Phase 1: Relinquishing the Old
Very few leaders know how to relinquish old ways of doing business; fewer
still are good at helping others do the same. The first part of coaching a
leader through a transition, or coaching that leader to help others through a
transition, is to help the leader discover the behaviors and approaches useful
in the relinquishment process, either personally or organizationally.
Much of the coaching at this stage involves giving up old realities. The
leader ’s own former role is one such reality. A person transitioning from
leadership of an independent organization to leadership of a joint venture,
for example, has to relinquish a lot of assumptions about independence and
autonomy. In that sense, although the leader may be doing inner work to
manage that transition, there are definite organizational implications as well.
Ideally, the transitions coach should come in before the change has oc-
curred, in order to plan for the transition that will be needed. Typically,
however, the coach is called in when a change has been implemented but
isn’t going well. As the wheels fall off, morale plummets, and deadlines are
missed. Leaders who thought they could manage change the way they man-
age any other challenge begin to realize that the human side of change is far
more complicated.
Phase 2: The Neutral Zone
It would be much easier if a transition, like a change, could occur within an
hour or two. To replace one leader with another, reorganize divisions and de-
partments, or realign reporting relationships are all changes that can happen
overnight. But the inner shift—the transition—does not happen as quickly
as the outer shift—the change. We call that transitional phase, the neutral
zone. It is a term that the traditional language of change doesn’t recognize.
In the
neutral zone, the old reality is gone but the new reality isn’t func-
tional yet. Even so, this may be a time full of activity. In a merger, for exam-
ple, implementation teams are probably meeting around the clock, making
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