This was one of the many practical pieces of advice that came out of a panel of Global CHROs I had the privilege of interviewing late last year. All had recently undertaken a new CHRO role and were generously sharing their reflections from their transitions. The webinar was organized on the back of a piece of research completed earlier in the year exploring CHRO transitions.
The shared experience was that when you are new in role / organization you have a fresh perspective to see things that are not right. This fresh perspective is one of the benefits you bring to the organization early in your role, even if you have been promoted internally. However, once you have been in your new role for several months, some of these ‘not right things’ will start to seem ok or worse still ‘right’. You will acclimatize and start to adopt the shared view of ‘the way things are done around here’.
A little like the boiling frog analogy, the longer you are there the more likely you will start to see things like the rest of the organization, and in doing so you may miss crucial opportunities to maximize your impact.
So the advice is – start making a list from day 1 of things that are not right, are questionable or that you can immediately see need improving / changing. Then, at times during your first 3/6/12 months revisit the list and make decisions at that point on which improvement will generate the biggest bang for your buck. Don’t wait until it all looks normal.
To read the article on CHRO transitions click here
Leadership Transitions 