How to succeed quickly in a new role

A role transition can be a huge boost to your career. Photo / 123RF

A role transition — whether a promotion, a move to a new company or a fresh challenge in your current job — can be a huge boost to your career, plus a chance for you to blossom and thrive. But in our modern hyper collaborative workplaces, successful moves aren't as easy as they once were, even for the most qualified and hardworking people. Too often, transitioning managers and employees don't live up to their organisations' expectations. Gartner surveys indicate that 49 per cent of people promoted within their own companies are underperforming up to 18 months after career moves.

We analysed employee relationships and communication patterns across more than 100 diverse companies and interviewed 160 executives in 20 of them. Our research points to one overlooked prerequisite for transition success: the effective use of internal networks. The people who are the most productive, innovative and engaged in new roles — the "fast movers" — are those who establish extensive, mutually beneficial uplifting connections from the start.

Many transitions + poor onboarding = big problems

In organizations today, transitions occur all the time and take many forms. Managers and employees — in particular, millennials and members of Generation Z — change jobs far more often than previous generations.

Although many companies tout their onboarding processes, it's not clear that those methods are working. In a survey from i4cp, only 44 per cent of respondents said their organizations' efforts to onboard external hires achieved desired outcomes, and 88 per cent said that organizations didn't offer onboarding programs to employees who had been promoted or transferred into new jobs.

The hyper collaborative environment

More and more companies have identified collaboration across disciplines and units as a way to meet the new business goal of greater agility. The shift to a more collaborative environment has changed the way companies determine what is most valuable in their employees' contributions. And yet, only 20 per cent of companies surveyed by i4cp indicated that helping new hires establish critical organisational networks is an objective in their onboarding process. That needs to change.

The fast-mover strategies

In our collective study and analysis of networks, collaboration and transitions in organizations, we noticed that 10 per cent to 15 per cent of movers became well-connected in a quarter to a third of the usual time, even if they started with few or no contacts. These fast movers were reaping benefits such as rapid productivity, innovation, higher engagement and lower risk of departure. Fast movers showed that people making transitions today don't have the luxury of allowing their network connections to form serendipitously. To be successful, employees — and the employers that conduct the onboarding process — must act intentionally. Here's how:

Surge rapidly into a broad network: Fast movers act as quickly as possible to discover the informal network of key leaders who are able and willing to help them get things done. People need to understand that transition success depends on creating connections with central stakeholders and customers or clients, the organisation's formal leaders, their own team and direct reports, as well as people who might not necessarily be viewed as important.

Generate pull: John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davidson addressed "the power of pull" in a 2010 book of that name, describing how people who attract like-minded colleagues and "shape serendipity" benefit themselves and their organizations. Once you've put yourself out there, you want people to come to you, to offer advice, suggest new ideas and bring you into new projects and your next role. Additionally, fast movers also understand the value of modesty — they engage with collaborators to co-create a joint narrative of success.

Identify how you add valve, where you fall short and who can fill the gaps: Whether your main contribution is your knowledge of a key technology, your ability to inspire people or other skills and intangibles, you can use traditional connections, such as managers, direct reports and internal clients, to help you pinpoint what others are expecting you to bring to the table. Transitions invariably create skills gaps. Most of us either fail to see them or try to bluff our way through. But fast movers get clarity on their value, and then work to improve in the areas where they're weak or find people whose knowledge and skills fill the gaps — which is often a faster and more effective way to come up to speed.

Create scale: Fast movers don't just rely on people they already know. They tap their networks for both ideation and implementation — they seek help from innovators across the organization who can offer novel solutions to pressing problems and from influencers who can help execute, spread and sell those ideas.

Fast movers make a point of connecting with four types of influencers to achieve scale: central connectors, who have large, informal networks that help them socialise ideas and garner support from specific groups; boundary spanners, who have ties across groups and geographies and can bridge silos; energisers, who create passion and enthusiasm in their interactions, thereby amplifying ideas and engaging the broader organization; and resisters — those contrarians and naysayers whose viewpoints must be taken into consideration early, both to improve the idea and, ideally, to get them on your side.

Shape the network to maximise personal and professional well-being: Despite the stress inherent in taking on a new role and all the networking they're doing, fast movers also manage to prioritise their physical and mental health. They don't allow the breadth of their networks to undermine the quality of their relationships, or overwhelm them with too many demands for collaboration. They find people who understand, energise, adapt to and create mutual wins for them just as they did for others. They rely on people who can fill their skills gaps and free them up for more valuable, meaningful and scalable work. A carefully crafted, supportive network shields fast movers from some of the pressures of their new roles.

Companies say they support networking for new hires and promoted employees, yet they are often are not doing enough to create lasting connections. Many organizations incorrectly assume that bigger networks are better. In reality, some of the most effective fast movers make a point of engaging more intentionally with smaller subsets of helpful people. Networking for career transitions doesn't have to be a do-it-yourself exercise. Organizations can lead the way in showing employees how to build the connections that will help them thrive quickly.

Written by: Rob Cross, Greg Pryor and David Sylvester
© 2021 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. Distributed by The New York Times Licensing Group