New Leaders That Succeed Do This

Two researchers studied the performance of 5,000 people who took new positions of leadership:

Among the high-performing new leaders, one attribute stood out: a strong focus on results. In fact, most of them had managed to secure a “quick win”—a new and visible contribution to the success of the business made early in their tenure. Those who had achieved a quick win scored on average nearly 20% higher than those who hadn’t. This was a forceful but unsurprising finding; management experts often advise newly promoted executives to put points on the board fast. A quick win is a crucial form of reassurance to the leaders’ bosses, who hope they have made the right promotion decision; to team members deciding whether to place confidence in their new manager; and to peers trying to determine whether an equal has joined their ranks.

Our findings became more interesting when we examined the struggling leaders. In that group, we saw a high incidence of five problematic behaviors: focusing too much on details, reacting negatively to criticism, intimidating others, jumping to conclusions, and micromanaging the people reporting to them...

Our analysis demonstrates that leaders who make the most successful transitions do, in fact, focus relentlessly on quick wins. But they focus on a different kind of achievement. Rather than riding roughshod over others to prove themselves, they pursue what we’ve termed “collective quick wins,” accomplishments that make their entire teams look good.

Collective quick wins are achieved with teams, not in spite of them, but they aren’t just team-building exercises. Like other quick wins, they add measurably and meaningfully to the success of the business. If the win does not translate into cost reduction, revenue growth, or some other tangible business outcome, it doesn’t qualify. Nor is a quick win collective unless it features substantive contributions from members of the transitioning leader’s team. Symbolic acts on behalf of the team don’t count, no matter how high-profile they might be. The team must make real, direct contributions. Two simple litmus tests prove useful here: Can key players on the team see their fingerprints on the outcome? Would they cite their contributions with pride? If the answer to either question is no, the win is not collective.

-- Harvard Business Review, "The Quick Wins Paradox"