005 - What should I do first In my new senior-level job?
“I’m joining a new organization next week as a senior member of the leadership team. I worked for my previous organization for quite a long time, but I haven’t started with a brand new organization in a while nor have I joined at this level before. When I moved within the previous company I usually had some context about the line of business or team before actually starting. I’m eager to make a big impact and impress my new colleagues, especially the hiring manager who took a chance on me. What can I do in my first few weeks to start off on the right path?”
-Starting strategically
Congrats on the new role - it is always exciting and a little daunting to jump into a brand new organization. Hopefully your new team has a decent onboarding strategy that takes care of the logistics from day one (paperwork, equipment, introductions) so you can focus on the more strategic pieces.
As a starting point, I’m a big fan of the book The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins which provides a helpful guide to determine what framework you are walking into and what actions you might need to take. There is a lot of good content in the book to help you start well. I’ll also share some of my own best practices with you.
When I join a new organization, the things I focus on first are:
Setting clear expectations
Listening with humility
Building trust
Being kind to myself
Setting clear expectations
The first expectation I set is with myself. I decide that I’m not going to do anything but listen and absorb information for 30 days. I’m not going to change any team structures or come to any conclusions or recommendations. Just listen. This is hard because I want to jump in and ‘add value’ right away. But it’s important.
I recommend you choose your duration and set off on your listening tour. Throughout the period, start with very broad questions and notice your thoughts and follow-ups getting more nuanced and specific as time passes (this means you are learning!).
This is an important expectation to set with your boss as well - you want their support and agreement on listening as the top priority. Along the way, make sure to capture what you hear and what you learn to share back with the leadership team. They will be interested in your perspective as a newcomer with fresh ears and eyes.
Listening with humility
Because I spend 30 days just listening and learning, it’s important to talk to a whole bunch of people across the organization. And what’s extra important while listening is to assume I do not know things. That is where humility comes in. Because I’m there to learn, I don’t try to sound smart or like I know what I’m talking about (because I don’t)! I ask dumb questions. I rephrase things to make sure I got it. People pick up on genuine curiosity and truly want to share what they know.
As part of my onboarding plan, I ask my manager for a list of people to meet and make a calendar to connect with 1-2 per day. More than two a day and my brain stops retaining useful information. I use these meetings to get to know the other person and build a connection and also bring some thought-provoking questions to go a little deeper. Such as:
What has surprised you most about this organization
What are the biggest changes you have experienced in your role
What is the best piece of advice you have for someone new to the group
What have you learned recently
What is the biggest challenge in getting projects done here
What do you love about this group? What do you wish you could change tomorrow
Who should I talk to next
I also make sure to talk to people who have the same or similar roles throughout the organization - asking questions about how they do the work, best practices and watch-outs. This is a great network to tap into in the early days and further down the road. People who have been there and done it are incredible allies.
Finally, I make a point to drill down as far as I can into the organization and talk to the people who are closest to customers. That might look like side-by-sides with the operations team, watching engineers code, listening in on customer calls or visiting a physical location. The people who interact with your customers will likely love to meet a leader and have some interesting experiences to share.
During your listening tour and beyond, talk to a variety of people throughout the organization, build connections and make sure you capture people’s contact information so you can follow up as you get more situated in the role and want to revisit ideas with them.
Building trust
You will want to quickly build trust with your new team and with the leadership team you have joined including your direct manager. All these people will have questions about who you are as a person an how you will approach your role. Do what you can to let them in and ease any worries they may have. Some tactics you can employ from day one:
Share your working and communication style with your direct reports - what is the best way to get in touch with you, what are your preferences for receiving information. Ask the team to share their preferences as well.
Start each of your leadership team meetings with a human-centric question such as: something that you’re excited about and something that you’re being challenged by; high point for the previous week; what everyone did over the weekend.
Where possible, share your approach with your team - don’t go too deep or overpromise, but if you can offer broad strokes like: I’m going to listen for 30 days followed by synthesis and coming up with tentative areas for improvement that I’d like your input on. We’ll have a team offsite in 2 months to agree and align on direction before pursuing major changes. People don’t like surprises so give them a little bit of a roadmap.
With your peers and manager you can employ some of the same strategies - the main push here is to answer some of the questions people might have about you so you can all get down to work.
Being kind to yourself
Starting anything new requires mental, emotional and physical energy. You are out meeting people, you are gathering and synthesizing information, you are building new neural networks to house all the information you encounter. You might not be sleeping as deeply because of the anxious excitement before and during those early weeks. Taking care of yourself and your brain during this time is non-negotiable.
To create the space and time for all of this activity I recommend two things:
First, do an audit of the ‘other stuff’ that takes your time and attention and make some cuts. That might look like scaling back on board commitments or volunteering for a few months. It could be that you aren’t running the PTA this fall or only participating in one extracurricular sport instead of two. I tend to cut back to nearly zero on the ‘extra’ stuff when I start a new job and use that as a catalyst to re-evaluate and only add back in the things that are truly adding value to my life.
Second, prioritize keeping up with the things that protect your health. Keep your regular sleep schedule, don’t skip your workouts, eat in a way that feels good for you. It can be tempting to dive all in and spend evenings reading the endless decks instead of going for your walk or going to breakfast every morning for a coffee meet and greet. Because of the extra tax on your body during this time it is especially important to keep up with the things that keep you high-energy and ready to crush it. Don’t neglect those small habits or it will come back to bite you.
Best of luck as you head into this new role - with a bit of strategy and a dose of humility I have no doubt your first days and weeks will be fruitful!