Page 59 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

44 Just Promoted!

Learning Approaches Time Frame
Accelerated Learning and/or Alternatives for Completion
Objective #1

Objective #2

Objective #3

Learning from Your Predecessor and Key Staff

If you can, debrief your predecessor, preferably before he or she leaves. Even
if the person’s been fired and is angry, try to set up a meeting.
There is much information that only your predecessor has. You can shorten
your learning curve, sometimes considerably, by tapping into this wonderful
resource. More importantly, you can improve your odds in the organization’s
political jockeying. Your predecessor will describe the organization’s com-
petitors, enemies, and allies and can tell you how to deal with each and where
the land mines are. There are many nuances about your new role that only
your predecessor can know.
Sometimes the meeting is a courtesy session. A manager who had been
abruptly moved from a staff position in human resources to a line job in
manufacturing confessed, “I was scared to death. I talked with the person I
was replacing for about three hours. That is, mostly he talked. I tried to take
some notes, but I didn’t understand much of what he said. I felt like a real
dummy.”
This is a meeting that may or may not help you much. You may be over-
whelmed by the amount of information, the terms, the technology, and the
politics. On the other hand, you may see why your predecessor is being moved;
he or she may show a brilliant grasp of the job or a woeful absence of energy,