Your Team Liked the Last Leader: Where Leadership Team Development Starts
When you inherit a team, you also inherit its history with someone else. Results, working norms, and loyalties took shape under your predecessor, and many routines still carry that leader’s stamp. That history can be an asset, but it also means the team will measure your early decisions against someone it already knows.
In one Genesis Advisers case study, a senior executive at a large pharmaceutical company was promoted to lead a team accustomed to a hierarchical style. The previous leader had kept communication and decision-making in their own hands. Her plan called for a more integrated way of working, and the team wasn’t prepared for it.
Her situation shows where leadership team development has to start: with an accurate picture of the team you have, before you set out to change it.
Key Takeaways
- Loyalty is hard to see at first — A team’s attachment to its last leader is easier to read in its reactions to change than in early conversations.
- A predecessor’s style shapes the team — Habits around speaking up, sharing information, and making decisions often reflect how the last leader ran things.
- Read the team before you change it — An early assessment shows where trust, alignment, and collaboration stand.
- Credibility comes from results — New leaders earn trust by acknowledging what worked and showing how changes serve the team’s goals.
Why a Team’s Loyalty to Its Last Leader Is Hard to Spot
Most teams won’t tell a new leader they miss the old one. The signs are more subtle, and they can be easy to misread in the first few weeks.
What Attachment Can Look Like
A team that’s still attached to its previous leader may show it in small ways:
- People wait for you to speak first in meetings, then agree without adding much.
- Conversations return to how things were done before.
- New routines are adopted slowly or dropped without discussion.
- Information flows through a few trusted people instead of the whole team.
Any one of these can have another cause. A team may simply be cautious with someone new. Behavior you see repeatedly over several weeks tells you more than a single meeting.
How a Predecessor’s Style Shapes a Team
Teams adapt to the person leading them. If every decision went through one leader, people learn to stop raising issues in the group. If the leader shared little, people stop expecting information. Those habits can persist after that leader is gone.
That was the case for the pharma executive mentioned earlier. Her team had been built around a hierarchical style, so when she asked it to work across functions and share ownership of decisions, it needed help making the shift. At the start of their work with Genesis, the team’s score for engaging in deep dialogue on critical issues was 3.3 on a 5-point scale, well below its other scores.
Where Leadership Team Development Starts: Reading the Team First
Genesis builds high-performing teams around five pillars drawn from Michael Watkins’ The First 90 Days® framework: Integrate Intentionally, Align Powerfully, Collaborate Effectively, Operate Efficiently, and Energized to Achieve. For a leader who has inherited a team, the first three are where a clear read matters most.
Learn the Team’s History
The Integrate Intentionally pillar asks team members to understand one another’s histories, skills, styles, and roles. For a new leader, that history includes the team’s time with your predecessor. Ask what worked well, what people would keep, and what they’d change. The answers tell you about the team and about how it saw the last leader.
Find Out Whether People Feel Safe Speaking Up
Psychological safety matters early, because a team that keeps its concerns to itself can’t tell you what it needs. Watch whether people disagree openly, raise problems early, and bring you bad news. If the team learned under its last leader that speaking up changed little, it may take time before people do it with you.
Identify What’s Already Working
Not everything your predecessor built needs to change. Knowing the team’s strengths tells you what to protect, and it gives you a credible place to start.
The pharma executive’s team had a structured starting point. Before the teamwork began, Genesis ran 360 interviews on her leadership style, administered the Team Management Profile assessment to the leaders on the team, and deployed a Team Development Survey on effectiveness, alignment, organization, collaboration, and leadership. The team then debriefed the results together, so everyone saw the same picture.
How high-performing is your team? The Genesis team quiz rates your team across the five pillars and shows which areas may be holding it back. Take the quiz
How to Earn Credibility Without Dismissing the Last Leader
Once you know where the team stands, the next step is making changes in a way the team can accept. Three practices help.
