Assimilating New Leaders: The Key to Executive Retention.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Review

By Diane Downey, with Tom March and Adena Berkman. Amacom, 261 pages. $29.95.

It's no secret that bad things often happen to good people who change companies. Despite great track records and impressive skills, many find the transition to a new environment never really clicks, for a variety of reasons. To Diane Downey, a change management consultant, a hallmark of top companies is an ability to assimilate new talent and keep it in the fold.

Washouts are common, Downey notes: Roughly 70 percent of senior executives leave their new positions within their first two years. In many cases, it appears, companies expect top performers to "hit the ground running" and offer minimal support, even though the exec may not have been told much about protocols or company culture, and might have been a poor match from the start.

Downey, president of Downey Associates International in New York, said in an interview that "what initially triggered this book was a retention study we did for [a leading consulting firm]. I was really surprised by the level of anger I got in focus groups from the senior players who had moved to professional service firms from industry. They were caught off-guard by the emotional turmoil of suddenly not knowing whom to trust, being derailed by cultural potholes and organizational barriers. Since then, we've found that this is something that occurs whenever senior leaders enter any...