The Leadership Accelerator: The

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 PRAISE FOR
THE LEADERSHIP ACCELERATOR

Brilliantly written, well-researched, and actionable, The Leadership

Accelerator perfectly breaks down the process of transitions for
leaders. An often confusing and stressful time for any executive, Dr.
Kambil guides readers step-by-step to create a transition that lines
them up for future success with their teams, peers, and
organization.
—Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the Thinkers50
#1 Executive Coach and New York Times
bestselling author of The Earned Life,
Triggers, and What Got You Here Won’t Get
You There

The Leadership Accelerator is a smart little book that starts with a

fact: transitions are hard. They require a different set of skills and
tactics, geared to establishing new habits, new expectations, and
new relationships. Having created and scaled the delivery of
Transition Labs to serve thousands of leaders—myself included—Ajit
has garnered the data, experience, and wisdom needed to make
such transitions successful. You should have this practical workbook
by your side on day one.
—Alan Murray, CEO of Fortune Media

The Leadership Accelerator, based on over a decade of research, is a

practical and actionable book to help new executives “build muscles”
to succeed in their career journey. I found it particularly insightful for
leaders transitioning to the C-suite.
—Marie Myers, Chief Financial Officer of HP
Inc.
No matter how much you prepare, assuming an executive leadership
role in any organization comes at you fast. It is easy to begin
elevating every new request as a “top priority.” Ajit Kambil’s book
The Leadership Accelerator and the Transition Lab are instrumental
in enabling executives to focus on those critical priorities that will
ultimately have the greatest impact on company success.
—Joseph J. Wolk, Executive Vice President,
Chief Financial Officer of Johnson & Johnson

I often work with Chief Information, Technology, Data, Digital, and

Analytics Officers. They all need the advice in this book to lengthen
their job tenures and provide more value to their companies.
—Thomas H. Davenport, Distinguished
Professor, Babson College; Fellow, MIT
Initiative on the Digital Economy; and Visiting
Professor, Oxford University

This book is an excellent and action-oriented guide that is helpful

and useful for leaders taking on new executive roles. I recommend it
and will be referring to it often.
—Lynn Perry Wooten, President of
Simmons University and coauthor of the Wall
Street Journal bestseller Arrive and Thrive

As a faculty member at NYU’s Stern School of Business many years

ago, Ajit led the introduction of eCommerce in our curriculum. Now
he has pioneered a pragmatic new theory and created methods that
served me well when I became Dean and have helped thousands of
other C-suite executives as they transition into new roles. The
Leadership Accelerator is a superb resource for those taking on new
and exciting, but also challenging, leadership assignments.
—Raghu Sundaram, Dean of the Stern
School of Business, New York University
Copyright © 2023 by Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kambil, Ajit, author.

Title: The leadership accelerator : the playbook for transitioning into
your new executive role / Ajit Kambil.
Description: 1 Edition. | New York : McGraw Hill, [2023] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022038584 (print) | LCCN 2022038585 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781264957101 (hardback) | ISBN 9781264957132 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Executives—Training of. | Leadership.
Classification: LCC HF5549.5.T7 K256 2023 (print) | LCC
HF5549.5.T7 (ebook) | DDC 658.3/124—dc23/eng/20220811
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022038584
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022038585

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 CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Preface

_____________PART ONE_____________
START SMART
CHAPTER 1 Beware the Myth of the First 90
or 100 Days
CHAPTER 2 Time, Talent, Relationships, and
Transformation
CHAPTER 3 Elevating into the C-Suite: The
Four Faces of Leadership
CHAPTER 4 Hopes, Fears, and Legacy: Set
the Context for Your Transition

_____________PART TWO_____________
PRIORITIZE TIME AND ENERGY
CHAPTER 5 Protect Your Time and Energy
CHAPTER 6 Frame, Prioritize, and Elevate
CHAPTER 7 Set Goals, Mitigate Risks, Get
Resources, and Commit

