1. PEOPLE + STRATEGY14
M
ost leaders have the opportunity to transition many times across their
career—new team, new environment, new company, increases in responsi-
bility, working at a higher level of leadership, or in an entirely new area of
the enterprise. If there is a common mindset as we transition, it is to understand the
business at hand, prioritize actions, engage others, and guide performance.
It doesn’t always go as planned, as we’ve all discovered throughout our own
experiences in leadership transitions. Over time, we come to observe common traps
as well as timeless tactics of leaders in transition, knowing that even though the most
successful leaders can fall through traps, they can also discover tactics to help their
next transition.
The 50-Percent Rule
Let’s begin with a personal experience. As a manager in my first real P&L (profit and
loss) role I was fortunate to turn around an underperforming office, keep expenses
flat while growing revenue, retain valued team members and customers, and lead a
high-performing unit among a national group of offices. Passion for the work was
a key element of the cohesiveness we experienced among that team. Eventually, a
similar role beckoned elsewhere in the company—another turnaround, this time in
another country. Upon gathering with my new team for the first time, I shared my
passion for the work we do. There was a long silence, until eventually someone said,
“That’s very nice, but what are you going to do to us?” I had neglected to address the
reality that I was their fifth leader in seven years, and appeared to have close ties to
After successfully leading the client
research department, Bill was
given an opportunity to take over
a business unit. On his first national
conference call, he wanted to show
how well he had analyzed the
client-facing business. The reaction
was that Bill led the call as if he was
smarter than everyone else. With the
benefit of some quick advice, Bill
went on a road trip. His objective was
to listen, not tell, to find out what was
working well, particularly from high-
performers in each office. When he
got to the next office, he would share
positive stories from the prior office,
and use that to build on what they
wanted to share with him. Pretty soon,
Bill was versed in what really did work
across the field offices and could
apply his analytical mind to build on
that foundation
By Marc Sokol
Leadership Transitions:
Common Traps and Timeless Tactics

2. VOLUME 40 | ISSUE 1 | WINTER 2017 15
the corporate office. They were apprehensive that I was sent
there to “fix” them.
In time, I discovered how to balance what worked for me
previously with new approaches to lead this team. It was this
and many other experiences with leaders in transition that led
to what I refer to as the 50-percent rule. It goes like this: Half
of what made you successful in the past is absolutely essen-
tial to success in your next role. And half of what made you
successful in the past won’t help in your next role, and just may
get in the way of success. The thing is, no one can really tell
you which half is which!
To transition successfully, leaders have to become good
students of their own experience, and have to remain open to
adapting their own mindset and behavior.
Transition Traps
Without attending to the 50-percent rule, leaders easily fall
into any of the following transition traps:
•• The big speech
•• There’s a new sheriff in town
•• I know what good looks like
•• Get stuff done, at any cost
Trap No. 1: The Big Speech
The big speech is precisely that: trying to be so articulate early
on, tying the business and yourself into a nice bow. At the end
of the big speech, you think you’ve been clear, exhale, and go
on to the next activity. If the leader goes on a road show, de-
livering the big speech across multiple offices and teams, they
may get into a routine and pride themselves on consistency of
message. However, without considering the context of what
went on before you, or without considering the apprehension
of those listening for subtle cues, you might as well be speaking
in pig Latin. The trap is that you, the leader, mentally check
the box that you have been clear, but everyone else remains in
wait and see mode or thinks, “I’ve heard that before.”
Trap No. 2: There’s a New Sheriff in Town
Some leaders enter with the intent to be very candid about
their expectations, above all making sure everyone knows who
is now in charge. They may think they are telling people how
to be successful, as one new leader proudly announced, “I will
be the best manager in the world for high performers, and
the worst manager in the world for underperformers.” The
problem was, this leader wasn’t clear what distinguished high
from underperforming, and whenever concerned about overall
business unit performance, repeated the mantra. What this re-
ally did was drive honest conversation underground, and foster
a rumor mill about who might be in the doghouse—or worse.
