Why are transitions an organizational challenge?

Organizations these days are in greater flux than ever. Mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, launching of new business units - all bring together new teams and are accompanied by a change of leaders. The intent is to increase competitiveness, streamline and align the organization thus improving business results. Frequently the opposite occurs; there is increased stress, lost momentum, and lost learning.

There are two specific aspects of a transition where value is lost:

1. the departing team leader does not receive valuable feedback from her/his "old" team to help her/him in the future and the team, in turn, doesn't receive feedback to help them with their new team leader;

2. the in-coming team leader, therefore, can't benefit from this plus s/he too often 'takes over' without adequate alignment, contracting of roles, relationships and expectations.

These produce organizational drag resulting in a business slowdown. However, when these transitions are managed well, the original intent is realized and the "frozen" period can be shortened to minimize the impact on performance.

Such well-managed transitions require careful planning and good coaching.

What is LIM's Transition Coaching Program?

It is a process designed to:

• Assist managers making the transition from one position to another

• Identify the "burning" questions they face during this transition period

• Transfer leadership and learning: + from manager to manager; + from the team to the out-going manager; + from the team to the in-coming manager

• Establish good working norms and team-leader "contract" with the new team

• Reduce stress by opening up communication and feedback

• Speed up and improve the overall transition process

• Maintain business momentum

• Learn from the process

Earning While Learning™

Process

The Transition Coaching Program is organic and designed to meet the specific needs of each client. In general it has the following components:

• A one-on-one Coaching Session with the in-coming or out-going leader to identify the dilemmas, questions s/he needs to work on related to the position s/he is leaving and/or the new position s/he is taking on.

• A Feedback Session among the out-going leader and her/his team.

• A One-on-One Coaching Session with the out-going leader to debrief the Feedback Session and determine how to apply them in her/his next professional challenge.

• A Transfer Session with the out-going and in-coming leader to transfer learning and information.

• A Workshop with the in-coming leader and her/his new team, to establish expectations, contract roles, set norms and begin building trust.

• Follow-up Coaching Sessions with the new leader and her/his team as needed.

Some questions LIM's Transition Coaching Program addresses:

• How can I prepare my successor without prejudicing her/him?

• How can I get constructive feedback from my "old" team before I leave?

• How can I start up in the best way possible with my new team?

• How can I work with my predecessor in transferring leadership?

• What should I do and avoid in the first few days in my new position?

• How can we best end our formal relationship and give feedback to our outgoing leader and get off to a good start with our in-coming leader?

• What has to be true in order for all of us to keep our focus on the business during this transition?

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