_____________PART THREE_____________
MANAGE TALENT, TEAMS, AND YOUR
ORGANIZATION
CHAPTER 8 Framing a Transition Talent
Agenda
CHAPTER 9 Get the Right People in the
Right Seats
CHAPTER 10 What Do You Recruit For?
CHAPTER 11 What Do You Want from Your
Team?
CHAPTER 12 Recruiting and Engaging Your
New Team
CHAPTER 13 Your Team Is Your Brand:
Express It!
CHAPTER 14 Boost Your Team Performance
CHAPTER 15 Shaping Your Organization:
Configuration, Capabilities, and Capacity

_____________PART FOUR_____________
MANAGE RELATIONSHIPS
CHAPTER 16 Stakeholder Relationships: Four
Considerations
CHAPTER 17 Elevate Your
Communications Program
CHAPTER 18 Influencing Stakeholders:
Persuade, Trade, or Compel
CHAPTER 19 Difficult Relationships: Exit,
Voice, Loyalty, or Optionality
_____________PART FIVE_____________
DRIVE TRANSFORMATION AND
PERFORMANCE
CHAPTER 20 Frame Strategic and
Performance Opportunities
CHAPTER 21 Manage Execution Risks
CHAPTER 22 Catalyze Cultural Change
CHAPTER 23 Sponsor Improved Performance

_____________PART SIX_____________
CONCLUSIONS
CHAPTER 24 Plan to Succeed
CHAPTER 25 Epilogue: Be Smart, Lucky, and
Ready for Success

