Congratulations, you just got the call, and landed your dream job. The pay is great, hours are manageable and your family and friends are happy for you and your continued success. As you closeout from your current position, you formulate all of the things you wanted to do with your current company, but just couldn’t because of management or did not get enough stakeholders buy-in or any other number of reasons. Yet through it all, you remained a team player and your big break has finally come. Your thoughts go back to your interview process and how you wowed the panel and future employers on what you bringing with your education, leadership style, and strategic thinking to better serve the organization.
As a leader, it’s a great feeling we’ve all had, but as you make the transition, you want to hit the ground running on day one. Before you go too far on your plans there are some thoughts you should consider before running off the deep end with excitement. As a leader, you need to plan-communicate, and create and action plan before Day one.
Attitude
Go into the new company with the right attitude and frame of mind. Leave your old company baggage at the security post. Understand that as the new leader you have to encounter new challenges and personalities of employees who do not know you, your agenda, and what you expect to accomplish. Be authentic but reserved in your interactions initially. Understand that it’s a company, a team, an organization that existed long before your arrival and with any hope, long after, but nonetheless you hope to make a difference in it’s future. Be open-minded for what you may expect to see, but as with any new undertaking, it will take time to evaluate who the leaders, formal and informal, company culture, and even if the company is positioned to move forward.
Review what you’ve already learned about your new organization. Most organization will have two websites, public and internal. The public website will contain information about the company, directions to get to the company, key leaders and public affairs contacts. However, the internal website will contain a wealth of information. By now you should know who are the key stakeholders, their market share and what their future holds and how you as a leader fit into the grand scheme of things. Although a lot of information may be available on-line, check internally as well to get a more detailed review of the company, strategic plan and vision.
Maintaining balance
Remember your family, friends, former colleagues and other loved ones embraced your promotion. Don’t forget them. A proper work life balance with help keep you grounded and all a schedule. All work and no play is no fun. Talk to you spouse and kids to schedule short-term and long-term vacations to unwind. If your children participate in sports, schedule time on your work calendar to go watch them. Kids grow up very fast and you don’t want to miss those opportunities to support them. Employees like to be recognized. Don’t manage by email. Take the time to know key events in your employees’ lives. Whether it is a birthday, marriage anniversaries or their kids’ graduation. Take the time to acknowledge their accomplishments and also work with them so that they will have a balance work-life relationship with their family. Their families will appreciate the sincerity the boss displays and acknowledges.
Meeting with the supervisor
When meeting with your new boss, have a great attitude. Create a leader/follower environment. Chances are your supervisor was involved in hiring you for your position. If so, this will be your first friendly face in the organization and someone whom you can ask questions. Get more insight of what wasn’t discussed during the interview, but also insight of the challenges of your position, whether the person you replaced retired, removed, or transitioned to another leadership position in the company. Inquire if it’s possible to schedule some time with your predecessor. If he/she were like you, they probably can give you some insight on some of the challenges they faced and outcome on certain initiatives and whether management was supportive. During this initial phase, gather as much information as possible. It’s normally standard practice for new employees to have a familiarization session with Chief Operating Officers, or Chief of Staffs to discuss the company’s policies, including the open door policy. By all means, if there are any questions, who to contact. If you get the opportunity to interact with leaders, state your happiness on being offered the opportunity to grow with the company, but more importantly you would like to schedule time with senior leaders and your supervisor in 60-90 days to give you time to evaluate your program, current health and suggested areas of improvement, short and long term.
Get a better understanding of your role in the organization. Although your role will have some level of definition formally. Informally, where does your position stand and does it truly have relevancy in the inner workings of the organization. Many times as a leader, we want to be relevant, but our positioning in the organization makes us less relevant than we recognize or want to be. Discuss strategies with your supervisor and other leaders in the organization to get a better understanding of your position relevancy or if its’ already positioned to be effective.
Who will report to you?
Understanding who reports to you is one of the most important responsibilities you’ll have as a leader. By now, you should’ve met the employees in the immediate area of your office.
Identify resources that will be managed; people, monies, programs. What will impact those resources or are there shared linkages with other organizations. Will your employees be at one location or dispersed globally, internal or external; co-located with customers. Oftentimes leaders, especially new hires, believe that they will be given all the resources needed to be an effective leader. The reality is that oftentimes we are not given what we need, but more so far less than we ever expected. Historically, this can improve over time by a few simple strategies.
Inquire with your current workforce and team leaders what is required to be effective in the performance of their duties, and what the organization is currently lacking. Being sincere and authentic in the request will normally warrant an honest response by those who work roles supporting your position. Also get an understanding of whom you would contact if additional resources were needed.
Will your work be internet-dependent or require major business travel.
Assess the current workforce. Most employees will just want the ability to come to work, do their job, go to lunch and go home on time with minimum impact on their day. However, there will also be a few employees who will question every move you want to make and challenge it. Several steps should take place while doing your employee workforce inventory. Prior to meeting with them on a personal level, have an understanding of what your position entails, and what niche or how your section or division fits into the bigger picture of the organization. Don’t overstate this position. Request feedback from your supervisor and discuss the importance of inventorying those who work for you and how as a leader you want to work hard to have the right skillset and personnel working under your stead.
Also, know and the understand company policies on equal employment opportunity (EEO) and Americans with Disabilities Act programs. Fully support these programs, but also get additional information and briefings from EEO officers on the dos and don’ts of the program. Also try to get feel from the EEO officers if the office has had cross-cultural issues or concerns. Embrace cross-cultural differences and let employees know that you support those programs. Also know who the organizations legal counsel is and how the can support your role as manager.
Talk with your employees? Try to determine from them what has been some of their challenges or what has worked since coming to the organization? Discuss with them the importance of knowing where they fit into the organization and why it’s helpful for them to understand that role. All employees want to feel how the felt on Day One. Although that feeling may have changed over time, employees still want to be comfortable in their role, get increased pay and responsibility and fit into the organization.
By now as a leader you should have taken the time to review their records. Have an honest and productive conversation with them on their strengths and weaknesses. Also discuss areas of improvement. Discuss with them the importance of having an honest assessment of their skills and then they can move forward beyond their current state. In the federal government, OPM uses the 360-feedback model. however as a leader it’s recommended to check with human resources to determine which model works best for the organization. This model allows different people in a person’s organization, supervisors, mentors, and coworkers. Have open conversations about their goals, and aspirations? How can you help them and what kinds of training programs are available? Some may even want your job. Encourage them. What one the biggest benefits of being a leader is growing talent. You will need to delegate certain jobs to others not only to maintain work-life balance, but also because it’s the right thing to do.
Afterwards, take the time to reflect on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) and challenges that were discovered, know and unknown. Your supervisor may not have known some of the employees’ talents, but long-term, it may help them in identifying potential leaders or possibilities for other key positions prior to seeking talent beyond the current inventory.
Your future
What will be the mark that stakeholder’s set for your performance and is the leverage to train others for succession planning? Discuss with your supervision your goals, aspirations and if they will support the training of future leaders? You must take the time to get additional training and school. Being a leader also means being a lifelong learner. Don’t stifle you education just because you have a new position.
Conclusion
Being motivated on Day one is one the best feelings a new leader can have. Although it can be scary, there’s also excitement in the air. Your new organization has embraced you and your attitude has been winning and open-minded, yet authentic. Now go in there on Day One and make the impact that’s expected of you.
The Simple Things That Matter 
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