The Hindu Business Line : For a successful transition

Expatriate managers need twice the amount of time for the transition phase as managers who take a new leadership role within their home countries, writes Peter Fischer in The New Boss: How to Survive the First 100 Days ( www.vivagroupindia.com). “This difference is due not only to the fact that it takes considerably longer for expatriates to find their bearings in the foreign setting, but also to the expe ctations of the new setting.”

Such expectations can come in many forms. “The invitation to dinner in France, the welcome party in the US, and the first cordial conversations in Japan – they are all rituals of relationship building that are not to be blithely ignored,” counsels the author. “If the expatriate does not take these rituals seriously and instead gets straight down to business, local managers are likely to take offence and the business relationship will suffer as a result.”

Few executives have longer than three years to make their contributions felt, observes the preface. “Indeed, many barely have 18 months.” Gone are the days when predecessors overlapped with the new candidate to ease the handover, says Fischer. “Instead I find many new managers finishing assignments in one role at the same time as starting the new one.” Managing leadership transition is crucial, he says, because “each change costs approximately two-and-a-half times the newcomer’s annual salary.”

The book discusses ‘the seven building blocks’ of successful transition: managing expectations, building key relationships, analysing the situation, clarifying objectives, creating a climate for change, initiating changes, and using symbols and rituals.

Begin, therefore, with a quick check: Do you know what your bosses expect of you? The answer is sadly a ‘no’ in most cases. “Many managers fail to ask the simplest things, such as important milestones and the criteria for success in their new position,” rues Fischer.

Compulsory read before you accept the next new assignment.

D. Murali

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