Leaders in Transition
In many ways, there is nothing more normal in life than transition, whether it is physiological or psychological, whether it concerns organisations, civilisations or the ecosystem. Stability is not of this world; movement, however imperceptible, is the predominant feature - and so therefore is development, for better... or for worse.
There are, however, periods in which transitions are more pronounced. One such period is when a leader takes on a new role and its complexity and the many issues it involves are not only for the "chosen one", but also for the organisation as a whole. Although a great deal has been said and written about leadership, there have been only a few studies of the critical phase during which the leader actually begins to take charge. Leaders in Transition serves to fill this gap.
There are good reasons for wanting to explore what really goes on in the minds and in the environment of these new leaders. Firstly, as is now well known, the percentage of leaders who fail early after taking over is disproportionately high, and yet no really satisfactory explanation has been found for this. Secondly, a kind of mythology of heroism tends to gravitate around the idea of leadership, and this seems to be far removed from reality as it is actually experienced. Without going as far as the famous expression "The King is naked", it is clear that all new leaders - with varying degrees of talent, support, clear-sightedness and anxiety - have to come to terms with their new environment and to improvise from day to day when it comes to their integration, their personal mission, their legitimacy and their action in general. Rather than focus on the situation as it ought to be - as though the question itself and the solutions to it were simple enough - this book tries to understand what really takes place. It is for this reason that the focus is put in particular on the organisational context in which the leader's transition takes place and on the leader's actual experience of the transition, while attempting to identify the way in which these two interact.
This book is the result of a three year research period conducted with company executives, civil servants, human resources managers and head-hunters in several European countries. Members of the research team accompanied newly-appointed managing directors, general managers and other executives - and their staff - for periods ranging from nine to twelve months. Initially, interviews were conducted in the new leader's immediate circle: directors, middle management, subordinates, human resources managers and other executives directly concerned by the new leader's transition. The methodology also involved regularly observing these leaders as they led monthly management meetings, followed by dialogue and discussions with the new leaders and their subordinates concerning key decisions taken, the strategy being pursued, and the actions and behaviour of the new leader.
Therefore, the first part of the book focuses on the description of the lived experience of the leaders in the four case studies; each one illustrates a different (and typical) transition context: start-up, realignment, turnaround or sustaining success. The first two case studies are reported in substantial detail in order to highlight for the reader the range and complexity of the essential ingredients in the phases of all transitions, while the last two cases dwell more on the differences in context which these case studies illustrate.
By immersing him or herself in the detail of these situations, the reader will be able to draw parallels with his own experience and thus be able to appreciate the more general lessons that can be drawn. These lessons are discussed later on in terms of the "tensions" which the preceding case-studies illustrate. In choosing the concept of "tensions" to represent the conclusions, the authors avoid taking a normative stance.
Seven tensions were identified with two extreme poles for each of them:
Mission
Shake things up
Preserve
Relationship
Develop bonds
Keep distance
Reciprocity
Seek help, to learn about the organisation
Give value, by showing how to succeed or avoid failure
Decision-making style
Impose
Facilitate
Pace of change
Slow down in order to prepare
Move fast in order to
achieve results
Development dilemmas
Clean out
Develop
Loyalty
Support the team
Serve the hierarchy and /or the organisation
Each leader navigates more or less, in his mind and, possibly, in his behaviour along these poles, according to his analysis of the new situation, the objective real world pressures, his own values and his personality.
One of the interests of this book is the fact that the authors wanted to test their "model" not only with other leaders but also with the four case study leaders one year after. The reactions of all of them confirm the validity and usefulness of such tensions.
Another important output of such in-depth research is the proposition of conscious and unconscious psychological aspects of the leader in transition. Notions such as separation anxieties, the acknowledgment of indebtedness and its pitfalls, ontological security and the containment of paradoxes - and their illustrations - will be illuminating for any leader who is accepting new responsibilities.
Moreover, it could be argued that, according to the turbulence of our world, the lessons drawn from this research are valid for any member of an organisation presently exerting leadership functions.
Gilles AMADO
Gilles Amado, Ph.D., Professor of Organizational Psychosociology at the HEC School of Management, Paris, is known as an expert of transition through two books he co-edited (The Transitional Approach to Change, with A. Ambrose and The Transitional Approach in Action, with L. Vansina) published in 2001 and 2005 by Karnac and which are indebted to the close work he had been undertaking for more than thirty years with Harold Bridger, a founding member of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.
He is a founder member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations, an associate member of the Bayswater Institute and is particularly involved in action-research and consultancy in Europe and Latin America in the fields of industry, health, education, music and sport.
Richard ELSNER
A specialist consultant in leadership and transitions, Richard Elsner is Managing Director of the leadership development consultancy, The Turning Point, which supports leaders to take on demanding new roles. The Turning Point is based in the UK and has partner companies in Frankfurt and Paris. Before setting up The Turning Point, Richard was a Principal or Partner with DIA.logos, KPMG and Kinsley Lord. He is a former managing director of Pearl & Dean, and adviser to the chairman of a British plc.
Richard obtained his MBA from IMD in 1985 after devoting ten years of early career to Africa, first as head of rural development programmes for a consortium of British charities for the Sahel region, and then as Researcher for the West and Central Africa region for Amnesty International, based in London.
