Be it a promotion, new hire, change of role or a change in business dynamics, transition is one of the key reasons why organizations hire coaches. Strengthscape has been extensively engaged in Executive-level Coaching from the last couple of years and one of the major projects we have done in coaching is to help executives' transition into the next or new role. Few organizations opt for transition coaching to help their C1 level executive employees to adapt to the role in the initial but critical days. Getting into that hot seat, right at the top, can be quiet discomforting and therefore, support at this stage is imperative. However, many organizations are still doing very little to help their executives in this transition phase.
Transition may not sound that difficult when viewed from outside. Then, why need transition coaching? Often organizations fail to enhance the new executive’s credibility, create a brand for them and leave them in their new role to build important relationships, their sponsors and champions from scratch. They are expected to initiate major changes in the business without being completely equipped to do so. It could also be simple shift from a traditional, India-specific to a more global role that the executive may be ill-equipped with. In the process, there are certain leaderships skills that they are required to unlearn and then learn new skills that will help them to manage the multitude of demands placed on them.
Research states that organizations incur higher costs because executive level hires fail to fulfill their roles during their first year. For instance, when an executive is moved from one Line of Business (LoB) to another, surely this transition process will have new challenges which cannot be handled using the same techniques that worked for the previous LoB. This is exactly where a transition coach can come to the rescue. Transition coaching helps executives cope with these demands by helping them to decipher the complexity of the new role, organizational dynamics and the business environment to outline the way forward for them.
Transition Coaching is different from the Executive Development or Leadership Development Coaching we provide. One of the major differences is that of having an SME involved in the former form of coaching. Someone who has been there, done that would be able to provide better insights in the coaching journey. The Transition Coach has high business acumen, knowledge of the market and trends, and can work with a structured methodology.
The coaching journey is time bound – duration ranges from 6-9 months. In this 6-9 months, Strengthscape’s Transition Coach will help the executive to create an action plan, develop insights by asking critical questions, provide various templates to work with – all these that will eventually help the coachee transition into the new role. We recommend starting the transition coaching journey as early as possible. A lot of our clients start the journey as a preparation before getting promoted or starting the new role. Post being in the new role, a couple of sessions are held later to track progress and make course corrections if any.