The hire looked perfect. The resume was impressive. The press conference went great. Everyone was excited. Then October hits and something is off. The new coach isn’t connecting. The new AD is struggling to gain traction. By January, people are whispering. By spring, the search starts again.
This happens constantly in sports. Analysis shows that almost half of FBS programs changed head coaches within a two-year period.1 This sometimes happens because organizations never defined the culture they were hiring into. They didn’t align expectations with resources, which set someone up to fail before day one even started.
Reasons That Year-One Leaders Fail
Credentials get people hired, but they don’t guarantee success. The gap between a great resume and a great first year often has nothing to do with the person’s ability. Instead, it has everything to do with what the organization did—or didn’t do—before and after extending the offer.
Read more: Leadership Assessment: Hire for the Right Manager Match
Expectations Don’t Match Resources
This is the most common cause of failure. A coach gets hired to win a championship. Unfortunately, the budget is the bottom-third of the conference. An AD gets hired to modernize the department, but there’s no investment in technology or staff.
Expectations are high while resources are limited? That’s a bad job. Not because the role is flawed, but because the resources did not match the expectations.
Culture Was Never Defined
Most organizations talk about culture. Few can define it. What does “on time” mean here—8:30 or 9:00? How are decisions made—collaboratively or top-down? How is feedback delivered? What behaviors get rewarded?
When culture isn’t defined, new leaders guess. They bring their own habits from previous environments. Sometimes it works. Often it clashes. The organization blames the hire. But the organization never gave them a target to hit.
The Organization Hired for the Press Conference, Not the Job
Big names generate excitement. They sell tickets. They energize donors. But press conference appeal doesn’t equal job fit. A coach who won everywhere might have won with top-tier resources, but put them in a program with limited funding and the results change. An AD with a great reputation might have created a top-tier culture, but your scope of experience won’t allow you to capitalize on that.
Hiring for optics feels good at the moment. The failed marriage becomes evident in year one.
How Organizations Create the Conditions for Failure
Most organizations don’t intend to set people up to fail. But they do it anyway. The patterns are predictable. The responsibility is clear.
No Onboarding Beyond Logistics
New leaders get office tours. They get org charts. They get passwords. What they don’t get is a real understanding of how things work.
Who holds influence? Where are the landmines? What’s the history behind current tensions?
Getting someone a laptop and a parking pass isn’t the same as actually preparing them to lead.
Assumptions Replace Conversations
Organizations assume the new hire “gets it.” They assume someone with experience doesn’t need guidance. They assume alignment exists because nobody said otherwise.
These assumptions kill year-one success. The conversations that should happen in week one get skipped. Misalignment festers quietly until trust is already damaged.
Support Disappears After the Announcement
The attention is high during the search. Calls get returned. Meetings happen quickly. Then the hire is made, and everyone moves on to the next fire.
The new leader is left to figure it out alone. No check-ins. No feedback loops. No course correction until it’s too late.
A 90-Day Framework That Sets Leaders Up to Win
Real onboarding goes beyond paperwork. It accounts for culture, relationships, and expectations. Here’s what a 90-day framework looks like when it’s built to help leaders succeed.
Days 1–30: Align on Expectations and Resources
Start with radical honesty. What does success look like in year one? What resources are actually available? What constraints exist that weren’t discussed during the interview?
Get alignment in writing and revisit it weekly. No assumptions.
Days 31–60: Build Relationships and Learn the Culture
The second month is about listening. Meet key stakeholders. Understand history. Learn the unwritten rules.
This is where new leaders absorb how things work—not how the org chart says they work. Organizations should facilitate these connections, not leave them to chance.
Days 61–90: Take Ownership with Checkpoints
By month three, the new leader should be moving from learning to leading, but not without support.
- Schedule formal checkpoints.
- Review progress against expectations.
- Surface concerns early.
- Adjust where needed.
If you hand someone responsibility but never check in on how they’re doing, you’re not really managing them—you’re just hoping it works out.
Ready to hire leaders who thrive?
Year-one failure is preventable. It starts with asking harder questions before the offer is extended. It continues with real onboarding after the press conference ends.
Peak Scouts helps organizations define culture, align expectations with resources, and build frameworks that set new leaders up to win. We don’t set it and forget. We stay engaged because long-term success is the only outcome that matters.
Reference
- Marcello, Brandon. “From Top to Bottom, College Football Has Never Seen More Coaching Changes: Study Shows Unprecedented Turnover.” CBS Sports, 27 May 2025, www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/from-top-to-bottom-college-football-has-never-seen-more-coaching-changes-study-shows-unprecedented-turnover/.
