New Executive Snapshot

PROGRAM SUMMARY

At Res Partners , we created the New Executive Snapshot (NES) service because we recognize that the traditional on-boarding process of coaching senior executives still places a heavy burden on the new executive, and provides little data to inform the executives’ plans. Through the NES process, we help the new executive quickly create a playbook that provides comprehensive situational awareness, augmented by coaching, to enable rapid leadership effectiveness. This leads to a higher rate of success in their new role, and helps them avoid the traps that may cause failure.

In a business world where two out of every five new CEOs fail in the first 18 months (HBR, January 2005) and 64% of all new executives hired from outside the company will fail at their new jobs, according to Dan Ciampa and Michael Watkins authors of Right from the Start (Harvard Business School Press) a different way to make these executives successful is needed.

These dismal statistics on executive hires not only effect the reputation of very competent executives, but have costs that go straight to the P&L.

To mitigate the risk, companies have been hiring executive coaches as part of an on-boarding process in an attempt to promote more successful transitions. But is that really enough?

Research tells us that the failure rate of new executives is frequently due to lack of situational awareness, not technical or leadership competency. The traditional coaching, while very helpful, doesn’t fully cover the challenge the new executive faces to gain situational awareness. To support the new executive in gaining situational awareness, the New Executive Snapshot (NES) is designed to also collect and synthesize relevant data from key stakeholders, identify traps to avoid and develop a playbook in a relatively short time. Armed with situational awareness, the NES enables the executive to set, align and manage expectations to deliver positive results.

New Executive Snapshot versus Traditional Executive Coaching/On-boarding.

Comparison of Approaches	Traditional Executive Onboarding	New Executive Snapshot
Coaching
Quickly grasp organization strategy, state of the business, organization culture.
Build critical relationships, networks and credibility.
Create personal strategy and plan for success.
Situational Awareness
Collect key data to inform executives’ understanding and decision making capability using existing data, interviews, surveys, focus groups and external research.
Develop an organizational snapshot of: - strategy & people alignment - culture and & behaviors - core processes - resource allocation priorities - business and people performance - core competencies and critical skills - leadership and employee attitudes - constraints impeding performance
Synthesize data elements to present a clear unbiased snapshot in a consistent manner.
Organize the data to highlight areas of alignment, mis-alignment,and/or potential gaps.
Use tools like balanced scorecard or similar methodologies to provide context for the data.
The Playbook
Support executive in developing a plan of action for a personal strategy including specific actions, prioritization, timelines and metrics for success.
Using the deeper understanding of the situational awareness to develop a playbook for organizational and personal success.