Trap No. 3: I Know What Good Looks Like
Ironically, leaders can fall into this trap precisely because they
are driven by their desire to share best practices. The first
time a leader in transition offers benchmark comparisons of
how similar issues were handled at their last company, people
listen attentively. By the fourth or fifth time, the same people
discretely roll their eyes, or mentally recite the benchmark
story they have heard too many times before. At worst, they
even muse, “If it was so good there, go back!” The trap is that
leaders begin to isolate themselves from the very people they
want to work with.
Trap No. 4: Get Stuff Done, at Any Cost
Jonathan was committed to drive the change his predecessor
could not. Operationally, this business unit had more holes
in it than Swiss cheese, and Jonathan would lean on people
until change took place. He would quickly escalate issues with
vendors, threaten action, and take up his role as if he were
defending this business unit from extinction. He made prog-
ress, but also realized that it had come at the cost of creating a
reputation for being unreasonable and dismissive of those who
were also trying to get these issues resolved. Over the following
year, Jonathan worked on a campaign to rebuild his brand, re-
establish relationships, and discover ways to drive operational
excellence without alienating everyone around him.
There are any number of variations on and combinations of
these traps. Christine, a functional team leader, had tremen-
dous industry experience, was articulate, brilliant, and ambi-
tious to create a world-class team. She moved quickly to bring
in subject matter experts and repeatedly told her peers how
talented these people were, and that she would raise the cali-
ber of the organization. If others questioned her logic on any
initiative, she would openly challenge them as resistant to best
practices. She would often cite examples of her prior success.
What she failed to see is how much she demonstrated disre-
spect for the legacy and history of the organization she joined,
how she polarized her team into an ‘A team’ and ‘the rest’,
and how she had begun to wear thin on her colleagues’ sense
of partnership. As one person said, ‘We are open to better practices,
but no one wants to be told again and again that everything they did
in the past was a waste of time.” Christine, for all of her positive
aspirations, managed to fall into almost every trap imaginable.
Why Do Well-Intentioned Leaders
Fall into These Traps?
Bright, motivated, and well-intentioned, why do some leaders
still fall into these traps? Many leaders in transition are driven
by an internal agenda that shapes what they see and how they
interpret the new setting:
•• An internalized timeframe to demonstrate their transition
success, creating an elevated sense of urgency to get things
done by some arbitrary deadline, mentally established be-
fore they arrived, or whenever they believe key stakeholders
will assess if they made the right choice.
•• An intent to set standards around performance metrics or
behavior, creating an elevated concern that the inherited
team needs to up their game—or else.
•• An assumption that substantive change will be required,
in structure, strategy, or partnerships, creating an elevated
alertness for signs of resistance.
Any of these can set up a win–lose mindset for the transi-
tioning leader. Any can set up a win–lose mindset for employ-
ees as they anticipate and experience the new leader. Combine
a heightened sense of urgency—uncertainty if you have the
right team—and a readiness to plow through potential resis-

3. PEOPLE + STRATEGY16
tance, and you can anticipate one of two scenarios. Either this
is the mindset of a serial turnaround manager who intends
to get in, make change, and get out, or it’s a well-intentioned
leader who just might blindly walk into any or all of the traps
listed earlier. Table 1 shows underlying motives, which are nor-
mally strengths, but on overdrive can lead any of us to fall into
different transition traps.
Timeless Tactics for Transition
There are models of leadership transition framed around time,
tasks, strategies and agendas. It may help to think in terms of
tactics, because when you employ a set of tactics, you are more
likely to monitor what is working and adapt as you go along.
That’s the spirit of the 50 Percent Rule; it reminds you to keep
learning what works, not just push blindly ahead with what may
have worked elsewhere. Here are five tactics that work well:
•• Discover what really drives business results
•• Tailor early actions to what enables team performance
•• Find real work to test and develop the team
•• In times of transition, assess talent from a foundation of
respect
•• Anticipate and address the questions they aren’t asking you
Tactic No. 1: Discover What Really Drives Business Results
No leader is happy when they see a capable team working
hard, but still can’t hit their targets. The first tactic is to reverse
engineer the metrics. There are always multiple drivers, but
just a few often make all the difference. Learning to focus on
what really matters, and what makes it possible to impact those
drivers is key tactic early in transition.
