Successfully Managing Executive Transitions – Interview Navid Nazemian

Almost 90% of senior HR leaders agree that transitions into new roles are the most challenging periods in a leader’s professional life. However, organizational appetite to invest in these transitions remains minimal.

As business leaders, we seem to accept a 40% failure rate among newly appointed executives as an unavoidable risk.

The consequences of these failures are significant for both the individual and their organization.

For the individual, a failed transition damages their professional reputation and potentially their livelihood. For their organization, it results in direct financial costs (recruitment), opportunity costs, diminished employee engagement, and a degraded Employer Value Proposition (EVP).

In the 37th episode of the Leadership 2.0 podcast, I speak with Navid Nazemian—my brother-in-arms in the Executive Transition Coaching space—about how organizations can mitigate the risks of executive appointments by engaging an executive coach.

During our conversation, we discussed:

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The Dark Side of Leadership – Interview Manfred Kets de Vries

Unfortunately, today, a single television news bulletin, or a glance at the front page of a newspaper, is enough to reveal the dark side of leadership.

However, many people do not need to switch on the TV or read the paper to witness this; instead, they experience the dark side of leadership every day within their own organizations. They happen to work for ‘Psychopath Lights’—or, as Manfred Kets de Vries calls them, ‘Seductive Operational Bullies’ (SOBs).

In the 36th episode of the Leadership 2.0 podcast, I sit down with Manfred to explore his extensive research on this phenomenon. During our conversation, we discussed the following topics:

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The 70% Failure Rate: Why are most Business Transformations STILL getting ‘Lost’? – Interview Rupert Brown

McKinsey’s infamous stat haunts every executive: 70% of all change management efforts fail. Despite decades of expertise, this number seems frozen in time. Why?

In the 35th episode of the Leadership 2.0 podcast, I sat down with a true transformation veteran, Rupert Brown, author of the eye-opening book, ‘Lost in Transformation’.

Rupert is an experienced Chief People Officer and change management specialist with deep expertise in M&A, digital transformation, and turnarounds, having advised giants like Procter & Gamble and Maersk.

This wasn’t just a discussion of tactics; it was a candid, emotionally intelligent discussion on how Transformations can be handled better.

Tune in to learn about:

  • Why Transformation projects continue to fail
  • The difference between Change and Transformation
  • The Bad Reputation of the word ‘Transformation’
  • Why we still struggle with Change Management  
  • In-Groups and Out-Groups in Change Management Processes  
  • Chief Acceleration Officers
  • Trust is Energy
  • Crises as Catalysts for Change
  • The impact of our Permacrisis on Change Management 
  • Behavioral Skills to cope with the BANI world’
  • Change Management and AI

If you’re leading a transformation—or struggling to survive one—you can’t afford to miss this. Rupert delivers the hard truths and the practical guidance needed to shift from ‘being Lost’ to becoming ‘the Leader of change’.

► You can watch or listen to a podcast with our conversation on:

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