Leadership Transition: Quarter Two — Maximise Value, Cement Credibility
Stepping into a more senior role is always a test of leadership range and resilience. By Quarter Two, the goal shifts from early momentum to compounding value: scaling the wins, sharpening strategic intent, and making visible progress that your boss, board, customers, and team can feel. Well‑designed integration support can cut time‑to‑full performance by ~40% compared with “sink or swim” onboarding, and specialised transition coaching can reduce that even further—sometimes up to half—by accelerating stakeholder alignment and cultural navigation.
This is the sixth and final article in my series on leadership transition: Before You Start; Day 1; Week 1; Month 1; Quarter 1; Quarter 2. In Quarter Two, the mandate is clear: convert credibility into business value, while embedding ways of working that will scale through the year.
Why Quarter Two Matters
By the end of Quarter Two you should be able to point to tangible, measurable impact—not just improvements in process, but customer outcomes, financial results, and people decisions that are holding. Research consistently shows that successful executive integration hinges on five tasks: assuming operational leadership; taking charge of the team; aligning with stakeholders; engaging with the culture; and defining strategic intent. Quarter Two is where those strands tighten into visible business value.
By the end of Quarter Two, aim to have:
- Delivered 3–5 value wins tied to enterprise priorities (e.g., margin, cash, customer NPS (Net Promoter Score), cost‑to‑serve).
- Drafted and socialised a sharp BU strategy (or functional plan) with milestones, KPIs, and owners.
- Completed a talent review and acted (promote, move, hire, or exit) using transparent criteria.
- Deepened stakeholder coalitions—boss, peers, key customers—documented in a relationship map with explicit “gives and gets.”
- Embedded cultural signals (cadences, decision norms, leadership behaviours) that reinforce your strategic intent.
Four Priorities for Quarter Two
1) Assume Operational Leadership (at Scale)
Objective: Move from “running well” to “running better”—close the loop from process to customer outcome.
Practical plays:
- E2E review to customer experience: Complete a cross‑functional “order‑to‑cash” (or equivalent) diagnostic; prioritise 2–3 fixes that remove friction customers actually feel.
- Metrics that matter: Shift dashboards toward a few lead indicators (e.g., cycle time, first‑contact resolution) linked to lag results (margin, churn).
- Quarterly business rhythm: Institute a QBR cadence (Quartely Business Review) with actions, owners, and outcomes—no “activity only” updates.
2) Take Charge of the Team (Decide and Develop)
Objective: Raise the team’s leadership quality and bench strength—the multiplier of everything else.
Practical plays:
- Talent review + actions: Use a simple, evidence‑based grid (performance × potential) to make decisions on promote/coach/move/hire/exit; be fair, be fast.
- Role clarity & forums: Publish role charters; create two forums—operate (weekly) and improve (bi‑weekly)—to separate run‑the‑business from change‑the‑business.
- Development pathways: Pair rising leaders with targeted stretch assignments and coaching, using Quarter Two wins as proving grounds.
3) Align with Stakeholders (Boss, Peers, Customers)
Objective: Turn relationships into coalitions that remove obstacles and unlock resources.
Practical plays:
- Boss alignment: Reconfirm mandate, priorities, and resourcing; test your road‑map against their “value narrative” for the year.
- Peer coalitions: Identify two peers critical to your plan; agree mutual “gives/gets” (people, process, budget) and publish joint outcomes. Lack of peer support is a top reason executives underperform in new roles.
- Customer voice: Run three structured customer conversations focused on differentiation—why choose us; what to improve now vs. next; how success will be measured.
4) Work with the Culture (Signal, Embed, Repeat)
Objective: Make it easy for the organisation to do the right things the right way
Practical plays:
- Signal strategic intent: Share a crisp narrative: Where we’re going, why it matters, what will change, and how we’ll measure it; repeat in every forum.
- Decision norms: Clarify who decides what (and how), shifting from consensus‑drag to clarity + accountability.
- Cadence & rituals: Embed weekly/bi‑weekly/monthly rhythms that reinforce the behaviours you want. Ritual beats memo.
Voices from Experience (Quarter Two)
- “Quarter Two is where people stop asking ‘who is this new leader?’ and start saying ‘this team is moving.’ It’s visible.”
- “Peer coalitions are the unlock. Without them you burn time fighting the system; with them you bend the system to outcomes.”
- “Talent decisions felt tough at the time. By Q3 they looked obvious. Make them with empathy and evidence—and move.”
Why Transition Coaching Helps (and how I work)
Companies often mistake orientation for integration. The difference is night and day: integration support reduces time to full performance by ~40%, and specialised transition coaching has shown up to ~50% acceleration by tackling political and cultural hurdles head‑on. Since 2017 I’ve focused on executive transition coaching—combining proven frameworks (e.g., Watkins’ First 90 Days) with Egon Zehnder’s integration tasks and proprietary tools (e.g., MPV360). If you’re stepping up and want Quarter Two to change the trajectory of your year, let’s talk.
Further Reading (curated)
- Harvard Business Review — “Onboarding Isn’t Enough” (Byford, Watkins, Triantogiannis). Integration tasks and time‑to‑impact data. Read
- Egon Zehnder — Executive Onboarding, Accelerated. Integration programmes and outcomes. Read
- IMD — How Transition Coaches Accelerate Executive Onboarding (Watkins). Research on coaching impact. Read
- IMD — Why Transitions Fail: Politics & Culture. Peer support and failure modes. Read
