Bench Strength

232 B

ENCH

S

TRENGTH

2. Provide a brief on-boardin g meeting. The manager m ay accu-

rately perceiv e her behavi or but fail t o know how it is interpre ted

by o thers within the new business conte xt or corpor ate culture.

This is th e time to pul l her a side and explain the kinds of behavi ors

and value s t hat leaders are expec ted to display in your organiz a-

tion, and the ty pes of leader performance tha t can l ead to derail-

ment in your company. A second option is to ask anoth er sen ior-

level man ager, one who has the man ager’ s trus t and who is not in

a direct reporting re lationship, to in itiat e this conversation.

3. Providemoreextensivecoaching. If, a fter b eing g iven f eed-

back on his behavior a nd inf ormation on the pr evalent leadership

norms in y our organization , the leader is sti ll encounte ring difficul-

ties, you may want to p rovid e him w ith co achin g assistanc e from

your CTO or from an external executive c oach.

4. Place the individual on a pe rform ance improv ement plan.If

the problem you are en count ering is seriousl y jeopardizing the

leader’s performanc e and a ppear s to b e more than a b rief, trans i-

tor y problem, you may need t o meet with y our HR execu tive or

CTO to dra ft a wr itten performance improveme nt pla n. Such a

plan should summariz e the c urrent perf orman ce, expecte d per-

formance, the action s the leader is expected to take to get his per-

formance back o n track, and the timeline for i mprov ement .

5. Take action to demote , transfer, or remove the indi vidua l.

You’d hate to think that it might c ome to this b ut if i t does, devel op

a so lid plan for trans ition ing th e new leader out of your organiza-

tion. Onc e deci ded, a ct on t his pl an wit hout delay o r rese rvation.

Once again, you r HR le ader or CTO can provide you with helpful

guidance in man aging this p roces s.

Putting It All Together

In closin g, it m ight be appropria te to provid e a bri ef summary o f

some of th e majo r themes that I’ve attempted to adva nce in this

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