Creating change through catalysts?
Set them up for success to avoid the team turning against them.
Hello from the air! I’m on my way down south for a few days some winter sun. I usually avoid airplane wifi at all costs but was late finishing up last week’s post and didn’t want to hold it back - so you’ll get two posts this week!
Also shout out to my newest subscribers! We hit 100 last week and want to extend a big thank you to all of you that are supporting me on this writing journey.
I started this newsletter as:
a forcing function for my creative process,
to give those that are interested a behind the scenes look into living the life of a C-level advisor. I
It’s been cathartic to have a space to playback what I am seeing / hearing in my work and hope that you as a reader get something from it.
Remember, I’m human and want to hear from you! Tell me what you like, want more of and what what you think.
Leadership isn’t straightforward. Never has been and it definitely never will.
Why?
Because people are unpredictable, emotional and inconsistent.
If there is one thing I can assure you, is that you are not alone. I’ve been intentionally industry and role agnostic so that I can see patters across all my clients and the conversations I have with a start-up founders can often sound a lot like the challenges facing a CMO in a legacy business.
We are just people, trying to lead people, through change.
So here’s a review of a pattern I have seen enough times that I thought I’d share so you can avoid it.
Here it goes:
A CEO (or insert and leader) gets the sense that their culture has become complacent and needs a shake up and they hire someone to do just that. Here’s how it plays out:
Day 0
The Hire
So this new hire is told in interview by the CEO that they really want them to come in and shake up the team. “Do what you have to do”. The CEO even speaks down about the team in front of new hire “They’ve been comfortable here.”
The Team
Are unaware that they are being spoken about in this way and have not been informed of the problem.
Day 1-30
The Hire
Having the backing from the CEO they come in hot. Looking for all the clear inefficiencies, passing judgement, speaking in a tone that ‘they know best’.
The Team
Taken a back at first from the brazen attitude of the hire, as this doesn’t seem to ‘fit’ in but they respect the CEO and therefor give them the benefit of doubt.
Day 30-90
The Hire
They keep pushing and keep getting pushed by CEO. They have been given ‘carte'-blanche’ to make change happen. They are focused purely on results (not necessarily getting them) and the ends justify the means. They have started to erode relationships and are quickly losing rapport with team members (not that they have made an effort to do so). Essentially, they are starting to become an island.
The Team
Shaken by the behaviours of the new hire, they start to raise red flags. First to CEO who brushes it off, as in their mind, this is about culture change and of course they won’t like it. So they start to raise to HR. Nothing the person has done is so out of line that it would cause a grievance but how they are treating the team are so out of character to the culture they are used to.
Day 90+
The Hire
Now completely isolated from their team they start to look for allies in the business. They’ve had casual feedback from CEO about toning it down, but nothing formal or in writing (!!!!!!). They are frustrated that they can’t get things done (because people won’t collaborate with them) and their reputation is being spread across the business.
The Team
Feeling like they aren’t getting heard they are on a vendetta to getting this new hire out. They don’t make their lives easy and have no respect for them. This shows up in meetings that are tense and behaviours that are abrasive. The results are not showing up and worst of all the CEO is constantly being distracted by the mess this has created.
Within 12 months the Hire is fired.
My two cents:
Well for starters, I think they should have been fired in the first 3 months, but that’s another post.
Listen, I am a big believe in culture change hires (it’s a big part of what I do!) but it’s not a simple as that. It’s a process that needs to be managed and as a leader, you have to be hands on to set them up for success.
I’m going to call out that if your culture is complacent, then its a reflection of your leadership in one way or another. So outsourcing the problem is not going to work without some internal change as well.
They aren’t there to do your dirty work.
It’s a team effort.
It doesn’t matter how good the hire is, a culture won’t change if your leaders aren’t changing. FACTS. FULL STOP. This is the hill I will die on.
You can’t ask from others what you won’t ask of yourself and your leadership team. As a C-level leader, lean into having difficult conversations with the team and bring them along on the change journey. Be clear with your expectations AND what they will notice you will be doing differently as well. Give them a vision of what the new culture should look like and why they should want to come on board.
Lead with diplomacy.
Be transparent with the new hire and the team what they are their to do. Ruffling feathers is part of the process but not when the person is rude.
Two sides to this coin:
Don’t be complicit by not calling out the new hire when they are out of bounds
Don’t be complicit by listening to complaints the team have about new hire because they don’t like the ‘style’ (assume style is appropriate)
Although tempting to lean into a peer and vent your frustrations about your team's lack of performance, avoid speaking disparagingly about the team to a new hire that is about to lead them. It’s now a good look for you.
You can be honest but don’t throw them under the bus. They are the conditions of your leadership, so reflect on how you may have set them up to get where they are and how you’d like to work with the new hire to shift it.
Hold back your excitement.
Don’t give away the ‘keys to the castle’ to the new hire until you are sure they know what to do with them. Often I’ll see C-suite make big hires and basically just hand over the whole department without any proper handover or onboarding. This always ends in a big waste of time and lack of output.
However, you may see a spike of output, but only really celebrate when that output is consistent and no serious HR grievances have been made in the process.
Hiring catalysts for culture change does work if they are set up for success, and a key component of that success is they build rapport with the team. If they can’t connect with the team they will struggle to lead them, let it be known that this is a metric of their success.
Give then space to understand.
Ask them to hold back judgement until they play back a review of their observations. They need to be brought up to speed on context as soon as possible so that they can be effective.
Give feedback to the new hire as it comes in, and documented it PLEASE. ‘Being rude’ is not enough legal grounds to fire someone and if you haven’t made them aware then they might have a case against you.
Fire FAST.
Avoid going around saying they are ‘the fix’, ‘the answer’ the white knight until AFTER 30 days. Hold it back. A CEO will go around lauding the new hire before they have even started are then unable to accept they aren’t working (as their ego doesn’t want to accept they have made a bad hire) and continue to push a square peg in a round hole.
There is no such thing as a white knight hire without a great onboarding plan around them.
There is no quick fix or fast solution to culture change.
We are trying to change ingrained norms and behaviours of your people. If you recognise you need to make a shift, them make it a program of work. Add it to your OKRs and get everyone involved.
It will take consistent and repetitive new behaviours over time that will get you there.
Unclear where to start? Try this exercise as apply your company as the “leadership team”.
Tell me.
When it comes to hiring for culture change - what’s worked for you?
You got this.
Gillian