Human Resources Videos

Why New Leaders Succeed Or Fail

The Ripple Effect episode examines new research on how successor leaders differ from incumbents, using public‑school principal transitions as a natural laboratory and drawing parallels to corporate CEO changes such as Apple’s upcoming shift from Tim Cook to John Ternus.\n\nThe study finds that a successor’s success hinges on matching their leadership behavior—particularly coaching—to teachers’ perceived need for change. When employees feel improvement is required, coaching boosts engagement and test‑score gains; when they feel the status quo is adequate, the same coaching backfires. By contrast, visionary statements alone have no measurable effect.\n\nResearchers surveyed teachers before and after principal turnovers across more than a hundred schools in seven large districts, revealing that coaching drives collective motivation and performance, while incumbents’ coaching rarely shifts outcomes. The discussion applies these findings to Apple, noting that an insider successor like Ternus, who already understands the organization’s climate, is better positioned to read the room and implement appropriate change.\n\nThe implications are clear for any organization facing leadership turnover: diagnose the workforce’s appetite for change before acting, tailor coaching to that context, and recognize that successors wield disproportionate influence—both positive and negative—on employee motivation and organizational results.