---
title: "Onboarding Isn't Enough"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/a24201b3-8ac5-41a6-8b20-0f14f77694b8
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2017/05/onboarding-isnt-enough"
stack: https://stacklist.com/c/business/stack/cdcbc56a-3bfd-4127-9260-fe72134b6efc
summary: "This Harvard Business Review article argues that standard onboarding practices are insufficient for newly hired executives, who require full cultural integration to succeed. It uses the case of a failed executive transition to illustrate how lack of structured integration support can lead to cultural misalignment and departure."
tags: "onboarding, executive-integration, career-transitions, leadership, organizational-culture, talent-management"
key_entities: "Mark Byford (person), Michael D. Watkins (person), Lena Triantogiannis (person), Lucas Jacobsen (person), Harvard Business Review (organization), Energix (organization), executive onboarding (concept), cultural integration (concept), career transitions (concept)"
classification: "analysis"
content_hash: "sha256:1d5213663da682962bc8bb32128bcfb0002695798eb90b256b878e7a6ea29297"
acp_version: "0.2"
token_counts_approximate: 448
visibility: public
agent_accessible: true
status: "final"
---

# Onboarding Isn't Enough

Harvard Business Review Logo Career transitions Onboarding Isn’t Enough Newly hired executives need to be fully integrated into the company’s culture. by Mark Byford , Michael D. Watkins and Lena Triantogiannis From the Magazine (May–June 2017) Todd McLellan Summary . “Onboarding” is an apt term for the way many companies support new leaders’ transitions, because not much more is involved than bringing the executive safely on deck. After that, ... more Leer en español Ler em português Post Post Share Save Get PDF Buy Copies Print An executive we’ll call Lucas Jacobsen was ready for a new challenge. So after more than a decade at a Fortune 100 diversified manufacturing firm, where he had risen to lead product development in the power systems division, he decided to move on. He accepted an offer to head up R&D at Energix, a rapidly growing manufacturer of power system instruments. But his previous experience had not prepared him to operate in this much smaller business with its consensus-driven culture. Furthermore, Energix provided virtually no onboarding and integration support. After HR and IT set him up in their systems and his boss introduced him to the team and gave a brief overview of the role, Jacobsen was expected to figure out how things “really worked” on his own. That was a struggle. His hard-driving style—combined with some misconceptions that others had about his mandate—led to difficulties with his new peers and ultimately to his departure. Read more on Career transitions or related topics Career coaching and Giving feedback A version of this article appeared in the May–June 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review. Post Post Share Save Get PDF Buy Copies Print Read more on Career transitions or related topics Career coaching and Giving feedback