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Don't lose your leader in the first 100 days.


Protect your investment, and do not let your leaders fail during the first 100 days.40% of Leaders failed because of wrong hiring decisions and failed onboarding. You can avoid it. Explore how.


CEO leaving the office


Hiring the right people for the right jobs at the right time is one of the most critical skills each organization needs to master to lead the way. There are many variables in selecting the right leader that needs to be balanced to make a good hiring decision. Often, a leader who brings an excellent #experience, #expertise, and #skillset is insufficient. The right personal #profile, #adherence to organization #values, unique #approach, and fit to the #culture are essential components while hiring the best candidate for the leadership role.



Once the organization arrives from Longlist to Shortlist and finally to the winning candidate, this journey does not end here.


Following the latest research, 40% of hired leaders fail during the 100 days. How can this be possible? How can a leader fail, especially after a rigorous hiring process?



Wrong hiring and (or) poorly designed onboarding are the most frequent reasons for the fail.


The price for a leader's failure is high. The failure of a leader brings high #costs for an organization, and it has a #reputation issue. The organization can quantify the costs associated with a "failed leader." The price usually includes direct and indirect costs. Direct costs may consist of hiring costs, #relocation or housing #expenses, a leader's #salary package and #benefits, and other related costs. Indirect costs include, for example, the impact on #revenue, #customer #satisfaction, #loss of clients, brand #reputation, financial #performance, downtime in management, organizational #culture, impact on employee #engagement, and #attrition. The costs of "missed opportunities" can also be included in the "price for failure." For example, if the leader's mission was to expand the company in a new market or drive M&A, or business transformation, or other similar scenarios.



Luckily, you can prevent these fails.


The first line of avoiding failures like these is to partner with an experienced advisor who can help you #attract and #hire the best fitting candidate and help you to #integrate your new leader. The best results come when you partner with the advisor on a long-term basis. Long-term cooperation with external advisors brings valuable benefits. The advisor knows your organization's #culture, its specifics, key #stakeholders, and #challenges your organization faces. The consultant is also familiar with the way of work that is typical for your organization. It will help the advisor better calibrate the profile on the external market and introduce you to the best-fitting shortlist.

A professional advisor can thoroughly evaluate everything necessary: #capabilities, #competencies, #skills, #experience, #behaviors, #personal #characteristics of the leader, and the #adherence to your #values.



How to avoid failed hires?


Make an informed hiring decision - based on available data and using professional tools that can help you avoid wrong hiring decisions. Following our research, many leaders failed in this stage. They report that they decided based on their #gut #feeling they had during the interview. They were impressed by excellent candidate storytelling, impressive CV & social network profile. It was not enough for a quality evaluation of the candidate and resulted in a bad hire.


Survey shows that #successful #hiring has certain features in common. Hiring a leader in the external market on your own is a risky business. You may be a strong networker with robust connections. #Attracting and #hiring of #leaders requires specific expertise, knowledge, and experience. An advisor's job is to understand the market and specific industry deeply; perfectly knowing who is who; nurture long-term relations with the market and industry leaders and experts; master techniques in attraction, evaluation, and hiring leaders with proven results. They can share their knowledge and expertise with you. Help you challenge the status quo, provide #unbiased professional #opinions on candidates, #deliver complex #data on the #market and #candidates, design a rigorous and transparent selection framework, and navigate you through. They ensure that you can make a good hiring decision based on data. Once you hire the best-fitting leader, it is vital to crafting a first 100 days onboarding program.



Asia female consultant advising to afro American and Caucasian clients



The first 100 days are critical for each leader. Expectations from the new leader are always high.


However, without a structured integration program, it isn't easy to meet new expectations. Several factors influence the success of the integration period. Among the most important are: To manage expectations on all sides. To set up #clear, #transparent, and #measurable #KPIs for the first 100 days. Help new leaders to understand how the company operates – what is the way of working. Create an #opportunity for the leader to meet and understand key stakeholders' expectations. Provide all necessary information to a new leader to understanding the #connection and the #context: market – company goals – resources – people – trust - organizational culture, and others.


Avoid one size fits all onboarding program.


According to our surveys, failed leaders report that their onboarding was more like one size fits all two-day intensive training. In some cases, it took two weeks to get access to company systems due to over-process and rigid organizational structure. Most of the leaders report that they felt lost in the new company, with little to no support. It frequently led to frustration and finally in leaving the leader in the first 100 days.


Accelerate leader journey to successfully integration

60% of successful onboarding were #structured and #tailored #programs with a "buddy " or other support by the team and tools. It significantly helped to accelerate the integration and performance of a leader and protected the client's investment. Successful integration programs target broader key areas. They have multiple touchpoints with stakeholders with frequent feedback and checkpoints, which serve as an "indicator" of a possible leader's failure.


Selecting a good advisor and placing appropriate onboarding can #protect your #investment and help your leader #integrate #better and #achieve #performance faster.

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