“I may have made a big mistake,” said Mark recently, reflecting on the job he accepted only six months earlier as the Chief Operating Officer for a Fortune 500 manufacturer. Taking on the role meant a move with his family halfway across the across the country, but despite whatever personal disruption the job required, Mark was thrilled to land his dream job, a position that represented the pinnacle of his professional career. Once in the role, he immediately hit the ground running by learning as much as he could, meeting key players, and getting to know his own organization and direct reports.
And then, Mark started to have doubts. For starters, he was exhausted. Mark expected a full schedule with back-to-back meetings and heavy travel, but what he underestimated was the intense level of challenge, politics, and scrutiny he was experiencing from his very demanding CEO and President, and managing those stakeholders felt like a full-time job. Mark was also surprised by how much his own employees were struggling to get traction on key initiatives. “I thought we were much farther along than we actually were on some major projects. We are just not executing fast enough.” Those execution challenges were causing major headaches across the company, and Mark found himself navigating tricky conversations early into his tenure with frustrated peers.
Companies know there are significant costs to the failure of promising leaders, as one Forbes article notes. Many leaders falter at the very moment they are standing on a bigger stage, and studies show the cost of a single failed executive hire runs into the millions. Mark understood that the first few months in this new role were critical and that he had a window of opportunity to demonstrate credibility before he lost it with his key stakeholders. Here’s what he did.
Regain self-confidence. When Mark started to catch himself longing for his former job, he knew he needed to shift his thinking. He reminded himself that this wasn’t his first rodeo and how he thrived on solving tough problems. Rather than continue to be frustrated about the situation he inherited, he made the mental decision to stop feeling apologetic or defensive. That subtle shift influenced his interactions with stakeholders, who saw Mark evolve from a leader who tends to overexplain, to someone who asked better questions, listened, and didn’t feel the need to have all the answers.
Spend time on the real problem, sooner. Mark stepped into a huge role with big scope and responsibilities. To better understand the needs of his stakeholders, he embarked on a listening tour to meet with colleagues around the world. In the meantime, Rome was burning, and execution challenges grew by the day. Looking back, Mark realized that as valuable and important as it was to hear from stakeholders, the time commitment was enormous. “When I started the job, I didn’t spend nearly enough time with my own team because I didn’t think I could afford to. That was a big mistake. If I had prioritized more time initially with the team, I could have pinpointed issues much sooner than I did.”
Embrace detail. As a senior leader, Mark believed in the importance of staying out of the weeds and operating at the right level. The problem was that as he got deeper into the role, he continued to lead at 30,000 feet. He assumed that execution was happening, and that the team was addressing issues, but after another missed deadline, Mark realized how his current governance model and reporting structure weren’t giving him the right level of visibility into what was happening. As he put it, “It took me too long to realize that the processes we had in place weren’t helping me smell the smoke.” He made important changes that got him much closer to the issues and into the details. From there, he had a better handle on issues and was able to guide his team and resources accordingly.
Many leaders assume they have more time than they do to establish themselves and make an impact in a new senior role. As Mark put it, “I thought I had at least six months to get up to speed. Looking back, it was really like two or three.” Once he recognized that his window of opportunity was closing fast, he picked up the pace, narrowed his focus, and put his time and attention on the burning issues. He realized that if he waited until he knew enough or learned enough and felt truly ready to act, he’d miss the boat and hurt his credibility. Once he began to make decisions, roll up his sleeves, and get closer to the problem, he began to right the ship, and slowly, execution started to improve. Equally important, he was able to shift perception about his own team and organization with stakeholders, including his CEO. Now, Mark reports he really is in his dream job, after all.
