Five Ways to Capture Your Predecessor's Knowledge:
- Empathize with your predecessor. During the transition, you and your predecessor may be less than perfectly comfortable. If the outgoing executive is retiring, he may feel that he's plunging into an abyss of insignificance. You may have anxieties about your own readiness to step into the role. Understand that you're both uncomfortable, and behave generously toward your predecessor.
- Solicit input about your new team. Ask your predecessor to identify your team members' strengths and weaknesses, their developmental goals, and their potential. Ask on what basis they were promoted into their roles. Find out who's most likely to tell you bad news when it needs to be told. And map out the dynamics and major alliances among members.
- Extract lessons learned. Ask, "What problems did you encounter early on in this role? How might I head off similar ones as I transition into the role? What other problems could come up that I'm not seeing, and how can they be avoided?"
- Share the "first 90 days" plan. In the earliest days, you'll need to make moves that exert a positive impact and that signal the key themes of your agenda. This includes ways in which you'll depart from your predecessor's strategy. Get your short-term plan on the table as soon as possible. Ask the outgoing executive which initiatives and capabilities spelled out in the plan are foundational and how best to usher them in. Probe for advice on low-hanging fruit you haven't yet spotted. If your predecessor is tempted to engage in any undermining activity, this sharing may help to bring him inside the tent.
- Don't assume you have to reach agreement. Evaluate your predecessor's opinions and perspectives on how to excel in your new role based on your knowledge of him. In comments you're inclined to dismiss, look for the grain of truth. In insights you're rushing to embrace, look for the grain of salt.
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