In today’s rapidly changing work environments, it is more important than ever to invest time into onboarding new leaders. Effective onboarding is crucial for leader success, yet many organizations fail to provide adequate support. Leadership transitions in these complex atmospheres can be challenging, and Nebo has strategies that can help.
In a previous webinar titled, Onboarding New Leaders in Today’s Fast-Moving Workplace, Nebo CEO and Founder, Kate Ebner, touches on the challenges and opportunities organizations have when managing those transitions.
Below is a summary of key takeaways, as well as a link to access the on-demand version if you’d like to watch it in full:
Current Trends Impacting Onboarding:
- Leaders face a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment.
- Employees are experiencing restlessness and burnout, prompting a search for meaning in their work.
- The workplace is evolving with hybrid models, requiring leaders to adapt quickly to new dynamics, anticipate crises, and balance short-term execution with long-term vision.
Onboarding Challenges:
- Challenges for leaders and organizations include distributed teams, hybrid workplaces, burnout, economic volatility, and social unrest.
- Research shows 40-50% of new executives fail or leave within 18 months due to poor onboarding and cultural misalignment.
Best Practices for Onboarding:
- Onboarding should be a strategic, long-term process (12-18 months), not just orientation.
- Clear roles and responsibilities, periodic check-ins, mentorship, communication strategies, and stakeholder mapping
- Frequent feedback (formal and informal) and open-ended coaching questions to support leaders.
Addressing cultural norms and practices to reduce failure rates.
Importance of Including Coaching in Onboarding:
- Coaching helps leaders navigate culture, build relationships, establish teams, and create action plans.
- Coaches act as strategic sounding boards, offering confidential support and guidance.
- Team coaching can help align the leader and team, fostering trust and collaboration.
Evaluation of Onboarding Success:
- Evaluate onboarding success through leader performance, retention rates, and team satisfaction.
- Address mismatches early with specific feedback and performance comments.
If you would like to access the on-demand version of the webinar, click here or the button below.
Onboarding new leaders should be considered a long-term investment, critical to leader success and organizational stability. Nebo has found that coaching and structured onboarding programs can significantly improve both the leader’s experience and their performance as they integrate into the organization.
If you are interested in learning more about the Nebo Leadership Academy and the offerings available now to you and your team, click here, or the button below, and a team member will contact you.