Bosses need some handholding too

Ramkumar’s excitement was palpable. He had been promoted as CEO of a medium-sized industrial coatings business, a division of a large concern engaged in adhesives and paint intermediaries. Ten years after joining, he had headed the sales division for four years. The latest promotion was a big achievement for someone without a formal background in management.

I asked him what was uppermost in my mind: how he was preparing for the position. He was puzzled. “Nothing special really,” he replied. “I explored the internet, looked for CEO role descriptions and I picked the one that appeared the most well written.” Surely your boss sat you down, explained the challenges and helped you settle in, I said. No, was the prompt response.

What a way to get into a new role! No conscious support, no briefing sessions, no mentor, no transition coaching. Everything left to the individual. Over the next few weeks, I scouted around, talking to managers, including CEOs, HR heads, new promotees to senior roles: the story that unfolded was not very different from that of Ramkumar.

Transitions, one could argue are the raison d’etre of business organisations — they bring life and vibrancy to individuals and to the organisation, as they meet a very important human (psychological) need for growth. Imagine for a moment a workplace that does not offer such movement; it surely will be boring and dull which in turn will trigger further downward movement, enough to challenge the very survival of the organisation in the long term.

Now, what sort of transitions do we see in businesses? Very many! For example, an individual contributor becoming a first-time manager, who has the additional charge of managing a team; it could be in sales, expansion of responsibility with new geography being added; a manufacturing head taking on the responsibility of total operations of a business that brings with it other functions such as quality, engineering and so on; a shift from being the head of a business for one type of product to another, with a larger and global presence; it could be from one function to another (sales to marketing or to supply chain) and so on and so forth.

Let us relate this to the dilemmas that Ramkumar could face: While he is well versed with the selling part of the business, his major challenges in the new role could well be in other functions such as manufacturing, supply chain and/or finance. As sales head, he was asking for service, quality and low cost, bearing in mind his customers, but in the elevation he becomes an orchestrator of the business charged with growth and profitability! It’s a radical change in role and demands, it’s something new that he needs to master and grow. The moot question is: Can this journey or the discovery be left just to the individual? Surely not.

But then, why do businesses and business leaders pay such scant respect to this aspect? Businesses do not deal with new machinery or a new acquisition or a new line of credit this way. Then why is the “all important and most valuable asset” left to figure things out on his/her own. After all, when transitions are not handled effectively, it is the business that suffers over the longer term. As with many things in life, the practice or lack of it defies logic and understanding.

Surely, businesses and business and HR leadership need to get a better grip of career transitions, from the move to first-time manager to the most senior leadership role in the business — everything needs to be managed by design and not left to the default mode. It needs careful choreography and someone senior in the business should be made responsible for leading and managing successful transitions. It can’t be left to chance. Only then will new leaders of the future become more effective and successful. A new mindset beckons.

The writer is chairperson of the Management Development Centre of LIBA, Chennai, and an executive coach

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