If
you have just been hired to replace someone who seemed to have had no faults
and was well-liked and respected in the company, it may look like an impossible
act to follow. But there are strategies for handling succession issues.
You
do have a challenge ahead of you, but by understanding the dynamics, you can
plan an entry strategy that will make it easier for yourself. When a well-loved
manager leaves, employees may feel abandoned. They are suffering the loss of a
leader, perhaps a friend, someone whose management style is familiar and whose
expectations, standards, and values are known.
Such
employees will find it hard to accept the replacement. If the newcomer arrives
soon after the predecessor’s departure, if no separation procedure helped the
group to let go, and if the emotional costs to the group of its loss are not
really well understood, then everyone will have a hard time with the change. In
a way, as the new person, you can never take the place of the favorite who came
before. Intuitively you wish that person never existed. However, you should
honor that person while making yourself known and carving out your own niche.
Never
disparage your predecessor’s accomplishments, your new coworkers shared in and
will be proud of them. They also will be more loyal to the person who left than
to you, and any undue criticism may brand you as the enemy. If, as a new
manager, you are in a position to make changes and wish to do so, invoke the
spirit of the respected predecessor. You might suggest that your program “builds”
on the work done before and is probably what would have been done if he or she had
continued.
On
occasion, if it is feasible, you can check the changes with the person who left and thereby receive his or her blessings. The changes
you recommend can then bring credit to both of you, preparing your group for
transition to your ways of thinking. Use accomplishments of the past as a
standard, such as:
“The
short time it took you to change the molds on the production line last summer under
Smith set a new standard for all of us to meet.” You also can ask, “How would Smith
have done it?” Asking for information does not oblige you to do the job in the
same way, but it does show that you respect Smith’s competence, as well as the
group’s, and that you want to take full advantage of it. You can continue to
invent, so that you are not controlled by the past and destined to repeat it,
by asking, “Now what can we do to improve? Do we have different circumstances
now that we must take into consideration?”
This
period of honoring your predecessor also is the time to add your own ideas. By
respecting the missing person, you are respecting the other group members, and
they are more than likely to react to you respectfully in return.
Most
people you meet in the company will put their best foot forward. Tension and
difficulties often are concealed or minimized. You will have to be alert to
subtle cues of strained relationships, territorialism, cliques, power centers,
and the feelings people have about the person you are replacing.
How
do you find out what you want to know? Ask questions. Pay attention to the way
in which people talk about themselves and others. If you have the opportunity
to see people interacting, watch how they treat each other. Here are some
questions you may want to ask:
•
Tell me about the person I am replacing.
•
What was he best known for?
•
What were some of the problems?
•
How did she deal with them?
Engaging
employees keeps them not only involved, but committed to the team. Only then
can they become real partners with you.
Copyright © 2013. Natasha
Josefowitz. All rights reserved.
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