Leadership transition is a very tricky thing. From my days of operations at Target, transition is normal and happens all the time. There is product transition, i.e Tide detergent going from 1X to 2X and there is leadership transition, leaders taking new jobs or being fired from jobs. All transition should be flawless. The guests that are shopping at Target should need feel or see transition, it should be executed without “seeing dust from construction.” As a shopper at Target if you don’t see half filled aisles and clearance everywhere then the Target teams are doing their jobs but it the aisles begin to look like Walmart and extremely messy and unorganized then the team is not doing their job. I am not sure it is possible to have flawless transition when you have transition that affects people and leaders. I believe in all transition there should be truth and diplomacy. We must be authentic about the change that is right around the corner and we must make sure we carry an attitude of compassion and human warmth to the situation. Transitions require us to change and we all have a difficulty accepting and buying into change. Just another insight, leaders are always excited about implementing transition but it is necessary for organizations to do if they will move forward. One of the quickest ways to stump or hinder momentum is to avoid or put off transition. At the beginning of each year there seems to always be some sort of transition, new jobs, new responsibilities, new boss or change of venue. If we can have weekly talks with our leaders and teams it can help with transition and it won’t so daunting. At Renaissance we have some transition approaching us and my God give us wisdom with our decisions.
January 21, 2010
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