After working with several organizations I have noticed a consistent pattern. The perception by leaders of how things are going and why, often don’t match reality. They have reached strong conclusions on very limited data. This information gap is never more present when new leaders are brought in to fix the problem. This HBR post has some great wisdom:
“Organizations invest a lot of time and money in hiring the right CEO or senior executive to set a vision and make the changes in their company. Yet within the first 18 months, there’s a 50% chance the executive will leave the organization. This failure comes with enormous costs, not only in disruption to the organization but financially, too. One estimate puts the cost at 10 times the executive’s salary – sometimes more.”