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Terblanche64
The challenges of career transitions
Transitions into senior corporate leadership positions are challenging (Freedman,
2011; Martin, 2015). Many transitions end in a sub-optimal state or even failure.
Up to 46 % of transitioning leaders underperform (Sutton, 2008) and as little
as 16 % transition successfully (Freedman, 2011). Apart from the negative emo-
tional implications for the incumbent and their colleagues, estimates place senior
leadership transition failure at several million dollars (Martin & Gentry, 2011).
Several studies have investigated the reasons for career transition failure
(Avolio & Hannah, 2008; Bebb, 2009; Freedman, 2011; Martin, 2015; Watkins,
2003). These studies found that many transitioning leaders are unable to learn
new skills (psychological, behavioural, cognitive, interpersonal) to adapt to the
new roles. For transitioning leaders to succeed, it appears that they need help
in unlearning unhelpful habits and acquiring new skills. Coaching offers the
potential to facilitate this learning, but can it be done in a sustained manner?
Transition coaching
Organisations attempt to support transition leaders via various interventions
such as leadership development programmes, mentoring and transition coach-
ing (Freedman, 2011; Watkins, 2003). The jury is still out on the effectiveness
of leadership development programmes (Avolio & Hannah, 2008), but transi-
tion coaching seems to hold promise due to its individual, one-on-one nature
(Kauffman & Coutu, 2009; Witherspoon & Cannon, 2004).
Transition coaching is defined as an individual coaching intervention aimed
at supporting the transitioning leader by addressing issues that may prevent them
from being effective in the new role (Witherspoon & Cannon, 2004). Transition
coaching is a relatively new field of research and practice, is in high demand
(Bond & Naughton, 2011) but not well researched or used adequately in practice
(Terblanche, Albertyn, & van Coller-Peter, 2017). Current approaches to transi-
tion coaching focus on aspects such as improved stakeholder management, more
effective communication and developing new cognitive and social skills (Reyn-
olds, 2011; Sutton, 2008; Witherspoon & Cannon, 2004) but appear to stop short
of creating sustained change on a more fundamental level (Bebb, 2009; Freed-
man, 2011). Transition coaching is typically started too late and used as a rescue
mechanism rather than a pre-emptive support (Terblanche et al., 2017). This sug-
gests that there could be scope for designing a transition coaching intervention
with a more enduring effect. Understanding how adults learn may hold the key.
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