How to Lead Super Talented Leaders The Right Way from Day 1

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Upcoming Featured Events at Executiv

In celebration of International Women’s Day and the theme Give to Gain, Executiv is hosting a Women in the C-Suite Fireside Chat with some of Canada’s most inspiring executive women leaders.

This conversation is designed to go beyond titles and spotlight the remarkable leadership journeys behind them.

Featuring:
 • Christine Cruz-Clarke, President, Unilever Beauty & Wellbeing
 • Mandy Mail, MBA, BBA Mail, Executive Vice President, Head of Marketing, Corporate Affairs & GreenShield Cares, GreenShield

Moderated by:
Krisztina Virag, Executiv Member & Managing Director, We Are Social

Together, they’ll discuss:
 • Leadership lessons learned on the path to the C-suite
 • How visibility, reciprocity, and allyship accelerate women’s impact
 • Practical insights for navigating influence, change, and growth

This is a members only event, designed to create space for candid conversations within the Executiv women+ leaders community.

👉 Not a member but want access?
Apply to join Executiv and gain priority complimentary access to our events, peer advisory groups, executive coaching, and a powerful network of women leaders shaping the future of work.

The smartest people you’ll ever hire can be the easiest and sometimes the hardest to manage.

Why would they be hard to manage? Because they have much higher expectations.

Top performers don’t need you to hold their hand. But they do need you on your A game. They are unlikely to work for a manager who can’t lead them effectively.

If you hired a superstar into a tier two or three company without a top-of-market salary or brand name to fall back on, your margin for error is thin.

The place most leaders get this wrong is at the very beginning. Onboarding. 

The first 90 days.

The number one mistake leaders make with top talent is assuming they’ll figure it out on their own.

I’ve seen it firsthand. A senior hire comes in. Day one is a blur of laptop setup and HR paperwork. There’s little real onboarding from their actual leader and many times that leader is not even around the week they start. So, by week two, they’re already questioning whether they made the right call.

Some managers, and I say this with zero diplomacy, expect high performers to onboard themselves. That is not confidence in your hire. It is negligence dressed up as autonomy.

Replacing a leader costs organizations an average of 50–200% of their annual salary. Yet the majority of companies still get onboarding catastrophically wrong.

So regardless of what your organization has in place, you as the executive who made the hire are responsible for getting this right. Don’t outsource it entirely to HR.

Here’s what the best managers do differently:

1. They onboard the new hire to the company culture.
Onboarding is not just reviewing the annual business plan or team priorities. The best managers explain how the company actually works. How decisions get made and what the culture is really like. They share who holds formal and informal influence and they provide this context generously. They act as a mentor and ally who wants their new hire to succeed from day one.

2. They onboard the new hire to the team’s culture.
Every team has its own operating rhythm. How do we communicate? How do we handle conflict? What does “great” look like here? Don’t make someone spend three months decoding this through observation. If the team is on the verge of burnout or doesn’t get along with you at this stage of growth, be honest about that too.

3. They are explicit about expectations.
Top performers hate ambiguity more than they hate hard work. They want to know what winning looks like. They are there to win and to help you win. Be clear about your priorities and what keeps you up at night. Let them know why you hired them over everyone else and what you think you can build together.

4. They explain how they lead.
This is the step most managers skip. Tell your hire what to expect from you and what your leadership style is. How do you give feedback? What frustrates you? What do you value? What do you need from them to do your job well? The best leaders I’ve worked for did this for me. It removes so much of the guess work in the first 90 days. If you don’t like meetings, tell them (I don’t iykyk). If you prefer informal chats, tell them. If you don’t respond to emails within the hour, tell them. If you start emailing at 7am but don't expect them to, make sure they know.

5. They build a real 30/60/90 day plan together. This is not your generic checklist, but a focused plan with defined outcomes at each stage. This can be a one-page document. What does success look like at 60 days? At 90 days? If you're expecting them to submit a new strategy or to take over a project asap, let them know. Doing this shows that you’ve invested in their success before they’ve delivered a single result. Don’t skip this part no matter how busy you are.

6. They help with understanding key relationships.
Give them a clear view of who’s who. Who are the stakeholders that can accelerate progress or block it? For the love of the universe, please make the introductions where needed. Don’t leave them to cold-navigate a new complex organization. Even senior leaders find this exhausting. Not everyone is an extrovert, and no one enjoys guessing the political landscape and emailing the wrong person for an 'Intro chat’.

7. They set context for the role itself.
Are they stepping into a newly created role with no playbook? Or inheriting a team that just lost a leader they loved? Are they walking into stability or a dysfunctional team? These are completely different assignments. They deserve to know which one it is and what the transition will realistically look like.

Top talent will figure a lot out on their own. That’s what makes them exceptional.

But how you onboard them tells them everything about how you lead. It tells them whether they made the right bet on you and the organization.

They chose you over other options. Show them they made the right choice.

Executiv New Leaders Coaching Program

We built our new leaders program because we’ve seen what happens when leaders are hired or promoted without the right support — and we’ve seen what’s possible when they’re set up to succeed from day one.

The Executiv New Leaders Coaching Program is an 8-week immersive experience for new women leaders, Directors and VPs combining:

• 30-minute LIVE leadership lessons
• 60-minute personalized executive coaching
• Peer-Advisory and discussions

Led by Sara Curwen, Executiv Core Coach, former COO, and Harvard MBA with deep expertise in Supply Chain and Operations across Food & Beverage and CPG. She is known for building high-performing teams, leading transformations, and translating strategy into measurable results.

Sara brings a bias for action and a passion for developing confident, accountable leaders.

Leadership Capabilities Developed:
✓ Shift from doer to strategic leader
✓ Build high-performing teams with clear accountability
✓ Navigate politics and stakeholder dynamics
✓ Communicate with executive presence
✓ Strengthen visibility and leadership brand

Confidence & Mindset Growth:
✓ Increased leadership confidence
✓ Clarity on vision and values
✓ Reduced imposter syndrome
✓ Tools to manage stress and avoid burnout
✓ A trusted peer community

Across 8 weeks, leaders move from early uncertainty to decisive action — equipped with a clear 90-day roadmap, elevated influence, and the confidence to lead effectively and deliver results.

Learn more and apply here.

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To learn more about our private network for women in leadership (Directors to C-Suite), as well as our executive coaching programs, community, and events, email us at [email protected] or visit www.executiv.ca.

Our invite-only network brings together 190+ top women in leadership from global Fortune 500 companies like Miele, Google, Amazon, and Colgate, as well as leading Canadian organizations including RBC, TD, Scotiabank, Canadian Tire, and many more.

We are a community that is highly vetted, deeply connected, and committed to each other’s success.

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