Acknowledge What Worked Before
Name something specific the team accomplished under your predecessor, such as a result, a process, or a client relationship. Specific credit shows you’ve paid attention. General praise can sound like a formality.
Explain the Reasons Behind Early Changes
When a change arrives without context, the team will supply its own reason, and it’s often that the new leader thinks the old way was wrong. Tie each change to a goal the team already shares. Changes that grow out of what the team told you are easier to accept than changes that seem to come from nowhere.
Let Results Make the Case
An interim CFO at a healthcare enterprise faced this challenge. He was appointed after the previous CFO left, and he was told he wouldn’t automatically be considered for the permanent role. His transition coaching with Genesis focused on assessing and building the team in line with the CEO’s strategy, which meant setting himself apart from the previous leader and addressing underlying issues on the team.
Under his leadership, the team surpassed its previous performance and earned recognition from stakeholders. He was named permanent CFO, with additional support directed to developing the team. His credibility came from what the team accomplished together.
What Changed for One Inherited Team
The pharma executive and Genesis co-designed a coaching and team journey. She received transition coaching, members of her team received developmental coaching, and the team worked together on collaboration, alignment, trust, and multifunctional teamwork. The Team Development Survey was run again toward the end of the journey.
Team Development Survey measure (1–5 scale) | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
Engaging in deep dialogue on critical issues | 3.3 | 5.0 |
Sharing information to the greatest extent possible | 4.1 | 5.0 |
Effective at delivering results | 4.2 | 5.0 |
Clear understanding of team goals | 4.1 | 5.0 |
Collaborating effectively | 4.1 | 5.0 |
The largest gain came in the area where the predecessor’s style had left the deepest mark: open discussion of critical issues. Meetings also became more focused, and the team gained a clearer shared sense of purpose. The results led the company to extend coaching and team sessions to its country-level teams.
Team Leader Development: Support for You and Your Team
A leader who inherits a team may need support for the team, for their own transition, or both. Three Genesis offerings fit these situations:
- Team Development Accelerator™: Facilitated sessions and coaching that help a team agree on priorities, build trust, and set how it will work together. It’s built for intact or newly formed teams going through change.
- Acceleration Coaching®: Confidential one-to-one coaching for senior leaders stepping into new roles, guided by the Transition Roadmap®.
- Development Coaching: One-to-one coaching for leaders who want to build trust and lead a team through change in their current role.
Not sure which fits your situation? Book a call to talk through where your team stands and what kind of support makes sense.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is leadership team development?
Leadership team development is the work of helping a leadership team agree on priorities, build trust, and set how it will work together. For a new leader, it starts with understanding where the team stands today.
What’s the difference between team leader development and leadership and team development?
Team leader development focuses on the individual leader, building skills such as communication, influence, and earning trust. Leadership and team development combines the two, supporting the leader and the team at the same time, as Genesis did for the pharma executive and her team.
Should a new leader change what the previous leader put in place?
Some changes may be necessary, but it helps to learn first which practices the team values and why. Changes tied to clear reasons and shared goals are less likely to read as a rejection of the last leader.
How can a new leader tell whether a team feels safe speaking up?
Watch whether people disagree openly, raise problems early, and share bad news. An assessment, such as the Genesis team quiz or a facilitated team survey, gives a fuller picture than observation alone.
When should a new leader start working on team development?
The earlier, the better. Ideally, it starts in the first weeks, before major changes are made. A leader who is already several months into the role can still benefit, since an assessment gives a useful baseline at any point.
Start With Where Your Team Stands
A team’s history with its last leader doesn’t have to hold you back. The first step is an honest read of how the team works today. Take the Genesis team quiz to see how your team rates across the five pillars, or book a call to talk about support for you and your team.
Read More
Eight Traps to Avoid When You Take Over a Team
The Power of Intentional Integration in High-Performing Executive Teams
The Surprising Frequency of Team Transitions
