Bobbie Goheen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prCyYlfCu44

The Man Steve Jobs Chose to Build the Apple Store Ron Johnson helped transform Target, worked directly with Steve Job...

"Hit the ground running."

It's the most common phrase used when onboarding a new manager.
And it sets them up to fail in a very specific, very consistent way.

I work across Fortune 100 organisations and have been called in to fix underperforming management teams across industries, describes what actually happens:

"They believe that what got them here to that moment — to that interview — is such a great thing it will take them there. It won't. Because it's a new organisation. A new culture. New structure. New leadership team."

The 3–6 month reality:

MONTH 1: The manager should be listening, not leading.
Observing how decisions are made. Understanding informal power structures. Learning the culture norms — not the ones in the handbook.

MONTH 2: Building relationships, not demonstrating expertise.
Meeting every key stakeholder. Understanding how the systems actually work. Earning the right to have an opinion.

MONTH 3–6: Beginning to contribute — with context.
Now their expertise is additive, not disruptive. Now they understand where it applies and where it doesn't.

The most expensive onboarding mistake: letting a new manager skip months 1 and 2 because they're "too experienced" to need that time.

"Can you make it faster? No. I wish you could. But you've got to give yourself time to acclimate — even if you come from Amazon or Tesla. Especially then."

If your onboarding plan doesn't account for this curve — it's building in failure.

Happy to share what structured onboarding looks like when it's built around this reality.

Compensation is rarely the actual reason a high-performing manager leaves.

It's the presenting reason. The language they use when handing in their notice.

The actual reason, in most cases:

They can see their ceiling. And they can see it clearly.

Bobbie Goheen, who works with leadership teams across Fortune 100 organisations, describes what the managers who stay — and accelerate — have in common:

"The people who build other leaders — who develop people to replace their own role — are the most promotable. Companies want to keep them. They know there's someone who can step into their role immediately, which means this person can go on to something new."

The organisations that retain top management talent don't just offer interesting work.
They offer a visible development pathway — and they invest in it deliberately.

What high-performing managers are asking before they update their LinkedIn:
→ Am I developing as a leader here, or just executing?
→ Does my manager know how to develop me — or just manage me?
→ Is there a version of me in this organisation in 3 years that I actually want to be?

If the answer to any of these is unclear — they're already gone in their head.

The investment in management development isn't just about this year's performance.
It's about whether your best people can see their future here.

The Manager's Edge is one part of that answer — foundational capability that gives managers the skills to develop others, which is what gets them promoted, retained, and invested.

Happy to talk through what a management development investment looks like at the team level.

"They wanted something more specific, flexible, and tailored."

This is what I was told when a Fortune 10 company brought me in — not a large coaching firm, not a systemic programme that runs every organisation through the same methodology.

They'd been there. They knew what that looked like.

What they needed instead:
→ A programme that could respond to what was actually happening in the room
→ Facilitators who could tell the difference between a communication problem and a values alignment problem
→ Training that didn't assume every organisation operated the same way

"Whatever I was hired for has not been what was actually needed. A communication issue turns out to be a decision-making clarity problem. A culture issue turns out to be L1/L2 misalignment. You have to get in there and learn the crew."

The distinction matters for L&D leaders choosing development partners:

Large systemic providers deliver consistency and scale.
They are excellent for compliance, onboarding, and process standardisation.

What they rarely deliver: the ability to diagnose what's actually breaking down and adapt in real time.

The leaders who develop fastest are the ones in programmes that can see them specifically — not run them through a system designed for everyone.

If you're evaluating leadership development options for your team — the question worth asking any provider is: "What happens when what we need doesn't fit your curriculum?"

The answer tells you everything.

"I made it accessible to everybody." That sentence is the whole reason I do this. I've spent 30 years in rooms most people never get access to — and I decided the tools from those rooms shouldn't stay there. 40 minutes. One consistent message. The tools exist. The decision is yours. The Manager's Edge is your start. Link in bio.

It's the most common leadership decision in every organisation.

The top performer.
The one who always delivers.
The one the team respects.

And so you promote them.

"You've done a great job. We think you could manage the team well. Here are the goals. Is this something you're interested in?"

They say yes. They figure it out. They have some success.

And then they notice — as I like to describe it — "there's a lot more here that meets the eye."

What organisations consistently underestimate:

1. You just removed your highest-producing individual from production
2. You placed them in a role they were never trained for
3. Their team's performance now depends on skills they don't yet have
4. The instinct to keep doing the job themselves (instead of leading) is almost universal — and it stalls the team

"They spend too much time thinking about it. They don't feel like they're doing a good job. Their manager says they're doing a good job. But there are team member issues. Things are not going as well as they'd like."

The result: you've lost a high performer and gained an overwhelmed manager.

The fix is not expensive. It's foundational management training — delivered before or immediately after promotion, not six months later when the team is already struggling.

The Manager's Edge was built for exactly this moment. 40 minutes. Practical. Fortune 100-tested. Available immediately.

If you're about to promote a top performer — or already have — this is the conversation worth having first.