A related approach is to target market differentiators. Den-
nis liked his new team, but saw them struggling; it was a regulat-
ed industry, where the services weren’t highly different across
competitors, and they couldn’t compete by lowering fees.
While many providers marketed themselves as trusted advisors,
Dennis saw this as a true differentiator if they could demon-
strate that promise. He and his team leaders assessed who had
these skills among their business, brought in outside expertise
to further upgrade skills, and drove this into their everyday
management coaching to increase focus and consistency.
Tactic No. 2: Tailor Early Actions to What Enables Team
Performance
I don’t know of a leader in transition who doesn’t think they
do this; the key is to tailor what you do to the greatest needs of
the team.
With each new role, Brenda gets out to the teams in the
field and focuses on discovering what makes work more diffi-
cult to accomplish, and what processes drive the team crazy.
She displays tremendous empathy for their frustrations. Her
follow up is to make it her priority to attack those issues, report
back progress, and thank the teams who raised those frustra-
tions. As you might imagine, Brenda quickly builds a brand as
a leader who fights for her people.
Tactic No. 3: Find Real Work to Test and Develop the Team
One tactic many executives use is to involve the team in some-
thing new and purposeful. Engage people to solve a pressing
challenge along with you, as this sets the stage for thinking
together, allows you to see who rises to a challenge individually
and with others, and becomes a basis for building the team.
Here is a personal story, since I too benefit from seeing other
leaders transition effectively.
Moving from a field office to a corporate leadership role
within a consulting firm, I was told to take my new team and
drive consistency across the business. Knowing the dynamics
of decentralized professionals who prize autonomy indicated
that the idea wasn’t going to get much buy-in. Having inherit-
ed a team of highly talented but independent subject matter
experts, a solution was called for to engage professionals who
rarely collaborated with each other. What would you do?
I knew that these professionals having advanced degrees,
wouldn’t take well to “training,” but might be more receptive
to the idea of attending a “Summer Institute” if it promised
some real learning and some fun. The challenge presented to
this team was the following: I would fund, and they could de-
sign and run the Summer Institute, showcasing their different
areas of expertise, IF they could organize together and create
a flow of topics on par with the best executive education pro-
grams. They could also invite some of their favorite profession-
als from the field to co-present portions of their modules with
them. Fast forward a few months, and there is a buzz across the
company: the best of the best convening for four days, peers
teaching peers, best practices being shared from across the
globe, and newly self-organized teams to continue the collabo-
ration, even virtually. I could not have been more proud of the
way this team stepped up, showed up, and became a commu-
nity.
Remember Bill, who learned to power of talking to people
across the business? It is a few years later, and he is now at the
helm, integrating an acquisition. His transition tactic this time
is to engage both sides of a newly merged business to help
define and articulate the new values and what those values
should look like in action. He is driving those values into the
brand, HR practices, and expectations of all team members.
Bill figured out how to make his transition everyone’s transition.
Tactic No. 4: In Times of Sudden Transition, Assess Talent
from a Foundation of Respect
As part of a cost consolidation and management reduction
initiative, Bonnie was about to be given a new opportunity:
One of her peers would exit the company, another would be
layered under her, and she would now lead the combined busi-
ness and, yes, she was expected to orchestrate performance
enhancement. Employees in these acquired groups don’t know
if this is this was the beginning or the beginning of the end.
How should she take up her new role, engage team members
Table 1
Common Transition Trap Underlying Motives of Falling Into This
Transition Trap
The Big Speech Vision on Overdrive
New Sheriff in Town Authority on Overdrive
I Know What Good Looks Like Intellect and Experience on Overdrive
Get Stuff Done, At Any Cost Urgency on Overdrive

4. VOLUME 40 | ISSUE 1 | WINTER 2017 17
who felt a connection to their former leaders, and rally the
larger business unit?
This is not an uncommon scenario. It helps to begin as-
suming employees are fundamentally competent and aligned
with core business values. Let the data you obtain drive your
actions, but proceed with the following filters:
•• Good people, broken process. Focus first on strategy, struc-
ture, clear priorities, and discovering processes that inhibit
performance. Listen for the barriers that keep skilled em-
ployees from being more successful.
