Executive Onboarding and Coaching

The Onboarding Process

• Posted by Patrick Reilly on February 1st, 2007 filed in Executive Onboarding, Executive Assimilation, Talent Management, Emotional Intelligence, Executive Coaching, Onboarding Process

Executive onboarding or executive assimilation is becoming increasingly important in today’s marketplace. The executive onboarding process supports new executives in becoming productive quickly in their new environments. Supported by an executive coach who specializes in this area, the executive is guided through a structured process that helps her/him to focus on the right activities in the right ways during their first few months on the job so that he or she is working in concert with their boss, setting the right direction for their team and making significant progress towards the most important deliverables.

The Executive Onboarding Crisis

To enhance competitiveness many organizations are hiring new outside executives or relocating an executive from one function or geography to another location. Unfortunately, many of these new executives are not meeting corporate expectations and are often forced to leave the organization after a very short period of time. Some companies estimate a failure rate as high as a 50%.

Challenges in Executive Onboarding

Complexity coupled with speed of change often forces new leaders to need to succeed before they acquire the requisite skill set. Research from the Harvard Business Review indicates that it takes a new mid-level manager at least 6.2 months to reach the break even point even in an organization where they are a good fit and have a good chance of success. According to ExecGlobal search executive Carl Wellenstein, the actual costs incurred from poor executive selection is incalculable.

Job fit and culture fit are key success factors that significantly influence whether new hires will meet corporate expectations. The challenge is not just with senior executives; shifts in organizational size, focus and complexity are also creating more key roles for mid managers who are critical in helping companies maintain their competitive edge.

Successful Executive Onboarding

In our experience, comprehensive talent management that includes eligibility (sourcing and recruiting), sustainability (informed objective selection) and development are critical success factors in assuring executive success and assimilation. In order to aid new executives successfully engaging with the business, its customers and its people, the new executive will perform well and more quickly if she or he is actively supported in focusing on the right activities in the right ways during their initial months on the job. Clearly, a coaching program focused on successful onboarding which covers the first 3-6 months is critical to new executive effectiveness.

Our Executive Onboarding Process

Our executive onboarding coaching approach supports executives in assimilating themselves quickly and successfully into the new culture. The result: the organization gets the productivity it needs. Our program helps new leaders answer the questions, “You’re in charge, now what?” and “What is the most effective action I should take?” Our program design is simple, effective and results-oriented, so that the new executive is quickly assimilated into productive action.

Resources In Action’s 90 Day Executive Onboarding System

Day 1

• Making Connections with the Right People
• Learning Specifics of the Business
• Obtaining Clarification of Expectations
• Clarifying and Understanding Cultural Identity
• Identifying Key Job Fit Issues at this Level

Month 1

• Identifying learning priorities
• Identifying executive’s risk profile
• Identifying cultural alignment issues
• Identifying corporate job expectations and devising 90 day strategies
• Attaining clarity of relations with the boss
• Investigating team restructuring issues

Month 2

• Identifying early wins to help develop a successful job pattern
• Attaining consensus on “A” item priorities
• Finalizing 90 day job strategy
• Clarifying job expectations and resource requirements with your boss

Month 3

• Post 90 day strategy is clear
• Shared vision articulated and team engagement/alignment is agreed upon
• Action plans are in place to support execution of early wins
• Alliances are in place to support early wins
• A plan for re-structuring the team has been formulated and agreed upon with HR and Corporate
• A comprehensive plan for organizational architecture is in place
• Regular and effective communication with peers and superiors is agreed upon and implemented

For more information on the onboarding process, contact us or read recent posts in the Resources in Action blog that address Executive Onboarding.