Notes
Index
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T
here are numerous people to thank in enabling this book—and
this space will be too small to do so fully.
First and foremost, my wife, Kimberly Errington, who has
supported me from the inception of the research leading to the
creation of the Deloitte Executive Transition Labs, and the hundred
plus days for many years I was on the road delivering and scaling
the labs or doing research. She has been super supportive when I
did not manage my time well and had to carve out some time on
weekends and on our annual vacations in Spain to type away at the
keyboard. It is hard to manage time and energy!
Second, I want to thank all the thousands of clients and client teams
who trusted us with their time and relationships. Their engagement
and candor in the labs helped us continuously improve and refine
the Transition Lab. Their participation in our labs also shaped the
content of this book.
In addition, I thank the hundreds of partners, directors, and senior
managers across Deloitte who invested their time in learning how to
facilitate and deliver Transition Labs, and even more the lab
producers who did the hard work of capturing the conversation,
keeping us on track, and creating great lab deliverables. They
combined knowledge of transitions with their knowledge of the
client’s company and industry knowledge to create consistently high
quality and valued experiences for our clients at scale.
There were many critical influences on the design of the Transition
Lab that enabled us to test and retest knowledge and create this
book. I was lucky to learn about the process consultation1 at MIT
during my time there. The Transition Lab is a process consultation
conducted in a room with specialized panels or now on digital touch
screens. The experience can also be delivered in person or remotely.
The work of Matthew May on elegant design2—particularly his ideas
on seduction, subtraction, and symmetry—helped me create an
engaging experience that has stood the test of time. The original
design was enhanced by Mike Kearney who suggested a vital panel
—the confidence continuum—and Sandy Cockrell who suggested the
addition of a critical personal initiatives row in our plan module panel
based on our interviews of CEOs and boards. This formed the
Transition Lab—our first client-facing lab delivered in our nascent
Greenhouse facilities. The core design of the Transition Lab has
stood the test of time with many subsequent useful additions to
enhance lab content from our different Executive Accelerator
programs.
Scaling the delivery of labs into the hundreds and then thousand-
plus began with Keri Calagna and a team of CFO Program managers
who created operating processes and standard deliverable templates
that were adopted by others. They also created the first practical
mobile lab to bring the experience closer to clients. Mike Aronesty,
Pam Hester, Morgan Maglich, Lauren Gigliotti, Wanda Hollis, and
Komal Bajwa and her team took our operations and scaling to the
next level of efficiency. As Pam became the Deloitte Executive
Transition Labs operations leader in 2020, we centralized key
capabilities across role-based programs to further scale efficiently.
Justin Zawistowski, Sean Kelly, and others have played a key role in
improving processes and delivering productivity.
I had prototyped a digital version of the Transition Lab to illustrate
the feasibility of digitization as early as 2014. The technology to do
this continued to improve. In 2019, Ryan Borchetta mastered the
technology and created a powerful tool for a Digital Transition Lab
delivered in person over large touch screens. We created our first
DRINC—a digitized rich interactive conversation with clients.
When the pandemic hit and we had to work from home, we were
fortuitous that a few minor modifications to our software allowed us
to continue delivering Transition Labs virtually at the same rate as
prior to the pandemic. Thanks to Shawn Richardson and Sandeep
Chandola—we then assembled a new team in May 2020 to build on
Ryan’s work and expand our DRINC’s development capability. Emily
Roesner Sullivan, Swaroop Sudindra, Sridhar Janga Reddy, Vijaya
Bairoju, Ishan Kumar, Akkula Layasree, Hima Bindu Kudikala, and
Ellen Tschatschula have been an outstanding team that combined
design, coding, and project management skills for developing
DRINCs. By December 2020, we were client testing the Transition
Accelerator—a new product for the C-suite—at smaller companies or
executives below the C-suite to be able to serve thousands of clients
at scale and lower cost. Therese Russell and Abhi Shekhawat were
very helpful in improving this offering, and Therese with Erin Clark
and Jamie Breshears developed key capabilities in Deloitte
Consulting to scale this offering in the marketplace.
Beyond the above teams, the content of this book was enhanced by
many colleagues across Executive Accelerators. I also want to thank
the numerous editors who touched this work along the way. Many of
the chapters in this book had their origin in essays published on
Deloitte Insights (formerly Deloitte University Press) beginning in
2013. Ramani Moses deserves special mention for her editor’s eye
on early versions of the essays, and then John Goff from the CFO
Program reviewed the full manuscript that built upon the numerous
essays. My CFO Program team, Pat Brown, Lori Calabro, John
Labate, Andy Marks, and Josh Hyatt have at various time contributed
to getting the previous essays out through our CFO Insights and
Deloitte CFO Journal channels. Deanna Drnevich did an excellent risk
review that helped improve the manuscript. All their work hopefully
has made this book easier to read and use. Christina Burns originally
led the marketing and distribution of the foundational articles on
transitions across numerous channels. Kristin Chisesi, Mike Licata,
and Kori Green as marketing and public relations leaders helped
bring this manuscript effectively to market. Tony Scoles played a
vital role in structuring agreements with our publisher. Marilyn
Herrmann my executive assistant kept my travel and schedules on
track.
As with any major project, sponsorship is vital. Sandy Cockrell
provided the vital sponsorship to create the Transition Lab, prototype
innovations, and develop this manuscript. Karen Mazer provided the
critical sponsorship to modernize lab content, digital delivery, and
improve end to end operations that has provided a platform for
further scaling our impact in helping clients transition to new
executive roles. More recently, Paul Silverglate, who succeeded
Karen, and Steve Gallucci, who succeeded Sandy, provided vital
support and space to bring this work to life.
Finally, Donya Dickerson and her team have been patient and
excellent to work with at McGraw Hill.
To all of the above who have enabled our leadership in the
transitions space—thank you!
 PREFACE