There are, however, periods in which transitions are more pronounced. One such period is when a leader takes on a new role and its complexity and the many issues it involves are not only for the "chosen one", but also for the organisation as a whole. Although a great deal has been said and written about leadership, there have been only a few studies of the critical phase during which the leader actually begins to take charge. Leaders in Transition serves to fill this gap.
There are good reasons for wanting to explore what really goes on in the minds and in the environment of these new leaders. Firstly, as is now well known, the percentage of leaders who fail early after taking over is disproportionately high, and yet no really satisfactory explanation has been found for this. Secondly, a kind of mythology of heroism tends to gravitate around the idea of leadership, and this seems to be far removed from reality as it is actually experienced. Without going as far as the famous expression "The King is naked", it is clear that all new leaders - with varying degrees of talent, support, clear-sightedness and anxiety - have to come to terms with their new environment and to improvise from day to day when it comes to their integration, their personal mission, their legitimacy and their action in general. Rather than focus on the situation as it ought to be - as though the question itself and the solutions to it were simple enough - this book tries to understand what really takes place. It is for this reason that the focus is put in particular on the organisational context in which the leader's transition takes place and on the leader's actual experience of the transition, while attempting to identify the way in which these two interact.
This book is the result of a three year research period conducted with company executives, civil servants, human resources managers and head-hunters in several European countries. Members of the research team accompanied newly-appointed managing directors, general managers and other executives - and their staff - for periods ranging from nine to twelve months. Initially, interviews were conducted in the new leader's immediate circle: directors, middle management, subordinates, human resources managers and other executives directly concerned by the new leader's transition. The methodology also involved regularly observing these leaders as they led monthly management meetings, followed by dialogue and discussions with the new leaders and their subordinates concerning key decisions taken, the strategy being pursued, and the actions and behaviour of the new leader.
Therefore, the first part of the book focuses on the description of the lived experience of the leaders in the four case studies; each one illustrates a different (and typical) transition context: start-up, realignment, turnaround or sustaining success. The first two case studies are reported in substantial detail in order to highlight for the reader the range and complexity of the essential ingredients in the phases of all transitions, while the last two cases dwell more on the differences in context which these case studies illustrate.
By immersing him or herself in the detail of these situations, the reader will be able to draw parallels with his own experience and thus be able to appreciate the more general lessons that can be drawn. These lessons are discussed later on in terms of the "tensions" which the preceding case-studies illustrate. In choosing the concept of "tensions" to represent the conclusions, the authors avoid taking a normative stance.
Seven tensions were identified with two extreme poles for each of them:
Mission
Shake things up
Preserve
Relationship
Develop bonds
Keep distance
Reciprocity
Seek help, to learn about the organisation
Give value, by showing how to succeed or avoid failure
Decision-making style
Impose
Facilitate
Pace of change
Slow down in order to prepare
Move fast in order to
achieve results
Development dilemmas
Clean out
Develop
Loyalty
Support the team
Serve the hierarchy and /or the organisation
Each leader navigates more or less, in his mind and, possibly, in his behaviour along these poles, according to his analysis of the new situation, the objective real world pressures, his own values and his personality.
One of the interests of this book is the fact that the authors wanted to test their "model" not only with other leaders but also with the four case study leaders one year after. The reactions of all of them confirm the validity and usefulness of such tensions.
Another important output of such in-depth research is the proposition of conscious and unconscious psychological aspects of the leader in transition. Notions such as separation anxieties, the acknowledgment of indebtedness and its pitfalls, ontological security and the containment of paradoxes - and their illustrations - will be illuminating for any leader who is accepting new responsibilities.
Moreover, it could be argued that, according to the turbulence of our world, the lessons drawn from this research are valid for any member of an organisation presently exerting leadership functions.
Gilles AMADO
Gilles Amado, Ph.D., Professor of Organizational Psychosociology at the HEC School of Management, Paris, is known as an expert of transition through two books he co-edited (The Transitional Approach to Change, with A. Ambrose and The Transitional Approach in Action, with L. Vansina) published in 2001 and 2005 by Karnac and which are indebted to the close work he had been undertaking for more than thirty years with Harold Bridger, a founding member of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.
He is a founder member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations, an associate member of the Bayswater Institute and is particularly involved in action-research and consultancy in Europe and Latin America in the fields of industry, health, education, music and sport.
Richard ELSNER
A specialist consultant in leadership and transitions, Richard Elsner is Managing Director of the leadership development consultancy, The Turning Point, which supports leaders to take on demanding new roles. The Turning Point is based in the UK and has partner companies in Frankfurt and Paris. Before setting up The Turning Point, Richard was a Principal or Partner with DIA.logos, KPMG and Kinsley Lord. He is a former managing director of Pearl & Dean, and adviser to the chairman of a British plc.
Richard obtained his MBA from IMD in 1985 after devoting ten years of early career to Africa, first as head of rural development programmes for a consortium of British charities for the Sahel region, and then as Researcher for the West and Central Africa region for Amnesty International, based in London.
By Gilles Amado
View more details for Gilles Amado
The Transitional Approach to Change
- Paperback
The Transitional Approach in Action
- Paperback
