The failure to let go of a past identity manifests itself in a variety of ways, none of them positive. Some leaders bring all the accoutrements of their prior office to their new one, causing people to disdainfully view their new digs as a mausoleum.
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The second drawback to entering a new leadership position as an insider is that you typically have less âpermissionâ to shake things up. When an insider is appointed to a new leadership position, the organization may not have the expectation that a new direction is called for. This is precisely why an insider was appointed in the first place, presumably. But change always accompanies a new leadership appointment, regardless of where the new leader is coming from. The challenge for insiders is that they may find themselves forced to behave in ways that run counter to what theyâve grown up believing - and what their colleagues expect of them.
In fact, how you treat your predecessor is so important and so easy to mishandle, we have determined that it is one of the top traps for new leaders and have therefore elaborated on the dynamic in Chapter 8.
Our view is that in most cases reaching out to and embracing the predecessor is the better approach. That way you can sustain a sense of continuity within the organization, instill a sense of connectivity, and learn the critical unwritten information that the previous CEO has amassed over the years.
Thatâs especially important when youâre succeeding a legendary leader who has built up tremendous loyalty. Having your predecessor confer his or her official blessing on you can help transfer that loyalty - or at least prevent it from turning into resentment.
Even though itâs crucial for a new leader to show that he or she fits into the culture and âgetsâ it, the paradox is that you donât want to settle in too comfortably if the culture needs modification. But of course, changing a culture is never as simple as ordering it to be so, especially if the organization is very proud of its traditions. And what organization isnât?
When you go through that degree of structural change,â Lacy adds, âin hindsight it turned out to be more of an opportunity for cultural change than I thought. We disoriented people so much that we couldnât go back; things were so different that people lost most of their reference points, so they couldnât regress to the old ways because there was nothing remaining to regress to. In fact, we could accelerate the pace of change and make the change stick better.