerox showed that without follow-up coaching, 87% of the knowledge gained from skills training is lost. Coaching ensures that learned skills are retained and put to use.
Coaching also addresses issues that orientation and training cannot. Feelings of stress, isolation and frustration can derail even the most seasoned executive when he or she is placed in a new role. Coaching provides objective support for new leaders. Coaches become a sounding board to help leaders deal with the pressure in both their professional and personal lives.
What happens after you’re successfully onboarded?
Many executives find that even after their initial orientation period is over, they appreciate and even depend on the valuable support an executive coach offers. A study in the Manchester Review (Volume 6, Number 1, 2001) on the ROI that executive coaching delivers showed that 93% of those coached would recommend coaching to others, and the ROI averaged nearly 6 times the initial investment in coaching.
HR departments can ensure their leaders start off on the right track with effective onboarding, and stay on the right track with continued coaching and leadership development.
Keep strong leaders and improve the bottom line with onboarding - To learn more about this author, visit Cassandra L. Gierden's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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