Beware the Pitfalls of “Quick Wins”

There is little doubt that new leaders are under pressure to secure early wins during the first phase of their tenure, or the first stage of a new change initiative. Paradoxically, in the rush to achieve this worthy objective, unsuspecting leaders can also fall into some dangerous traps, which undermine the results they are aspiring to achieve.

Carefully crafted quick wins are a vital part of a new leader’s successful transition into an organisation or project for a number of reasons.

The Advantage of Quick Wins

Quick wins offer several advantages:

• Offer visible, measurable and timely evidence of success;
• Build personal credibility with the people from whom leaders are seeking support;
• Establish important relationships;
• Identify and remove the saboteurs; and
• Harvest the low-hanging fruit of opportunity for short term improvements in the organisation’s performance (Reference: 1,2,3)

Successful Quick Wins begin with the end in mind

Micheal Watkins in “The First 90 Days”, argues that early wins must also be crafted with an eye to laying a foundation for longer term goals. This means that successful quick wins are consistent with a leader’s highest business priorities, and also serve to introduce the new behaviours that the leader wants to achieve by the end of their term. Paradoxically, the more successful quick wins are secured with a long term frame of reference – typically the 2-4 year time horizon of a typical leadership role. (Reference: 1)

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Early Wins

Clearly new leaders must focus on early results, but equally important is how those results are achieved. The common traps leaders can fall into include:

• Taking on too much and failing to focus
• Failing to take into account the business scenario to determine which early wins to pursue
• Not observing the prevailing culture, and its forces for and against change
• Establish wins – but not the ones that gain credibility with the boss (Reference: 1)

Research by the Corporate Executive Board adds to the list of pitfalls which contribute to the failure of 1 in 5 new leaders in the first 2 years:

• Focus too heavily on the details, and lose sight of the big picture
• Reacting negatively to criticism – especially when dealing with people perceived to be resisting planned changes
• Intimidating others and creating short term compliance at the expense of long term discretionary effort
• Jumping to conclusions and not engaging the team in the real issues
• Micromanaging and not trusting others to do the work (Reference: 4)

The Corporate Executive Board study suggests that a focus on collective quick wins instead of individual wins can greatly enhance the success rate of new executives and of change initiatives. The signal that wins are a result of collective achievement, is that a team could identify their own unique contribution to the outcome. (Reference: 4)

If you are a transitioning leader or have the responsibility of leading a new change initiative, enhance the success of your early interventions with the attached Quick Win Diagnostic. This tool can help you and your team assess the value, cost, risk, and feasibility of potential collective Quick Wins. (Reference: 5)

Di Worrall © 2009

References:

1. Watkins, Michael (2003), The First 90 Days, Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels , Harvard Business School Press
2. Cohen, D.S. (2005), The Heart of Change Field Guide, Tools and Tactics for Leading Change in Your Organisation, Harvard Business School Press
3. Worrall, D (2009), A Climate for Change, How to Ride the Wave of Change into the 21st Century, Life Success Publishing
4. Video - The Quick Wins Paradox
5. The Corporate Executive Board Learning & Development Roundtable (2009) Quick Wins Diagnostic