Career Transitions
Start
Your
New
Leadership
Role
with
the
End
in
Mind
by Michael D. Watkins
June 22, 2023
Illustration by Carlo Cadenas
Summary. To successfully step into a new role and set yourself up for long-term
success, you must balance “now-forward” planning with “future-back” visioning.
That is, you must start with the end in mind, envisioning what you want to
accomplish during this era of your... more
When taking on a new leadership role, it’s natural to focus on the
immediate challenges of making a successful transition,
including accelerating your learning, building relationship with
stakeholders, and securing early wins. However, it is essential to
complement this “now-forward” planning with “future-back”
thinking about your desired destination and what it will take to
get there. As Stephen Covey expressed in his best-selling book,
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, you want to “start with
the end in mind.” This means envisioning what you want to
accomplish in the new role so you will be ready to move beyond it
and then working backward to map out how you will get there. In
so doing, you can shape your early actions to lay the foundation
for long-term success.
The starting point is to engage in what Dan Ciampa, the noted
executive coach, defined as “era planning.” Your era is the
anticipated duration of time you think you will be in the new
position. Of course, you may end up staying longer or leaving
earlier, but try to make a rough guess about when you will have
accomplished enough to be “done.” You’ll want to ask yourself two
key questions: “As I wrap up this job, what will be true?” and
“What will be possible?”
Envisioning Your Leadership Legacy
The first question — “What will be true?” — asks you to outline
the legacy you aspire to create and the story you will tell about
your achievements. Focus on what you want to be remembered
for in your new position and what you want your team and peers
to say about your leadership.
Consider key areas such as:
Performance outcomes: What are the tangible results — for
example, in terms of increased productivity or profitability —
you will achieve?
Organizational transformation: How will you reshape the
team and its culture?
Innovation: What will you do to foster creativity and develop
new areas for growth?
Talent development: How will you hire and train people to
take the organization into the future?
Distill these into a concise, written personal narrative. Then,
think about what you need to do, starting now, to realize this
legacy.
Creating Future Possibilities
The second question — “What will be possible?” — encourages
you to envision futures beyond your current role and strategize
the steps you’ll take to turn them into viable options. This process
involves identifying multiple potential paths forward and
pinpointing the skills you’ll need to acquire and the connections
you’ll need to establish over the course of this era to make those
viable options. By exploring different scenarios and actively
planning your development, you’ll be better equipped to adapt
and seize emerging opportunities.
Take these steps:
Create a list of potential futures, considering logical next steps
in your organization and your industry, as well as less
conventional but still attractive options that would take you in
different directions.
Assess whether there are skill gaps you need to close to achieve
some or all of those futures by reflecting on your existing
strengths and areas for improvement.
Identify the bridges — the steps and connections — that would
allow you to transition from your current role to your desired
future options. These might include expanding your
professional network, deepening your industry knowledge, or
engaging in what Ken Banta and Orlan Boston described as
“strategic side gigs,” such as teaching or working on boards of
directors.
Develop a plan for how you’ll acquire the skills and build the
bridges to make the potential futures you have identified
realistic options, setting specific goals and holding yourself
accountable for achieving them.
As Peter Drucker said, “The best way to predict the future is to
create it.” By imagining multiple potential futures and working
toward them, you’ll create real options for yourself when you’re
ready to move on from your current role.
To successfully step into a new leadership role and set yourself up
for long-term success, you must balance “now-forward” planning
with “future-back” visioning. This mindset will empower you to
make early decisions that will accelerate your transition, pave the
way for long-term impact in the new role, and contribute to your
continued career growth.
Michael D. Watkins is a cofounder of Genesis
Advisers, a professor at IMD Business School,
and the author of The First 90 Days and Master
Your Next Move (Harvard Business Review
Press).