A Process for Rapidly Integrating Newly Hired Executives

If you've worked with executive search firms you know the drill on placement guarantees.  They range from one to two years, depending on the firm.  This guarantee is more of a marketing device than an insurance policy.  The facts are that the search firm can do everything imaginable to find and recruit the best person, but once that individual accepts a job and starts to work, the search part of the business is over.  At that point most recruiters move on the the next project (they usually have several going at once) and hope that the new executive works out.   Many executive recruiters, myself included, have had the misfortune of needing to honor a guarantee because the new hire either left the organization or the organization left the new hire prior to the end of the guarantee period.  When that happens, the recruiter's guarantee requries that they replace that new hiree for no additional retainer fee--just expenses.  Nobody wins: the new hire, the organization or the recruiter (who has to work for free to replace the individual).

The reasons executive hires don't work out are many.  Often the candidate feels misled by the organization and promises are not kept, or there is an unanticipated missmatch with the boss.   At other times, the new hire may have made a series of mistakes during the initial 90 or so days that are irreparable.  Smart organizations don't let poor hiring decisions go on for long.  The adage, "Better an end with terror than a terror without end" applies here.  Unhappy executives will either cut their losses and run (in good economic times) or hang in there, miserably, for at least a year, sometimes longer. It can be like a bad marriage with no honeymoon.

From my vantage point, there is a way to improve the successful outcome of an outside executive hire. The research shows that the first 90 days often determine the ultimate success or failure of a new executive.  Assimilation is expensive in many ways.  Michael Watkins at the Harvard Business School, in his groundbreaking book, The First 90 Days, shows that it takes 6.2 months for an outside executive hire to reach the "breakeven point."  Up to that time, the executive has for the first three months been consuming value, and later, over the next three months, starts adding value.  After 6.2 months the new leader has broken even and is now adding more value than consumed.   Watkins' book is designed to help newly hired managers at any level to navigate those critical 90 days through a checklist of things they can do to help themselves.  The premise of the book is that most organizations have no means to do that for you.  On-boarding programs generally are not intended to this level of integration.  They have a different purpose altogether.   Without an effective method to for a new leader to assimilate quickly, Watkins says that "...40 to 50% of senior outside hires fail to acheive desired results." That's a huge number!  He reminds us that each year over a half million managers enter a new position in the Fortune 500 alone!  That discounts healthcare organizations, universities, nonprofits, government, et.al.

Aside from the useful self-directed roadmap that Michael Watkins provides, what else can be done to improve the odds of success?  Moreover, what can be done to ensure that the breakeven point is considerably compressed? (Who has time to wait 6.2 months when almost half the time the new leader fails anyway?)  In my firm we have developed a process that has been proved valuable within corporations and in executive recruiting situations. The process significantly shortens the time it takes for a new leader to be successfully up and running. We call it New Leader Integration, "pre-boarding" for short.  Here's how it works.

The process is three dimensional.  It involves the boss, peers and direct reports.  It begins at the end of an executive search engagement. We begin the day an offer is accepted and the process concludes on the morning of the start date.  Our executive change agent (who is also the recruiter) conducts lengthy interviews with a wide swath of people who will both impact the new leader's success and be impacted by that person's success.  These interviews begin immediately upon offer acceptance.  The process is fast, focused, intense, thorough--and it works.   The result of these interviews is a confidential report that is compiled and presented to the new leader for review.  This usually occurs a week before the start date.  The change agent and the new leader then spend the better part of a day reviewing everything in that document.  The change agent becomes the transition coach at that point.  By then every key player in the new leader's sphere of influence has been interviewed.  The change agent has a solid understanding of what the new leader needs to do (and avoid doing), in what order, and under what timeline.  The change agent also knows what the concerns are on the part of the new leader's team of direct reports.  Another outcome of the process is a minimization of team downtime.

The morning of the start date the change agent facilitates a meeting with the new leader and the direct reports.  There are several components of that meeting that are all designed to 1) build trust quickly, 2) eliminate communication barriers and 3) begin addressing the more pressing "must happens" that the new leader is facing...all during that meeting!  By noon of the first day the meeting and the process ends.  By the end of that first week the new leader has met one-on-one with all participants in the process, top to bottom, and has a blueprint of what to talk about during each of those individual meetings.  If all goes well, the new leader is producing the right results quickly and the prospect of a successful hire is considerably improved.

If you would like to know more about this process you can email me at mburroughs@esiassoc.com and I will reach out to you for that discussion.  http://www.esiassoc.com/   http://www.michaelkburroughs.com/