In today's era of increasing activist investors and boards, a heightened focus on fast results is making the first few months for new corporate leaders feel more like a trial by fire than a honeymoon.
"Boards are more willing to toss people out and [are giving CEOs] a much shorter leash," says Michael Watkins, author of The First 90 Days and a former Harvard Business School and INSEAD professor. "Many senior executives feel they have a much shorter time frame to prove themselves."
Executive search firms, leadership coaches, and consultants are building specialized "executive onboarding" services to add to their client offerings. Onboarding, as the name implies, helps new managers get a running start through coaching that assists them with detecting cultural nuances, accelerating strategic plans, and navigating the personality mine fields of their new teams. The term is also now used to describe orienting new hires.
For some of the biggest search firms, onboarding is part of a trend toward providing broader leadership assessment, development and coaching services. At a time when CEO failure rates are running at 40%, helping executives "stick" makes sense.
Source: BusinessWeek, February 5, 2007
What happens when attempt to take on a new leadership position without a personal onboarding coach?