Newly promoted business executives in Singapore often "derail" because they lack the capabilities needed for their new positions, according to an authority on leadership transition.

Mr. Sattar Bawany is the Managing Director for DBM Singapore, which provides career transition and talent development solutions in 85 countries across the world.

"Based on my experience, between 40 to 50 percent of new leaders here fail within their first year," Mr. Bawany states.

"The vast majority of these failures could have been prevented," he adds, "if the leaders had stronger capabilities in four key areas: relationship management, cross-cultural communication, negotiation and conflict management."

Organizations can improve new leaders' success rates by significant margins, according to Mr. Bawany. "Management has to recognize the organizational and cultural implications of the leaders' appointments and make a commitment to help the leaders move into their new roles," he says.

"The expectations of the new roles must be made clear. Management should provide coaching interventions to ease the transition and encourage early feedback on the executive's performance from all stakeholders."

Coaching should be designed to align executives' functions with the organization's strategic direction and help build leadership competency in such critical areas as finance and staff development.

"Leadership changes can create crisis or opportunity, depending on how the change is managed," Mr. Bawany says. "Too few organizations plan for leadership transitions. It is essential that they develop a pipeline of executives prepared to move into senior-level leadership roles. Management must identify and retain these leaders and understand that their current competency levels should be augmented for successful transitions."

Leaders today have to respond quickly and flexibly to rapidly changing market conditions; create and implement successful strategies; foster an environment of learning and innovation; and align all employees with the organization's goals by developing their collaborative, interpersonal and team effectiveness skills. These are difficult challenges and their employers should help the executives meet them.

Apart from assuring the success of leaders appointed to new roles, organizations must provide support to leaders entering the organization; those identified as having high potential; and those in transition roles, such as M&A integration.

"Effective leadership is a delicate balancing act," Mr. Bawany says. "Empathy is needed but a leader who is excessively empathetic can be perceived as being unable to implement unpopular plans. A lot of assertiveness, on the other hand, could be seen as being too aggressive.
Having an optimistic outlook will help rally subordinates to support the leader's plans but the optimism should be balanced with reality testing."

Mr. Bawany is a contributing author to Coaching in Asia: The First Decade, published in 2010 by Candid Creation Publishing LLP. His chapter is titled "Maximising the Potential of Future Leaders: Resolving Leadership Succession Crisis with Transition Coaching." He has over 25 years of international business management experience, including 15 years in executive coaching, group facilitation and leadership development.

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