Leading After Your Predecessor Fails

Harvard Business Review

5 days ago

Leading the company was never Julie's* career aspiration. A longtime employee of an advertising firm, she'd grown significant management skills and felt confident within her high-profile operations roles. But when the board's external hire for the top job could not adapt to the company's unique culture and pace, the chair turned to Julie to step up.
Being promoted to lead after your predecessor fails is often anything but a victory lap. In fact, a 10-year longitudinal research project on executive transitions by consulting firm Navalent found that more than 50% of executives who 'inherit a mess' fail within their first 18 months on the job.
As executive coaches to seasoned leaders, we've worked with many who have rapidly stepped into top roles. Succeeding after your predecessor fails demands an entirely different leadership approach.
Prepare to be surprised.
Time and again, we've seen that when an internal leader is promoted to replace a failed predecessor, the situation is always more broken than they knew.
Just a week into her new role, Julie was stunned to see financial data she hadn't been exposed to in her previous position. She was caught off guard as trusted relationships began to shift and key business infrastructure she once believed was solid proved unstable. As she confided in one of us (Darcy), she feared that the role's demands might be beyond her capabilities and that failure could have lasting consequences for her career.
In the best of times, leading at senior levels requires a degree of mental fortitude and emotional labor. Preparing yourself that the state of the business, culture and operations is likely worse than you already know will help you remain steady as the truth unfolds.
Accelerate reflection.
Many times, we've found that organizations in trouble haven't invested the time to step back and examine the assumptions and beliefs that created the problems they see today. Getting to a well-rounded picture of the issues—and publicly acknowledging them—can help streamline action plans and move faster. Ask yourself:
What's broken in the system that my predecessor could not fix?
Do we have a competency issue, a communication issue, or a control issue?
If we were starting over, free of past assumptions, how would we approach things today?
What stakeholders need to hear from me more often?
How much time do I have before a small fire becomes a crisis?
What internal and external support do I need to make sure I meet my goals while serving the broader organization's goals?
Don't delegate—dig in.
When faced with a business challenge, executive leaders are commonly advised to delegate. However, a turnaround demands that leaders dive in, apply their experience and judgement, and restore confidence so that what they eventually delegate is aligned with where they need to go.
John*, a newly promoted bank COO who one of us (Jordan) coached, was astounded at how much was broken in the organization he inherited. With the clock ticking to fix major problems, it was clear that his 30,000-foot leadership style was not going to work. Instead, he took the reins and interviewed people deep into the organization to understand core bottlenecks and operational issues. As a result, he let several leaders go and tightly managed hiring and retention until he saw evidence that critical issues were repaired. After that, he shifted back to a strategic leadership style and built a team that could execute the work in the newly improved frameworks.
Be honest in communicating what needs fixing and where you're going.
When a failed leader departs, people are naturally nervous about what's next. They wonder whether the ship can be righted, or whether the situation is beyond repair.
To retain your best employees amid this uncertainty, you'll need to transparently acknowledge the current state of the business and share your vision for an inspiring yet believable future state.
Don't blame your predecessor. Though it may be tempting to express frustration about the previous leader, you'll lose credibility and damage trust with your team. Stay focused on moving forward and vent to external confidants, mentors, or an executive coach when you need to.
Use the power of 'and.' The word 'and' allows us to align two seemingly separate thoughts: Things are difficult, and things will be okay. For example, your recovery story may be 'Our business results have been dropping over the last year and we now have an excellent plan to turn things around. I'm looking forward to celebrating with you at the end of the year.'
Don't be afraid to repeat yourself. During difficult times, people need to hear your core message many, many times to believe it's true. Repetition creates consistency and helps people build trust with the new direction. Resist getting bored with your own words and changing them up. One CEO Jordan coached posted his three core messages on his phone to remind him to repeat them in every situation. And one of Darcy's clients set up multiple notifications during the day to keep the core message top of mind—and to reinforce his own belief that they'd reach the goals.
Make sure your team is having the right conversations.
Before she unexpectedly became CEO, Julie sat on her senior leadership team. So how was she so out of the loop about the company's dire situation?
After a few months of reflection, Julie realized that the so-called leadership 'team' was not a team at all, but a siloed collection of individual leaders. 'Leadership meetings' had become recitations of each person's to-do list, rather than a collective taking action on the firm's biggest goals, threats and opportunities.
To counter this, Julie instituted a set of facilitated quarterly offsite meetings intentionally designed to connect her leaders to a set of broader company challenges—and to connect them to each other. By providing this space to tackle strategic issues, her team came together and began to own the success of the business as a whole.
In addition to strong team collaboration, it's always critical to ensure you have the right leaders in the seats to participate in strategic conversations. If sub-par performance has been tolerated, even in just one part of the business, the organization will not function at its best. If leadership changes need to be made, make them quickly.
Be patient with yourself.
When John stepped into the COO role, he set a goal to meet with employees across every part of the business within his first 90 days. It seemed like a strong plan, but within the first month, urgent crises demanded his attention. Determined to stick to his schedule, he pushed himself to the brink, losing sleep and becoming exhausted.
It can be tempting to try to address every glaring issue all at once, but that just isn't possible. Organizational breakdowns didn't happen in a day; they can't be fixed in a day. We both have seen ambitious and well-intentioned leaders expect too much of themselves, being unrealistic with their own capacity. Following a failed leader is hard, and the last thing the company needs is for you to fail, too. Self-care is a leadership must, scheduled into the overall plan rather than treated as an afterthought.
. . .
Julie and John are just two examples of leaders who successfully used these strategies after stepping into roles previously held by failed predecessors. However, many others struggle—some remain stuck, prolonging their challenges, while others are replaced by frustrated boards. Worse still, some burn out quickly in what was supposed to be their dream job.
These outcomes are avoidable. By embracing the above practices, leaders can navigate transitions more effectively and get their organizations back on track for good.