Hitting the Ground Running:
Accelerating Executive Integration

The level of change in organizations continues to accelerate and the scrutiny of the markets has never been greater. For the newly hired executive, the honeymoon period is fleeting. Organizations are impatient around their ability to make something happen quickly, and there is less accommodation for early mistakes. This puts intense pressure on a new executive to come into the organization and hit the ground running. Despite this, organizations do little to increase the odds of a new executive's successful entry and integration. The purpose of this research was to drill down into the process of executive integration and determine what people and organizations can do to facilitate and accelerate the process. Organizations and individuals often regard integration as the other's responsibility. At RHR International, we believe a new executive's success is due to the actions of both.

A description of the research

The research consisted of both an online survey and in-depth interviews with over 100 participants from Canada and the United States. Multiple industries and functions were represented. Participants ranged from senior-level managers to CEOs. Included were newly hired executives, longterm employees, human resource representatives, search consultants and executive coaches.

What is integration?

The process of transitioning into an organization is complex and involves at least four different components of success:

• credibility,
• alignment,
• acceptance, and
• contribution.

To be credible, people need to see the executive as bringing relevant knowledge and skills to the organization. People seek out their opinion and trust their decisions. Second, there needs to be alignment between the individual's plans and actions and the organization's goals. The third component is mutual acceptance—people treat them like they are part of the organization and they identify with the organization. Finally, integration is not successful if the executive is not achieving results and making a significant contribution.

How long does integration take?

Integration takes longer than people think it will. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed felt it took longer than they expected. And while organizations want integration to take 6 months or less, it typically takes 9 to 18 months.

Factors contributing to successful integration

Factors contributing to successful integration are categorized into three components: role, relationship and culture. The research suggests failing to attend to any one of these will lead to derailing.

1. Role challenges and strategies for success. Senior roles are complex and often difficult to define. For the new executive, making sense of a new role can be challenging. At the same time, 94% of those surveyed stated that role clarity and an understanding of the boss' expectations for the role are important to success. To achieve clarity requires the executive to understand the mandate and expectations, identify key issues and priorities, define deliverables and measures, and learn where their territory ends and someone else's begins. Finally, there is the challenge of translating knowledge and experience into results in a new context, with a new team of people. Assuming that what has led to success in the past will guarantee success in the present can be fatal.

There are a number of things he or she can do to ensure successful integration into the new role.

• Do sufficient research up front.
• Be prepared to quickly adjust expectations.
• Clarify the role. This includes mandate, areas of responsibility, boundaries, expectations, deliverables, etc. This can only be accomplished through active participation of the executive's boss and other key partners.
• Define success for this role and this organization.
• Find a quick win that the organzation values and at which the new executive can succeed.

2. Relationship challenges and strategies for success. Walking into a new organization can be daunting. One of the biggest challenges is quickly developing trust and respect with key constituents. A second challenge is finding people in the organization who are willing to help them integrate—those who will answer questions, help them interpret what they are seeing and hearing, and provide good advice and counsel. The new executive can do the following to facilitate successful integration into the social structure of the organization:

• Assess ability to get along with key people prior to joining.
• Avoid open criticism of the organization.
• Go broad and deep. Look for people who are well connected and have them help make introductions.
• Forge deep relationships with key stakeholders before he or she needs to rely on them.
• Be seen as actively and deliberately listening.
• Seek feedback to measure intentions versus impact.

3. Culture challenges and strategies for success. The third critical factor is learning about and adapting to the culture. The research helped to hone in on some of the most challenging aspects of culture for the new executive. The first is to learn the norms and values—what is important to the organization and how people behave. The second is to learn the decision-making and political environment. Third, is to learn how things actually operate and to effectively get things done. Finally, once the new executive has some understanding of the culture, he or she must walk the fine line of being different, but not so different as to be rendered ineffective. What did not emerge as a key integration challenge is understanding organizational structure, systems, and policies—the more formal face of the organization.What really matters is the informal face. Strategies that have proven successful include:

• Know your own style and how it compares to the environment you are in.
• Get involved in real work as quickly as possible.
• Seek multiple points of view.
• Seek out advisors.
• Recognize that to adapt will require a degree of change on the part of the new executive.

The new executive doesn't operate in a vacuum. Only by understanding the role, knowing the people and adapting to culture will they achieve credibility, alignment, acceptance, and be able to make a significant contribution. These factors are highly related, with each being necessary but not sufficient, for successful integration.

Organizational support for integration

The best advice we can give to executives is to take responsibility for their own integration because they won't get much help from their organizations. While 72% of survey participants were satisfied with their own efforts to integrate, only 39% were satisfied with their organization's efforts to integrate them.

Many companies assume that putting the right person in the right job is the end of integration. This is proven wrong time and time again. Orientation programs designed to expose the new executive to policies, systems, and processes are popular, but seen as least important to successful integration. By contrast, the opportunity to interact with people in the organization was seen as key to integration. It was also cited as one of the most difficult things for the new executive to accomplish independently. By failing to attend to integration as carefully as it does to the selection of the new executive, the organization is leaving much to chance.

Given the demands on the new executive, and the costs of delayed or failed integration, accelerating integration is of critical importance. Few organizations pay any close attention to how they can enhance and accelerate the contribution of newly hired executives. As a result, we believe those who do will give their organization a strategic advantage over its competitors.

What steps can an organization take to accelerate integration?

Awareness. Integration begins with a reasonable degree of awareness on the part of the organization. To help a new executive get up to speed quickly, it is helpful to make the culture explicit. This knowledge can be used to anticipate the specific challenges a new executive is likely to encounter, and be used to coach the individual and the people around him or her.

Two-way selection. Most executives are put through an extensive and rigorous selection process. In spite of this, a new executive is often surprised by what he or she finds when coming on board. By failing to be open and honest about the role, the team, and the organization can cause real difficulties later on. Due diligence takes time and trying to rush a decision can be dangerous. Once an organization has made up its mind on the suitability of the candidate, it often puts pressure on the executive to make a decision quickly. In doing so, they fail to allow them to complete their own due diligence.

Pre- and post-entry preparation. Once the new executive is hired, ensure their entry into the organization is flawless. This includes resolving all administrative issues ahead of time, communicating who the new executive is and what they bring to the organization, and have a key leader demonstrate public confidence in a new executive.

Give the new executive a jump-start by scheduling meetings with key stakeholders in advance, and provide an opportunity for the individual to meet his or her new boss and team before the first day in the organization. A new executive will have the opportunity to build trust and credibility more quickly by getting to know people both on and off the job.

Integration. First, take ownership for successful integration. Organizations that succeed at integrating new executives consider themselves a partner in the process. Second, create structure around the important pieces rather than rely on ad-hoc and individual efforts. Know what the challenges are, what the new executive will need to do to overcome them successfully, and put a plan in place that will accomplish that. Third, help the new executive gain clarity around mandate and expectations. Fourth, provide access to coaching. To be most helpful, the coach needs to be familiar with the organization and its people, and committed to ensuring the executive integrates successfully. The role of the coach should be to both help develop the new executive's level of insight into the organization, and help translate knowledge into behavior. Fifth, assist in assimilating the new executive to their teams. Sixth, help the new executive find an early win. Finally, provide feedback. Without feedback, the new executive won't know how he or she is doing.

We believe these actions will help integrate a new executive. To accelerate executive integration, it cannot be left to chance. It needs to be approached consciously and deliberately by both the individual and the organization.

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