Leadership Integration: The Missing Link to Leader Success
Over the course of my career, I have had the privilege of serving as a senior human resources executive in some of the world’s largest and most admired companies. One lesson consistently stood out:
Organizations invest enormous amounts of time and resources in selecting the right leaders—but often far too little in helping those leaders succeed once they arrive.
We have become very sophisticated at executive recruitment and selection. We conduct extensive interviews, assessments, reference checks, and due diligence. We spend months determining whether someone is the right person for the job.
Then, after making the hire, we often hand the new leader a laptop, an organizational chart, and a calendar full of meetings, and essentially say, “Good luck.”
That is a mistake.
Leadership integration matters
Leadership integration is the intentional process of helping a new leader understand the organization, build relationships, establish credibility, and develop a roadmap for success.
Unfortunately, many organizations unintentionally take a sink-or-swim approach to executive onboarding.
New leaders, both external hires and internal promotions, are often expected to deliver results immediately, without adequate time to understand the organization’s culture, relationships, decision-making dynamics, and operating models.
I have seen this happen in large corporations, nonprofits, and churches alike.
And the consequences can be significant.
A real example
A prior firm I worked for hired a highly accomplished senior vice president of strategy to lead a significant, multi-year transformation.
On paper, he was an outstanding hire. He had multiple degrees from top universities, extensive leadership experience, and a proven record of delivering results. Everyone involved in the selection process believed his past performance strongly predicted future success.
But after joining the organization, he was immediately thrown into the role.
There was little time to understand the company’s highly relationship-oriented culture, its matrixed operating model, or the informal dynamics that influenced how decisions were actually made.
Eight months later, he was gone.
The organization lost a talented executive. The transformation suffered. And the executive’s reputation was impacted as well.
The problem wasn’t necessarily the selection. The problem was the integration.
Three dimensions of leadership integration
Organizations can significantly reduce the risk of leadership failure by intentionally integrating new leaders across three dimensions:
- Functional — Can the leader succeed in the role?
What are the critical capabilities, experiences, and knowledge required? What does the leader need to learn about the business, customers, strategy, and operations?
- Cultural — How does success happen here?
What are the organization’s values, purpose, and mission? How are decisions really made? What behaviors build credibility? What cultural nuances does the leader need to understand?
- Organizational — Who needs to be with the leader?
Who are the key stakeholders? What relationships need to be established or strengthened? What leadership competencies are expected? Where are the informal centers of influence?
These dimensions are particularly important for executives coming from outside the organization, but they are equally important for internal leaders stepping into significantly larger or different roles.
Keep it simple—but intentional
Creating a leadership integration process doesn’t have to be complicated.
Start with the organization’s most critical leadership roles. Identify the handful of things a new leader must understand, the relationships they must establish, the expectations they must clarify, and the early wins that will build credibility.
Most importantly, don’t confuse onboarding with integration.
Onboarding is about getting someone into the organization.
Integration is about helping them become effective within it.
A strong integration process won’t guarantee that every executive will succeed. But it can significantly improve the odds and reduce the enormous financial, organizational, and human cost when a leader doesn’t.
If we are willing to spend months finding the right leader, shouldn’t we invest the same level of intentionality in helping that leader succeed?