•• Good people, wrong fit. Some employees are capable, but
a poor match for the roles they occupy. Among sales teams
we know that great hunters sometimes underperform in
account manager positions, while skilled account managers
haven’t a clue how to hunt. Move employees to roles where
they can be successful, or help them move onto a future,
even if outside the company, where they can be more suc-
cessful. Remain respectful: don’t confuse lack of capability
or fit with an assumption that they lack character or positive
intentions.
•• Poor fit with the culture and values of the company. Some
employees simply will not be in alignment with the culture
and values of the company moving forward. Perhaps they
survived until now because they performed well enough to
be excused for less attractive behaviors; perhaps they are so
attached to the past that they cannot get on board with the
future. Exit these people and exit them soon, but do so in
a respectful manner. Everyone takes notice of the respect
or lack of respect shown to people as they exit the business,
and everyone attributes that to the leader in charge.
Tactic No. 5: Anticipate and Address the Questions They
Aren’t Asking You
Assume the following questions are critical to all employees,
whether or not they state them explicitly:
•• Do you value me, my role, and understand my contribu-
tions? Employees are looking for respect and your readiness
to listen. Take the time to learn the stories of success and
what customers want from the company. By doing so, you
will be able to share examples of what you know about their
work and connect this to your vision for the business.
•• Can you make this a better place for the company, for our
business unit, and help me improve performance? Employ-
ees are looking for your vision, not just another big speech,
but an indication of your operational leadership. Where do
you intend to take this business and how? Can you recog-
nize and eliminate barriers that keep them from perform-
ing and meeting customer needs? How can they productive-
ly contribute and help in this transition?
•• How political will the transition be? We have all seen se-
nior leader transitions that are just the warm up to a series
of transitions. Expect employees to wonder how much
your transition will create a distraction from their real
work, if the business will now be consumed by dysfunc-
tional dynamics as people jockey for position, if they will
have to reapply to do the same job, and to whom they will
report. This may have much less to do with you and much
more to do with the history of transitions at the compa-
ny. Your best bet is to focus on clarity and transparency
of change, to move quickly and with consistency, and to
communicate broadly.
How High Versus Marginal Performers
Respond to Leadership Transitions
In the absence of communication, even high performers may
assume the worst possible response to the above questions and
become a retention risk.
High performers won’t worry about their own value, but
they will be attuned to how you plan to lead the business, while
expecting you to keep politics and distractions to a minimum.
They will watch to see how tolerant you are of underperform-
ers and poor middle managers. Find the high performers;
learn their stories and what keeps them and the business from
performing to full potential.
Marginal performers will have cynical conclusions in
response to these same questions, perhaps using the change
to justify lower performance. Some will fall into line and raise
their performance as you provide clarity and consistency of
expectations, and as they see others begin to follow your lead-
ership. Others will see there is no place to hide lack of perfor-
mance and find a way to move on.
Sidestep the Traps; Adapt Your Tactics
These tactics may look obvious in hindsight, but are diffi-
cult to keep in mind, certainly when feeling the urgency to
accelerate your transition. If it’s your transition, the key is to
focus yourself, make time to reflect on what has and hasn’t
worked in the past, and be alert for how this transition could
be different from anything before. Give yourself permission to
embrace the 50-percent rule, and find people who can help
you pause long enough to see what is working and what could
be different.
If you are a senior leader or business partner support-
ing someone else making a transition, your task is to coach
through curiosity—get them talking about this transition and
the ones they have been through in the past. Embrace their
insights, ambitions, and aspirations, while challenging them
to find the 50-percent rule of this transition. Above all, help
them channel their sense of urgency into a set of tactics that
allows them be the leader they really want to be.
Marc Sokol, Ph.D., is founder of Sage Consulting Resources and
executive editor of the People + Strategy journal. Marc has more than
30 years of experience in organizational effectiveness, leadership
development, and coaching, He can be reached at Marc.Sokol@
SageHRD.com
Employees are looking for your
vision, not just another big speech,
but as an indication of your
operational leadership.