Why is it that a new leader brought into an organization with such great promise slowly appears to be looking not so promising after the first couple of years? This subject needs much attention.

I am sure you have been involved in brining leaders into organizations with significant expectations that they will bring in transformation, change, solve some of the vexed problems, lead the organization into hyper growth.

The organization ends up ascribing a lot of wisdom, competence, authority and stature to that person. Even more if that person came from a large “haloed global corporation.”

Thanks to all this and some very specific skills that this person brings to the table, the first couple of years are outstanding. The leader is able to quickly able to solve some of the vexed problems, bring an expertise that the organization desperately lacked, perhaps deal with some low-hanging fruits and give relief that this much awaited person has finally arrived and filled a gap. The first couple of years are very promising. Many things get done.

Around the third-year things slowly seem to plateau. People are now beginning to ask why the leader is not solving some of the larger problems appropriate to his pay and grade that they assumed he or she would solve. They ask why the leader has not yet built processes, built or retained and grown a team.

Peers begin question the price that has been paid for the early success, the relationships that have been frayed, the people not taken along. The Board goes back to the original hiring mandate and asks if the larger objectives were fulfilled or not and often finds they were not.

By the third year the leader also begins to silently realize that he or she has run out of steam.

Why does this happen?

Central to this year three problem is the excessive reliance on the leader’s individual abilities and playbooks used in another game.

While these may have provided some early relief, it was assumed that the leader would respect and enrich the culture and not blame it build a stronger team and not replace everyone partner and not compete with peers institutionalise processes and strengthen the eco-system

It is also assumed that the leader would not stop learning and acquiring new abilities to solve new and unforeseen problems that the organization is going to face.

What will it take for a leader to do all this?

It will call for a balance between action and reflection. Reflection about how I need to evolve and grow, what are the new ways in which I need to operate having delivered the early success in solving some vexed problems, how I prepare myself for a solid sustainable future.  It will also call for humility and openness to feedback.

If such a leader does not get help, he or she can leave (hence the three year itch) or fall by the wayside.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/EI9XI1POcGE