First days in the job

Objective

As a team leader you can only function effectively by maximising the performance of your team. This in turn depends on how you strike and maintain relationships with your team members. Critically you must achieve, from the beginning, a fine balance between asserting clear directions and respecting the contributions of others.

Your first days in a new leadership role are the foundation of these relationships, and you must understand them as such. First encounters with new team members must therefore be thought through and planned. They can never be casual.

During these first days, as a new leader you send clear signals about how you will proceed – while you may wait to make decisions and changes, from the start you will nonetheless set a tone and create firm expectations.

Your every move will be scrutinised, and you must be sure you convey exactly the image you want.

Context

How a leader handles the first days in a new role – with such a strong emphasis on relationships – forms part of the strategy for an organisation’s people, their roles and their value. Thus, during initial meetings with staff in a new organisation, you must indicate your attitude to:

• the value of experience – how your organisation regards the acquired value of accumulated experience;
• the team as a ‘community of knowledge’ – how your organisation identifies the premium attached to knowledge as a competitive advantage, and to the importance of continuing learning;
• the role of the leader in the knowledge community – how you respect learning, and yourself display the art of learning;
• the power of innovation – how innovation drives the responsive twenty-first-century business;
• the power of listening – how you listen and respect the opinions of others;
• the nature of decision-making – how you balance your own decisiveness with the need to empower others to be decisive; and
• the power of principle – how you set an example personally and professionally.

Above all, your role is to demonstrate the value of knowledge, and the knowledge value which all your team members bring.

Challenge

Sometimes, when interviewed for new roles, leaders are asked:

• How will you manage your first days in the role?
• What specific strategies and actions will you adopt to manage your ‘entry’?

If ever a couple of questions revealed more in what they don’t say than in what they do, these are they. They betray an anxiety about introducing new blood, even though it may well have been the very reason for considering the leader’s appointment at all!

This is the paradox you will face in the first days in a new leadership role. You will want to:

• respect the team in place, and be seen to be respectful and appreciative;
• impose your own mark of individuality.

Your challenge is not to allow concerns about ‘rocking the boat’ to undermine your distinctive approach.

Success

First days can be enhanced immeasurably by careful planning. As a new leader, you should think about some key principles.

• Information – obtain as much information about your new team before entry, notably from organisation charts. It is worth the time and effort to request and study these because they will give you a broad contextual view of your new organisation. This alone may reveal some issues.
• Planning – plan the very first day in advance with the help of those who recruited you. The aim should be to meet or speak to direct reports immediately; and thereafter to meet all other staff working in the base office (if this is practical). Allow as much time for this as possible.
• Dress – remember that even dress will convey many messages. You should think about the style you are conveying – physical appearance often reveals as much as words.
• Direct reports – meet your direct reports as a group and set out your approach. This is not about conveying answers but setting the agenda for the way of working. Make it clear that you will be spending quality time not only with your direct reports, but with as many other staff you are responsible for as is practical. Tell the group something about yourself, your background and your experience – if conveyed sensitively, this helps to establish personal authenticity.
• Staff meeting – speak also, if appropriate, to the larger group of your team members. This is a crucial moment as it will set the tone. You should not be afraid to take questions and make sure you give straight, non-evasive answers. If you don’t know an answer, say so. Follow-up with an introductory e-mail to all staff.
• Stakeholders – identify, in advance if possible, who the key stakeholders are. This should include key strategic partners, suppliers and customers. You should ensure that they are contacted early and that you have plans laid out to meet them.

Pitfalls

If ‘first days’ are vital in creating appropriate impressions, they also run the risk of creating poor impressions – which can take much longer to eliminate. The main pitfalls are as follows.

• A lack of planning – if you give no thought to the ‘entry’ sequence of events – notably who needs to be seen and when – then the likely haphazard outcome risks alienating key staff.
• Inadequate communication – communication comes free, but poor communication carries a heavy price; be seen to communicate inadequately and you set a tone (of not seeming to be bothered) which may take weeks or months to eradicate.
• A ‘know-it-all’ approach – no leader should ever convey the impression that they have all the answers. This risk can be high as you may start feeling the need to justify your appointment. Any suggestion that the existing colleagues’ experience is not valued can backfire. Modesty in the early days is a definite requirement!
• Inappropriate decision-making – any new leader may face unresolved decisions waiting to be made. Where possible, you should defer them so you are not forced into precipitate decisions based on inadequate evidence. Equally, you should not introduce change based on your own predetermined ideas without being seen to be learning about your new role and gathering evidence.

Leaders’ checklist

• Ensure that you receive as much relevant advance information about your new team as possible – organisation charts, budgets, business plans, recent appraisals, CVs.
• Plan day one with a specific, timed agenda and a focus on communication – ensure that the timetable allows for any variation in staff start times.
• If possible, have the agenda announced to your team before you actually start – as part of your ‘induction’ process.
• For individual, team and staff meetings, plan their locations and any support you may need – refreshments, presentation equipment, etc.
• Prepare notes in advance for all your key meetings to ensure that you don’t miss any key messages – nerves may make this more likely than usual.
• Allow for time to have introductory one-to-one meetings (121s) with direct reports.
• Ensure that key stakeholders are identified and met or contacted.