Research reports that about 35% of managers and executives fail within the first 18 months of accepting new positions. While that figure is alarming, the rate of failure is under-reported. The redefinition of managerial and leadership success demands a new blueprint for organizational learning and retention. The cost of change is too expensive to ignore leadership retention.

When a new leader performs below expectations, voluntarily resigns, or is terminated by his or her employer, failure occurs. Three factors contribute to leadership failure: deficiencies in relationship-building, deficits in political savvy, and shortfalls in developing partnerships with senior leaders. Fresh approaches to leadership development will forge new definitions of managerial failure and success.

The new equation for learning and retention requires a spotlight on coaching, mentoring, and development. Organizational cultures that support mistakes, eliminate failures, and encourage learning will champion the redefinition of success. New approaches may be resident in organizations but they are often dormant. Fresh approaches are often untapped or under-utilized. The challenge is not to fix the causes of varying capability but to reverse the trend in leadership failure.

When working with emerging and new leaders, help them to build competency in relationship management. The key to increasing success in relationship management is to advance managerial and leadership self-awareness. Self-awareness is the ability to understand self and to make meaning of that understanding in the organizational context. Self-awareness develops through accurate feedback and classically requires outside views. The combination of increasing self-awareness and feedback results in enhanced self-confidence - a building block for successful organizational leadership.

How often have you cheered for an organizational leader without wincing?

Many have experienced unabashed cheering; it's done for friends embarking on new journeys, for favorite sports teams, and for kids on sports fields. On the organizational playground, with its field composed of meeting rooms and groups of varying sizes and shapes, cheering is habitually reserved.

Judgment prevails in organizations. Evaluation and rating systems preclude many from cheering leaders. Evaluation induces and promotes anxiety. Coaching and mentoring shifts from evaluation to discovery. Discovery leads to unleashing new sources of leadership, sorely needed in today's organizations.

Successful coaching and mentoring is catalytic; it helps to create change on personal, interpersonal, team, and organizational levels. When successful, coaching assists leaders to move beyond the current state, encouraging the cessation of old patterns and the adoption of new behaviors. There are multiple fundamentals to this change approach, including focus, inquiry, feedback, and affirmation.

Intentional talent management fosters individual and organizational success. Successful coaching and mentoring promotes authenticity. When authentic behavior increases in organizations, we might even find ourselves unabashedly cheering for others in organizations!

Why do organizational founders, chief executive officers, and other senior executives retire and return? What happens when the former CEO becomes Chairman of the Board but fails to take on new leadership behaviors? How do you work for a boss who doesn't move on to the next assignment or opportunity when you accept his or her former job? Responses to these questions are often complex, deepening our understanding of both ego and culture.

Several considerations shore up successful executive transition. The results of these considerations create a domino effect in desirable personal and organizational renewal. Consider implement these approaches to support successful transitions between departing and new leaders:

• Understand the stakes. Leaders leaving positions for new vistas have significant investments. New and old leaders profit from understanding stakeholder concerns.
• Organizational culture is more than the shadow of the executive leader. New leaders benefit from deep understanding of their predecessor's role in shaping culture.
• At the Board level, honestly assess the relationship factor of the old boss. Because Board members are often personally recruited by the former executive, new leaders benefit from profound understanding of these relationships.
• Develop a management approach and plan. Don't neglect the emotional content of management and leadership.

Successful executive assimilation requires environmental consideration. Too often, a new executive's near exclusive focus on the first 100 days in the job results in a neglect of immediate history. Chances of success increase when new leaders pay attention to personal and organizational history - and remember that history exists in a larger context.

The first of the baby boomer generation turns 60 next year (2006). This is more than an interesting fact for leadership developers; the baby boomer generation is now at the height of political and organizational power. Today, over 32 million boomers have already reached their 50th birthday. What are the consequences for organizational leadership?

There is a coming leadership crisis; it's estimated that 1 in 5 top management positions and 1 in 4 middle management positions could be vacant within the next few years. The future will bring an increasing demand, and smaller supply (based on population size), of leadership talent. No organization will escape these factors, and no industry segment will be unaffected.

Effective approaches to supporting generational change in leadership will begin with careful consideration of organizational strategy. Four factors contribute to the successful development of the leadership pipeline:

1. Support from the top. The most effective means to ensuring a return from succession management is support from the organization's top team.
2. Alignment of human resources systems. Succession management successfully integrates three mainstays of the human resources function: development, performance management (compensation), and selection.
3. Development of critical mass. Succession management supports the development of leadership cadres or pools within the organization.
4. Creation of success environments. Sustain achievements in leadership development.