According to Watkins, however, a "honeymoon" -- time for the new leader to acclimate to the new environment, employees and job description -- is a myth. "There is a transition," says Watkins, but "there's rarely a honeymoon."

 

Whereas there was once a six month honeymoon for new leaders, "now you get 60 days, and in some cases, managers feel as though they get six hours of honeymoon."

 

Watkins says leaders walk into a new role lacking the relationships and knowledge, a situation that would make a honeymoon period a good idea. However, they also come in with people expecting that some change is going to happen, so there's an opportunity for action right away.

 

The worst mistake a manager can make in his or her new role is to set unrealistic expectations, adds Watkins.

 

"If you set unreal expectations, and even if you accomplish really great things, you can still be seen to fail. There's also a tendency to oversell when you're taking a new job, to sort of sell yourself. How then do you ratchet back expectations? That's a negotiation that has to go on between you, your new boss, or the Board. You have to be educating them about the business realities, without being unduly pessimistic.You have to negotiate not just from what you're going to achieve, but what they're going to give you in terms of the resources you need in order to achieve those goals."

 

Watkins considers this a time for negotiations over goals and resources, "with all implications for how you negotiate, shape perceptions, and manage the relationships with the other side." In fact, this is a process to consider before taking a new position. 

 

An example of a leader who successfully managed the transition to a new role, says Watkins, is Lou Gerstner at IBM.

 

"He was new to the technology industry in a large company with a very strong culture. He was able in quite short-order to take hold in this organization and shift its direction in very positive ways. I think time has proved that he's continued to have an extremely impressive and major impact on this organization. He had to change the culture, and he had to change the very nature of the business IBM was in. The culture was killing them. The legacy of all their antitrust problems had made IBM an extremely conservative, risk-adverse, sclerotic place, and he had to basically burst through all of that."

 

Watkins also points to the Ford Motor Company transition, where a young Ford family member, William Clay Ford, Jr., became chairman of the board, replacing a professional manager. The transition created an upheaval on the board.

 

Watkins says there are big risks for such a leader, especially when the family member reasserting control in a family company has relative inexperience managing a board.

 

"The potential problem is going to be his ability to have an impact inside the company. I'll be looking for signals about whether he's getting the right people in place and managing the crucial product development processes, the crucial manufacturing processes, everything that's needed to begin getting this company back on track."

 

More expert insights on leadership transitions are available in Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Job. The program is available for CPE credits through FMN Online. 

 

For more information about FMN subscriptions and how to earn CPE credits, visit SmartPros Knowledge.