Todays business markets and environments, in which organizations have to operate, are becoming increasingly more complex, disruptive and ambiguous[1].
Especially talent shortages, shorter employment and position tenure and chaos increase the number of leadership transitions that organizations have to manage in todays world[1].
Each of these leadership transitions further disrupts an organization’s operating environment and impacts organizational performance[1].
In fact, failed leadership transitions result in 20% lower employee engagement compared to successful ones[1].
And when leaders successfully transition to their new roles, there is a 90% greater likelihood that their teams will attain their three-year performance goals[1]. So, successful leadership transitions directly correlate with improved team and organizational performance.
In this blog article, I will continue to add inspiration on how you can build and expand your self-awareness as a transitioning leader to become a more effective and impactful leader.
The focus on self-awareness is critical for you to be able to adapt and weigh your personality-based strengths as a leader and your potential derailers against what is required to become effective and successful in your new leadership role[1].
So, let’s dive in.
Introducing the Leadership Transition Pizza.
In 2020, I came across a great self-assessment framework by SessionLab to build self-awareness[2].
It was called ‘Leadership Pizza’ and I have over the years in my coaching practice slightly adapted this to the so-called ‘Leadership Transition Pizza’ focused at building self-awareness in leadership transitions.
Before we become too hungry from the pizza metaphors, let’s break down how it works 🙂
The Leadership Transition Pizza is basically a reflection tool, where you can self-assess different dimensions of your leadership as a transitioning leader.
It’s an exercise you can do for yourself, with your coach, together with your own manager and HR.
Now, as you can see from figure 1 below, you can metaphorically divide your own leadership into different (in this case 8) pizza slices to illustrate critical parts of your leadership transition.
The Leadership Transition Pizza, that I have pre-cooked here consists of:
- What you value doing.
↳ This is how you believe you add value to the business and in your leadership role. The things you value spending time on and what you should value in your new leadership role.
Reflect on:
– What’s the most 3-4 value-adding activities and tasks you work on? (focus effort here)
– When do you feel you are successful in your role? (align perspectives with your manager)
Self-assessment:
Now rate yourself on a scale from 1-10 (10 is outer border of pizza slice) on how good you are at focusing your effort on the most value-adding activities, tasks and priorities. - How you spend your time.
↳ These are the things you spend your time on as a leader that changes with the new leadership role.
Reflect on:
– What do you spend most of your time on? (are these things the right things to add most value?)
– What do you want to spend more of your time on? (what can you do and how to allocate more time here?)
Self-assessment:
Now rate yourself on a scale from 1-10 on how well you are at balancing effort and prioritizing your time on the right and most value-adding things.
After already having ingested these two critical “pizza slices” of leadership transition aspects, let’s continue with the rest, which are focused on the leadership capabilities or skills needed to become successful in the role:
- Setting direction
- Delegation and empowerment
- Learning
- Coaching
- Feedback
- Compassion
These may change in terms of emphasis for your organizational context, however they are evergreen elements useful for you as you transition as a leader.
- Setting the direction.
↳ This is about creating a clear line of sight by building and clearly aligning WHAT you (your team) are to achieve and WHY and make sure this is clearly connected to the organizational intent. Then it can be cascaded. With more alignment on WHAT and WHY, the more autonomy you can grant[3].
Reflect on:
– How your own and team’s targets are aligned with that of the organization? (align with own manager)
– How you can involve your team in goal-setting and contributing to the direction
Self-assessment:
Now rate yourself on a scale from 1-10 on how clearly you’ve set the direction through alignment and communicated it clearly to your team members. - Delegation and empowerment.
↳ When the direction is clearly aligned, then it is easier to grant more autonomy in the team through delegation and thereby empowerment of your team.
Reflect on:
– How successful you are in delegating tasks in the team (combine this with your use of time)
– How do you ensure empowerment in your team without micromanaging?
Self-assessment:
Now rate yourself on a scale from 1-10 on how well you delegate and empower your team members (be honest with yourself, i.e. do you take on tasks that easily could be delegated?). - Learning.
↳ This is about building a learning culture, where you as a leader support the development and growth of your team and also put effort towards your own learning as a leader.
Reflect on:
– How do you support your team’s learning? (do you hold 1:1s, do you have development talks etc.?)
– How can you create the psychologically safe team culture where the team is safe to learn (make mistakes)?
Self-assessment:
Now rate yourself on a scale from 1-10 on how good you are in supporting a safe learning culture in the team and support your team’s learning and development. - Coaching.
↳ This is about utilizing coaching skills and open-ended questions as part of your daily leadership to help realize your team’s full potential and thereby enhance overall performance.
Reflect on:
– How do you use coaching skills as part of your daily leadership? (using what, how, when questions)
– How can you become more listening and coaching instead of guiding, offering statements etc.?
Self-assessment:
Now rate yourself on a scale from 1-10 on where you are at in terms of utilizing a coaching-like leadership style and open questions and active listening. - Feedback.
↳ This is about role modeling feedback to your team members by making feedback an integrated part of your teamwork, conversations and your own improvement as a leader.
Reflect on:
– How often do you give and ask for feedback? (giving and asking from your team and own manager)
– What can you do to make feedback a safe and important aspect of your team culture?
Self-assessment:
Now rate yourself on a scale from 1-10 on how often and how well you give and ask for feedback and how integrated feedback is in your teamwork. - Compassion.
↳ This is about your interpersonal skills as a leader in showing empathy, compassion and vulnerability, which are key parts of building trust and cohesive collaboration.
Reflect on:
– What you spend time on if a meeting is cancelled? (e.g. with the team or catching up on e-mails)
– How much do you actually know about your team members? How much do they know about you?
Self-assessment:
Now rate yourself on a scale from 1-10 on how you perceive your interpersonal skills and compassion within your leadership when it comes to your team and relations with stakeholders.
Now, we have “eaten” the whole Leadership Transition Pizza altogether and the assessment of yourself on each of these dimensions will be helpful in your transition coaching and development as a leader.
Try using this framework as part of your leadership transition to build your self-awareness, so you can develop to become an effective leader through an accelerated transition.
What’s your biggest takeaways from your leadership transition journey?
Take your next LEAP as a transitioning leader ↓
At 04:30 pm (CET), 20 Feb 2024, the next LEAP: Leadership Transition Adventure Programme begins. Here you will start your transformational journey with a 4-week *ONLINE* group coaching programme for transitioning leaders.
Limited to 3-8 participants in the group (cohort) to enable the best group dynamic and learning for you as participant.
It’s an opportunity to refine your leadership skills and gain valuable insights on how you overcome leadership transition challenges to become an effective and better leader. Secure your spot now!
Get in touch if you would like to know more about the programme.
References.
[1]SessionLab (2023) Leadership Pizza. Available at: SessionLab (sessionlab.com). (Accessed 15 November 2023).
[2]Overfield, D., Casseday, P. and Winn, B. (2023) Linking Theory + Practice: Transition Strategies to Overcome the High Cost of a New-Leader Failure. Available at : SHRM (shrm.org). (Accessed 15 November 2023).
[3]Bungay, S. (2011) The Art of Action, Ed: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, London, pp. 64-66.
Transformative Coaching & Experiential Learning by Nature:
Better Life. Leader. Team. Your thinking partner as a Coach.
ICF and EMCC Member, Vice President of the Board for EMCC Denmark.