Boosting organisational performance: the story of Karen

How long does it take before a senior exec is delivering what was expected whilst staying fit and healthy at the same time? Three months, six months a year maybe? When I asked a few Chief Human Resource Officers a few weeks ago they all tended to agree on something between 4-8 months. And if you could speed that up with 3-4 months? And maybe reach a higher performance level as well?  Without working harder and longer?  Can it be done?  Read the story of Karen.

Karen was recruited 2 levels below the C suite after a 15 year career in several finance roles in different countries. It was a great opportunity for her that came at exactly the right moment. Her position was transferred to the HQ at a different continent. For a number of reasons Karen had decided not to follow. Within a couple of months something too good to be true landed on her doorstep.  After a few interviews it became clear that she was the ideal candidate. As an outsider from a different but related industry she would bring different perspectives on the business model. Her strategic insights were creative, innovative and would complimentary to the rest of the senior team. And next to this, as the age distribution in the finance community was rather skewed towards retirement age, the 45 year old was a potential candidate to take a top position in a few years. Karen felt excited about joining a different industry with a lot of potential, a different professional environment and different people to work with. What could go wrong?

Nightmare 
The first couple of weeks were an absolute nightmare.  Although the team were nice and supportive, there were no hidden disasters; Karen felt she was totally caged and isolated. She is good observer and equipped with strong analytical skills and creativity. After a few weeks she wanted to share and express here ideas about the several business models, strategic direction, how employees were behaving, and what clients were telling her but there was no opportunity and forum to do this. The cultural and political climate also turned out to be more ambiguous than expected.

The introduction program didn’t help either. It was clearly targeting shop floor and middle management personnel. Karen found the programme a great opportunity to learn and understand what was going on at these levels but felt pretty isolated. She was the only SVP in that group which made everybody silent when she made comments or asked questions. And Karen had tons of ideas, observations that she wanted to share. It became worse when she had found out that the company had two other new hires of the same level.  From rumours and hearing him bragging about his achievements in the past she concluded that at least one of them was also on a fast track scheme to the CFO position. That was not how her career path was presented to her. When she asked her boss she was vague and unsure ‘but would ask HR to clarify’.  Which they did. And as always the situation was again very different than what she had perceived until now. Karen is the type who fights to make things better. Not just for herself but also for the organisation she worked for. Together with the CHRO she used her very bad experiences to design an OnBoarding programme 100% tailored towards the needs of senior executives. Here are three of the many best practices they have put in their framework.

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