Michelle Moss
Appointing the right executive is only the beginning. Are induction processes enough to help new leaders understand the role behind the job description, or should more organisations treat onboarding as a coaching exercise?
A newly appointed executive may arrive with decades of experience, an impressive record and a clear mandate. They’ve already been through a rigorous search process, answered difficult questions and demonstrated that they can do the job.
Then they start, and, almost overnight, much of the context that once made them effective seems to vanish into thin air.
They don’t know the people, history, relationships or informal rules of the new organisation. They may understand the role as it was described in interviews, but not the tensions, expectations and inherited challenges that will shape how it’s performed. At the same time, people are watching closely for signs of what kind of leader they will be.
This is where many organisations underestimate the realities of onboarding. They provide introductions, policies, systems and organisational charts, then expect the executive to find their own way through everything else that’s not written down.
What’s the difference between induction, onboarding and mentoring?
Formal induction remains necessary. A new leader must understand reporting structures, governance requirements, policies, and the responsibilities attached to the role. They must meet colleagues and learn how the business operates.
Michelle Moss, Director at Signium Africa, explains the difference between induction and onboarding: “As an example, induction introduces you to Sally in accounts. Onboarding helps you understand why Sally matters: perhaps supplier relationships have deteriorated because payments are consistently late, and repairing those relationships will depend on working closely with her. It reveals how the role really works, how different functions affect one another, and which people and relationships will be critical to getting results.”
At senior level, this is less about transferring information and more about helping someone interpret a complex new environment. That makes onboarding a form of coaching: a structured process that helps the leader ask better questions, test assumptions, understand their own responses and develop appropriate strategies.
“A coach doesn’t need to have performed the same job or provide ready-made answers,” adds Moss. “Unlike a mentor, who may draw on personal experience and knowledge to offer advice, a coach helps the executive find their own solutions and take responsibility for what they do next.”
Levelling up leadership style for the new role
Onboarding is not only for people joining from outside. An internal promotion can require an equally significant transition.
Moss describes coaching a successful branch manager who had been promoted to oversee seven branches. He already understood the company, its policies and its operating environment, but his leadership context had changed completely. Former peers would now report to him, and his success would depend on leading through seven different managers rather than running one operation himself.
“Being a strong branch manager didn’t mean he could simply do the same work on a larger scale,” Moss explains. “He had to change how he communicated, learn to lead through other people and trust them with work he knew he could probably do faster himself.”
This is one of the most common difficulties encountered in executive transitions. Leaders are promoted because they’re highly capable, but the next role may require them to let go of the direct involvement that helped make them successful.
In this instance, onboarding coaching was combined with mentoring from the retiring executive. The coach could help the incoming leader adjust his behaviour, communication and approach to delegation. The outgoing executive could pass on practical knowledge of the role, its stakeholders and its history.
Can onboarding identify what new leaders need to unlearn?
External hires face a different challenge. They may arrive with valuable experience, but also carry habits and assumptions formed in previous organisations.
Moss talks about an experienced executive who had moved from an extremely toxic workplace into a healthy and successful company. In his previous role, he had learnt not to speak openly, express independent views or make decisions without permission. Those behaviours had become protective strategies.
In the new company, colleagues actively wanted his opinion. He was expected to exercise judgement and contribute openly, but initially struggled to believe that it was safe to do so.
“He hadn’t fully recognised how much the previous environment had shaped him,” says Moss. “He was flummoxed by the idea that he was not only allowed to think for himself, but expected to share his views freely. Part of the onboarding work involved identifying his old coping mechanisms and making sure he didn’t bring them into a new team.”
This example highlights an overlooked part of executive integration. Onboarding isn’t only about learning the new organisation. Sometimes, leaders must also unlearn the old one. A leader who survived through caution may appear withdrawn. A leader accustomed to control may struggle in a culture built on autonomy.
“All experience remains valuable,” says Moss. “But it can’t be transferred blindly. Learning how to apply past experience into new contexts is a critical part of onboarding.”
Navigating a confidence crisis through onboarding coaching
An honest recruitment process can prepare candidates for many of the challenges ahead. When organisations are open about difficult operating conditions, cultural concerns, stakeholder tensions or the scale of change expected, leaders have a better chance to transition smoothly into their new role.
Yet even the most thorough briefing can’t capture everything. Once appointed, the executive may inherit tension between employees and colleagues. Some team members may support the appointment, while others had hoped for a different outcome. An operational problem may turn out to depend on damaged relationships or internal politics.
Moss explains how these dynamics often produce a crisis of confidence, even in accomplished executives. “In their previous company, they knew how everything worked almost without thinking,” says Moss. “Then they enter a new organisation and become very conscious of how much they do not know. It’s overwhelming, but at the top, people often feel they can’t admit that.”
That pressure can also encourage leaders to act too quickly. Research involving nearly 1,400 CEOs, published in Harvard Business Review, found that many incoming CEOs underestimate the time required to earn stakeholders’ confidence. Eager to prove themselves, they may launch bold initiatives before securing the trust and support needed to implement them effectively.
A confidential coaching relationship gives the executive somewhere to acknowledge uncertainty without feeling that they’re weakening their standing with the board or team. It also helps them distinguish between pressure that requires action and unnecessary pressure they’re placing on themselves.
Four attitudes that help new leaders onboard well
Successful onboarding also depends on how the leader approaches their transition.
1. Openness
New leaders must accept that the behaviours and approaches that worked before may need to change in a different organisation.
2. Humility
Recognising that previous success doesn’t create instant credibility helps the leader listen, learn and build trust before trying to prove themselves.
3. Curiosity
Asking questions before drawing conclusions helps the leader understand the people, culture and unwritten realities of the organisation.
4. Courage
Letting go of familiar ways of working – including the need to control, solve everything personally or have all the answers – can be difficult, but it’s often essential to leading effectively in a new environment.
Building trust is the real work of onboarding
When a new leader arrives, teams invariably have questions. Will jobs be safe? What will change? Will the new executive listen, or arrive with decisions already made? Meanwhile, the leader is trying to understand the team, the culture and the realities of their new role.
Much of the formal knowledge an executive needs is delivered through digital systems and company documents. What can’t be automated as easily is the work of interpreting people, relationships, expectations and the impact of the leader’s own behaviour.
Moss believes that onboarding should include a planned forum in which the team and the new leader can ask questions and gain honest clarity on matters that aren’t necessarily on paper. “It’s not a one-way process in which the leader arrives and announces what they intend to do,” she says. “Both sides need the opportunity to ask questions. When the right conversations happen early, trust can develop much faster. Onboarding coaching is a powerful way to facilitate those conversations.”
“That human guidance is irreplaceable,” Moss concludes. “Leadership can be lonely and entering a new role is intimidating, regardless of how experienced someone is. Onboarding gives the leader and the organisation an opportunity to build trust deliberately, rather than hoping it develops on its own.”