If you’ve been in a coaching session or online workshop with me, you’ve probably seen a big flower vase over my shoulder. Ninety-five percent of the time they’re from my garden, and the roses smell amazing.
Most of them come from four bushes in one bed — direct sunlight, rich soil, and good air circulation between plants, exactly what a rose wants. There are another six roses scattered around the garden under big native trees. Two produce okay. Most struggle. One gives me nothing at all.
Last month my wonderful gardener Mel moved them. She shifted many of the strugglers into the main bed and moved others into better positions around the garden. She pruned everything back hard. It looks brutal right now…. And… I’m expecting a bumper crop in a couple of months.
The struggling roses were never bad roses. They were all chosen carefully by my mother, and capable of the same blooms. They were just planted where they couldn’t get what they needed.
I’ve watched the same thing happen with people.
Alexandra took on a senior leadership role in an organisation carrying a lot of history: low trust, a culture where putting your head up hadn’t been safe, a kind of learned helplessness that ran deep. When she arrived, she was briefed on her inherited team. One leader came with a clear verdict: disengaged, no initiative, teams beneath him flat, better to move him on quickly.
Alexandra didn’t ignore the warning. But she didn’t act on it either. She gave that person exactly what she gave everyone else — clear expectations, honest feedback, and the time to understand what actually motivated him. The same fair go.
Some of her inherited leaders couldn’t respond to that, even after a year. She moved them on, and no-one argued.
This leader was different. Given conditions he’d never had — trust, clarity, a leader who backed him — he grew. A year on, he’s one of Alexandra’s strongest performers.
The verdict Alexandra inherited wasn’t a lie. It was true of the old conditions. It was wrong about the person.
So before you accept the handover notes on the team you’ve inherited, change the conditions. Invest in everyone. Be clear on what success looks like, and by when. A fair go isn’t an open-ended one. Let the results — not someone else’s verdict — tell you who stays.
What looks like a poor performer may be a good one in the wrong conditions, or one no-one has actually invested in. What conditions do your leaders need to bloom?
Go fearlessly
Corrinne
PS This isn’t only a CEO question. Any time you inherit a team (a new role, a restructure, a merger), you also inherit other people’s judgements on the people in it. Worth checking which ones you’ve accepted without looking for yourself.
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