Failure to Launch

In the movie of the same title, the parents of a 35-year-old “layabout” attempt to deceive him into packing his bags for a staged romantic relationship, one which later becomes genuine. 

As far-fetched as it might sound, the movie plot and the inability to launch new talent inside an organization share a common denominator. In both instances, the key to success lies in how quickly new, critical relationships develop.  

Gaining traction in important relationships explains why many new hires either succeed or fail to launch. The ability to work with, and get things done through, critical internal and external relationships determines much of the initial success new team members experience in their first nine months. 

But because onboarding processes often overlook the centrality of relationship connection, conversations with key stakeholders take a backseat to learning the role. 

Better onboarding processes identify the handful of most important relationships and require introductions and content exchange within the first three weeks after touchdown. 

Facilitating these initial conversations is something good leaders do. They know all too well that waiting until team members situate themselves into the fabric of the organization and their role in it is an extreme handicap against longterm success. 

The more quickly new team members build solid relationships with those they must depend on for success, the better. When these relationships develop early, new hires have an immediate lifeline from which to overcome challenges and roadblocks. 

Learning to navigate the organization is all about these connections. Better yet, they ingrain a sense of belonging faster than any other step in the onboarding process. 

Relationship traction is the tour de force of beginning a new role. Establishing new relationships is never easy, especially for newly-introduced team members. 

The helping hand good leaders provide is to make sure the connections that need to happen do so early on. The new network quickly becomes relational net worth. And that’s money in the bank.