T
he purpose of this book is to help you accelerate your
transition and establish yourself in a new executive role.
Transitions can be energizing, challenging, and risky. Various
authors suggest nearly 40 percent of all executive transitions are
estimated to fail within the first 18 months to two years.1 Ineffective
transitions to an executive role especially in the C-suite are costly.
When newly hired executives do not meet expectations,
organizations incur considerable expenses and forgo the execution of
critical initiatives. For individuals, ineffective transitions often lead to
career derailment.
Transition leadership is different from everyday leadership. It can be
an intense experience as new executives seek to establish
themselves with their peers and staff. Like the difference between
running a sprint and marathon, it requires different muscles and
strategies. As transitions can be infrequent for most successful
executives, their transition skills can atrophy. Furthermore, many
companies do not do a great job with onboarding new executives.
Our purpose in writing The Leadership Accelerator is to help you
build muscles to succeed in transitioning to your new role.
This book is grounded in research and practice undertaken over a
decade. Beginning in 2009, I undertook several interview-based
research studies of executives transitioning to new leadership roles
to determine critical success factors.2 This led to a model for
transition leadership, which found new leaders need to effectively
manage time, talent, relationships, and transformation to succeed in
their new role.
The research also led to the creation of Transition Labs—a one-day
personalized client experience and process where executives frame
their own priorities; assess and design their own go-forward talent
strategy; determine their stakeholder and influence strategies; and
create their own 180-day to one-year work plan. Since June 2010,
we at Deloitte3 have successfully delivered over 4,000 Transition
Labs to various C-suite executives in the United States.
Having created the Transition Lab method and having personally
delivered over 350 labs to many of Deloitte’s important and
discerning C-suite clients I previously synthesized lessons learned in
numerous essays on Deloitte Insights beginning in 2013. This book
builds on these essays, ongoing interview and research efforts, and
client responses to frameworks and methods in our Transition Labs.
The book is organized in six sections:

1. Start Smart. We start by demolishing the prevailing myth of

the first 90 and 100 days. We introduce the time, talent,
relationships, and transformation model underpinning the book
and the “four faces of the executive” leadership model to clarify
emerging expectations of C-suite executives. This section also
helps you frame the critical elements of your context that will
likely shape your transition strategy.
2. Prioritize Time and Energy. Here we examine different
ways you can effectively utilize and manage your most scarce
resources—your time and energy during a transition. Time is
often the most constrained resource available to new executives,
and prioritization is critical to success. This section goes beyond
time management strategies to help you frame and derisk your
critical go-forward goals and priorities. This section also helps
you create elevator pitches to effectively communicate your
priorities and build support and resources for your key initiatives.
3. Manage Talent, Teams, and Your Organization. The
wrong talent can squander precious time. This section considers
critical resources to help incoming executives develop and
execute a talent agenda. It examines ways to assess and develop
individual talent, teams, and an organization to effectively deliver
the future.
4. Manage Relationships. Transitions are a critical period for
developing key peer and stakeholder relationships. This section
 explores how you can accelerate your relationships, determine
what stakeholders want and do not want, and effectively
communicate with and influence stakeholders to help execute
your agendas.
5. Drive Transformation and Performance. Boards and
CEOs increasingly want C-suite executives who can think
strategically and drive change that improves organization
performance. This section considers some tools to identify
strategic opportunities, create a more systematic strategy
process, and overcome resistance to change to successfully drive
initiatives.
6. Conclusions. This section of the book looks at formulating a
realistic go-forward action plan that accounts for time, talent,
relationships, and transformation. It also considers how to
prepare for success and the importance of a balanced plan that
meets your company’s needs as well as your own.

I am very grateful to the many thousands of executives who have

shared their time, insights, and wisdom as they have done our
Transition Labs. We have learned a lot from you all in shaping this
book. We recognize that your time during a transition is valuable, so
our chapters are short and actionable. Each chapter concludes with
clear takeaways and workout exercises that can help you build your
transition leadership muscles and define your transition leadership
strategies and work plans.
I am also grateful to my numerous colleagues over the years for
their commitment to learning and delivering excellent Transition Lab
experiences to our clients. By combining the transitions knowledge
embodied in this book, with industry, client company, and role
specific knowledge, our client teams and the Executive Accelerators
program have delivered both useful and highly rated Transition Lab
experiences for our clients. I hope you all as readers are very
satisfied with this book in helping you effectively progress on an
exciting new executive career journey.

Ajit Kambil, PhD

Austin, Texas | New York, New York | Alicante, Spain
 PART ONE
START SMART
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