Less of the sink, more of the swim

The Centre for Creative Leadership reports that around half of executive appointments are deemed failures within their first 18 months… 

There are often many reasons given for this by both the executive and their boss but, in most cases, the perception and realities of the organisation’s challenges have become misaligned once the new executive is on board. Combine this with higher expectations for performance and lower levels of patience for results than ever before, and you can appreciate why the success of a new leader has the same odds as a coin toss.

So, why do companies and executives keep making the same mistakes? The blame game comes into play, the executive blames the company and the company blames the executive – however, it’s usually much more complicated.

There will have been excitement and a real desire for the appointment to succeed by both parties. The executive has beaten off stiff competition during the interview process and will have demonstrated prior achievements, be intelligent, suitably qualified and referenced – but it’s the potential pitfalls of failure which haven’t been identified.