Richard Elsner – författare

Leaders in Transition brings a new perspective on why some leaders succeed more than others when taking charge of an organisation. Based on in-depth case studies, when four new leaders and their teams in large and complex international organisations were tracked for over a year, this book uncovers that success in managing transition is directly related to leaders' ability to balance tensions, appropriately to the context. The reasons for each leader's effectiveness are explored and analysed, allowing the authors then to extrapolate some general conclusions about the ways in which these tensions reveal themselves during all leadership transitions. Evidently, the success or failure of a new leader is the result of the way multiple actors (the new leader, his or her boss, his organisation and its stakeholders) behave, before and during the taking charge. These multiple interactions are revealed and discussed.

In a working life of 35 years, a manager can expect to make at least 10 job changes - or transitions - where the demands for rapid business delivery and effective leadership will only increase with each new job. According to recent research, over 25 per cent of new leaders appointed from within fail within 18 months; the figure is closer to 40 per cent for new leaders appointed externally. The cost of this rate of failure is high, ranging from financial to performance to organizational disruption. This book identifies the sources of these failures and how to overcome them. The authors show that, whether the new leader has arrived as an external appointment or has been promoted internally, the experiences can be divided into three phases: Arriving, Surviving and Thriving. By analysing the different features of the leader's experience at each of these stages, the authors are able to provide a strategy for leaders to take charge and succeed in their new roles.

Leaders in Transition brings a new perspective on why some leaders succeed more than others when taking charge of an organisation. Based on in-depth case studies, when four new leaders and their teams in large and complex international organisations were tracked for over a year, this book uncovers that success in managing transition is directly related to leaders' ability to balance tensions, appropriately to the context. The reasons for each leader's effectiveness are explored and analysed, allowing the authors then to extrapolate some general conclusions about the ways in which these tensions reveal themselves during all leadership transitions. Evidently, the success or failure of a new leader is the result of the way multiple actors (the new leader, his or her boss, his organisation and its stakeholders) behave, before and during the taking charge. These multiple interactions are revealed and discussed.The reader will find in the book a rich description of the main elements which he or she can learn to combine and balance in ways which are appropriate for the context and which will enable greater mastery of the transitional phase of leadership.