How to Succeed When You Have Big Shoes to Fill: Changing Jobs- Here are some good tips
How to Succeed When You Have Big
Shoes to Fill
February 17, 2020
Starting any new job,
whether it’s an internal promotion or a new opportunity at a different
organization, can feel a bit nerve-wracking. It’s all that much more daunting
when you have big shoes to fill. When Tim Cook took over for Steve Jobs in
2011, Apple employees — along with shareholders and the rest of the world —
wondered if he could fill his larger-than-life predecessor’s shoes and maintain
the company’s momentum. No pressure.
While you likely won’t
have the entire world watching you, taking over for someone who is highly
regarded or has had a significant positive impact on the business — or likely,
both — can be exciting and scary at the same time. The scary part is that,
according to a 2018 McKinsey report, nearly half of all
leadership transitions fail. The report also highlights that 74% of U.S.
leaders and 83% of global leaders think they are unprepared for their new
roles, and less than one third of these leaders believe their organizations
provide enough support in these transitions. Given this, it will likely be up
to you to ensure your success when stepping into a new role where all eyes are
on you.
To increase your chances
of success, implement the key strategies below.
Do your
homework before you start.
You will need to get up to
speed on your new job before your first day. This may involve
getting smart on the company’s product, a key client, an industry vertical, or
functional knowledge adjacent to your area of expertise. Karen (not her real
name) had been promoted to CFO of a large, public company when the prior CFO,
who was very well respected both internally and externally, retired after
almost a decade in that role. Karen needed to learn other aspects of
finance, such as tax, treasury, real estate and dealing with the investment
community, to which she didn’t have any previous exposure in her role as VP of
finance. She studied these areas prior to starting her new position, often
waking up at 5 am to have focused time before her workday started, since she
still had a “day job.” If you have time off before you start your new role,
it’s good to take some time to unwind from your previous job, but make sure you
also take time to ramp up for your new one.
Be
yourself.
Don’t try to take on your
predecessor’s personality or leadership style or be someone you’re not. Being
unapologetically authentic will earn you respect and help pre-empt judgment
from others who are likely to compare you to your predecessor. While Tim Cook
pursues excellence like Steve Jobs, the current CEO’s calm demeanor and style
is genuine, making it apparent that he didn’t feel like he needed to “be Steve
Jobs” in order to be successful.
Christine Lagarde, former
head of the International Monetary Fund, took over in November 2019 as
president of the European Central Bank. Upon starting her new role, she
declared, “Each and every president has his or her own style of
communicating. So, I know some of you are keen to compare and rate or rank. I
will have my own style. So, as I said before: Don’t overinterpret, don’t
second-guess, don’t cross-reference. I’m going to be myself, and therefore
probably different.”
Both leaders displayed a
strong sense of self that inspired confidence from others.
Understand
and manage stakeholder relationships.
A key element of your success
will be your ability to establish and effectively manage stakeholder
relationships, both internal and external. This requires knowing not only who
these people are, but also what they care most about, what they each expect
from you, and what concerns they have. Some may be skeptical of your ability to
live up to your predecessor’s performance. You’ll want to meet with each
stakeholder and ask relevant questions like:
·
In your view, what should my top three
priorities be over the next six to 12 months, and what would success look like
to you?
·
What other internal and external
relationships are most important to support these priorities?
·
What concerns do you have, and how can I
address them?
Another option is to
engage an executive coach to ask these questions on your behalf as part of an
“assimilation coaching” program, which may get you more candid answers.
However, this is in no way a substitute for you meeting with these stakeholders
to start to build these essential relationships.
Assess
the team.
Given your top
priorities, you’ll want to assess if you have the right team to accomplish
them. This includes hiring to fill any gaps on your team, as well as directly
addressing performance issues that can prevent you from getting the leverage
you need or impede your progress. Anthony was hired as COO of a rapidly growing
financial services firm. People were counting on his deep financial services
operations experience to help the organization scale. He found himself
constantly in the weeds, in large part, because he did not address performance
issues with selected individuals on his team, as he shied away from difficult
conversations. This cost him dearly, as it diverted his attention from his
strategic priorities so much that he was ultimately fired, becoming another
failed leadership transition statistic.
Check
your mindset.
Having big shoes to fill
can make you question your own capabilities and whether you have what it takes
to meet the standard set by your predecessor. Imposter syndrome is not uncommon,
especially as you get more senior and are faced with completely new challenges.
Even if there is evidence to the contrary, you may feel like a fraud or
question whether you can measure up to the standard set before you. This is
normal to some extent and even has some benefits, but it’s something to
manage as you get your bearings.
Another important aspect
of mindset relates to addressing your limiting beliefs or assumptions. In
Anthony’s case, he had a limiting belief that he’d damage his relationship with
others if he held team members accountable and engaged in difficult
conversations. If you think you might have an assumption that’s getting in your
way, design some safe experiments to test its validity. In Anthony’s case, this
would have been talking to others he respected to see where they’ve engaged in
difficult conversations and how these conversations served to build their
relationships.
Seek
ongoing feedback and support.
Create feedback loops
with your key stakeholders for them to share early and often what’s going well
and what’s going less well, so you can make real-time adjustments, as needed.
Keep in mind, not everyone is going to like what you do. With your team,
recognize that giving upward feedback often feels very risky, so you will need
to give your team explicit permission to do so. Your job is to then listen — if
you don’t, rest assured that your reports will not likely try a second time,
and you will not get the information you need to hear. When you have big shoes
to fill, you also will likely feel that there are few people with whom you can
confide about the challenges you face. Having a mentor outside the
organization, or an executive coach — or both — can provide useful outside
feedback and perspectives, as well as provide a safe space to share what you
are really thinking and feeling.
Having big shoes to fill
is a big opportunity, but also presents challenges. Using the strategies above,
you can demonstrate to yourself and others that the shoes you’ve been given are
just your size.
Rebecca Zucker is
an executive coach and a founding Partner at Next
Step Partners, a boutique leadership development firm. Her clients
include Amazon, Clorox, Morrison Foerster, the James Irvine Foundation, Skoll
Foundation, and high-growth technology companies like DocuSign and Dropbox. You
can follow her on Twitter: @rszucker.
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