Richard Elsner - Leadership Transitions: How Business Leaders Take Charge in New Roles

PRAISE FOR LEADERSHIP TRANSITIONS

Leadership Transitions is a refreshing and insightful examination into how leaders can navigate the stresses of transitioning into a new role. The authors provide a practical guide to leaders, as well as organization consultants. My work with senior government leaders has been enriched through using the coherent frameworks and succinct case studies, drawn from the authors leading edge research and consulting experience. Shanil Haricharan, Principal Technical Advisor, Technical Assistance Unit, National Treasury (South Africa)

After being exposed to Leadership Transitions , the book as well as the workshops with Bridget Farrands, I became acutely aware of the pressure, the sense of loneliness, leaders are under especially during the first phase of their jobs, a phase where you are expected to make your mark although you yourself are feeling lost in this transition: getting accustomed to the new environment, new responsibilities, new organizational culture, etc.

This book has become a base reference for the Technical Assistants Unit and offers its Technical Assistants a framework when they are supporting various initiatives in government departments which also have leaders who are in transition, ie starting new jobs or taking over another role in their organization.

After our experience of the story this book is telling and the good, simple illustrations, making the process of arriving, surviving, thriving, accessible and understandable, we have been sharing copies of this book with leaders in our organization who are in transition. Eileen Meyer, Head of Technical Assistance Unit, National Treasury, South Africa

Instead of Leadership Transitions being a prescriptive toolkit promising a silver bullet like so many business books, it attempts instead to reveal truths about the human experience of transition both for the leader and their organization.

When you go through a major role change it is so helpful to know that what you are experiencing is normal and to be expected. I changed industries, company, country and role multiple transitions at once and, with hindsight, I would say it took almost two years for me to really get my feet under the desk.

This book provided me with an invaluable roadmap of what would be coming down the tracks, so I really did feel more skilful in handling it all. Paul Rookwood, EVP, Minto Communities, Ontario, Canada

Leadership Transitions is a very special book. It graphically presents the hidden side of leaders transitions into new roles, the side they do not like to talk about or even to acknowledge.

This book has provided the lamp, the lodestar for many senior managers in my organization who had entered into that strange zone called transition. From it, they gained the insight that what they were going through was normal. What a bombshell that was for them! We have utilized the book successfully on the many programmes we created to support managers through the first six to nine months as they felt their way to a new strength and sense of orientation. Yvon Doukhan, Head of Top Management Training, BNP Paribas, France

What a treat Leadership Transitions is! I am deeply grateful that the authors have shared their research and experience in this outstanding book. I am impressed by how clearly they describe the phenomenon of the internal process of transition as well as the external factors that must be addressed when taking on a new role. Having gone through several major transitions myself, I can relate directly to the experiences they describe. I only wish I had received their counsel and support much earlier in my life. Kathy Flanagan, executive consultant and coach, formerly SVP at Nuveen Investments