The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan, 5th Edition

CHAPTER 13Lead a Turnaround

You've been asked to lead a turnaround. First, take a deep breath and understand what you are up against. Your leadership skills are about to be tested. You should be excited about the possibilities and concerned about the risks as 70 percent of transformations fail to deliver desired results.¹

Before we jump in too deep, note that we've chosen to use the term turnaround to refer to a range of critical transitions where rapid change is called for, whether a transformation (“thorough, dramatic, lasting change in form”), an acceleration (need to get “un‐stuck” and go faster in the same direction), or an actual turnaround (“an abrupt or unexpected change, especially one that results in a more favorable situation”).

Turnarounds are more prevalent than you might think, driven by external and internal factors. External forces include rapidly emerging new technologies, geopolitical instabilities, global health crises, regulatory changes, rapidly shifting consumer demand, changing economies, and swift emergence of well‐funded new competitors. Internally, increased presence of activist shareholders and accelerating growth in private equity transactions have led to dramatically raised ownership ambitions and expectations for business performance.

These critical transitions are particularly risky and challenging when a leader enters a new role and the organization has yet to realize the nature of the situation. Turnarounds exacerbate all of the issues we've ...