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For Newly Appointed Executives In The First 12 Months
You celebrated when you secured the executive role. It was well-deserved. Over a decade of consistent delivery, flawless project execution, technical problems solved that nobody else could handle. You were told you were the obvious choice. Now you're past the heady euphoria.
Your boss expects results, not excuses. Your peers are watching but not supporting. Your direct reports - one of whom competed for your position and didn't get it - are testing boundaries.
The promotion felt like validation. This feels like trying not to fail.
Here Is What's Actually Happening
You're inheriting relationships your predecessor built over the years. Some of those people are giving you the benefit of the doubt. Others are waiting to see if you'll establish credibility before they fully engage. A few are actively testing whether you'll command the same authority or whether there's an opening to operate around you.
You're making decisions that would have been straightforward in your previous role, but now carry political weight you didn't anticipate. The same recommendation that would have been approved last quarter gets questioned because you're the new person presenting it. Stakeholders who worked seamlessly with your predecessor are suddenly "too busy" to meet.
Your team is recalibrating. Some are genuinely supportive. Others are uncertain about your approach and waiting to see how you'll lead. At least one person is probably testing boundaries to understand what authority you'll actually establish versus what authority the title gives you.
And all of this is happening while you're expected to deliver results. Patience with your learning curve, the grace period, the "getting up to speed" allowance are over.
A Mini Case Study
When Ken (Group Director, Health & Safety) started his executive role, he was facing the same dynamic: Stakeholders assessing whether to work with him or around him, team members uncertain about his approach, and the weight of needing to prove he deserved to be there.
The instinct is to work harder, deliver more, and demonstrate technical capability. But that's not what establishes executive authority.
We focused on how he showed up in those first critical interactions - not what he delivered, but how he positioned himself when presenting to senior leadership, how he responded when his authority was tested, how he navigated stakeholder relationships he was inheriting rather than building from scratch.
The outcomes followed from that shift: expanded influence on strategic decisions, opportunities to increase his visibility on bigger stages, and the credibility that carried beyond the first role into the rest of his executive career trajectory.
What Happens If You Don't Establish Authority Quickly
Undermining
One significant misstep undermines your credibility for years.
Ignoring
Peers work around you instead of with you.
Questioning Your Abilities
Direct reports question your strategic decisions in ways that expose authority gaps.
Losing Your Position
You operate reactively instead of setting organisational direction from a position of strength.
Zaps Confidence
Your confidence dips during a crucial period when you’re establishing yourself in your role.
How the Executive Transition Accelerator™ Helps
Most leaders in their first executive role try to establish authority by working harder, delivering more, proving their technical capability. It rarely works. Because what's being evaluated isn't your work output, it's your executive presence and influence.
The Executive Transition Accelerator™ gives you the fast-track route to success: frameworks for establishing authority without micromanaging, strategic approaches for navigating Board-level communication when you've never operated at that level before, and peer validation from leaders who've successfully navigated first-time executive transitions already.
You work with Directors, VPs, and C-suite leaders who remember their own first 6-12 months.
You learn to position Board presentations for approval from non-technical executives, establish authority that makes direct report testing stop, and communicate strategic decisions that signal executive-level thinking rather than promoted-manager execution. So you can establish credibility during your critical first quarters.
Previous clients have successfully navigated their first executive transitions without career-limiting mistakes, established authority that led to expanded opportunity within their first year, and built credibility during their first 6-12 months that set them up for a long-term executive success.
Faq
Visit our ETA programme page for complete details on programme structure, what's included, and how it works.
Yes. We provide detailed documentation to support getting this programme 100% funded by your company. We position this as bespoke, high-level strategic advisory rather than personal coaching, which makes organisational funding straightforward.
For our flagship Executive Transition Accelerator™, we accept 18 senior leaders and recently appointed executives per year across three cohorts. Our ETA Platinum™ programme has ongoing enrollment but requires a formal application process and is exclusive to leaders who currently operate at SVP, Director and C-suite levels.
