The Honeymoon's Over
by Walter Sonyi, Jr.
If starting a new job makes you nervous, don't relax-it should. How
you manage your first
weeks in a new executive position can carve a path toward success or
mark the beginning of
your inevitable demise.
"There is no honeymoon. Once you're on board, you're on display,"
said Dory Hollander, founding partner of Wise Workplaces, an Arlington,
Virginia-based executive coaching firm.
Just as you need a strategy for getting a new job, you should have
a good strategy for starting one or your early missteps may come back
to haunt you. Here are pointers from executive consultants and coaches
for ensuring a smooth and successful transition into a new position:
Check your assumptions at the door.
Before you begin, remind yourself that you are entering a new corporate
culture, which might be radically different from the one you left. For
instance, you may have worked in an office that thrived on confrontation,
but that kind of aggressive style may not be acceptable in your new
job. Or perhaps the earnest, self-effacing approach that was effective
in your past might be mistaken for a lack of resolve at your new company.
"You need to understand the nuances of the new culture and let
go of the nuances of the culture you came from," said Hollander.
It's more difficult than it sounds, as it could mean adapting ingrained
work habits, especially if you spent several years in your previous
position.
Get with the program.
You probably have a good sense of your job responsibilities. But do
you understand how your job fits in with the overall mission and strategy
of the company? If you don't, sit down with your boss and find out how
your results affect the bottom line.
A surprising number of executives work without that knowledge, which
makes it difficult, if not impossible, to prioritize effectively, said
Caela Farren, president of Mastery Works, an Annandale, Virginia talent
management firm. "I always ask them how they make decisions without
knowing. How do they choose what to focus on?" Farren said. "Especially
these days, when we're trying to up performance and do more with less,
it's more and more important that people are really hooked in to what's
important to the organization."
And don't assume that those reporting to you understand how their jobs
tie into the company's mission. If you make sure they know, you will
not only help them focus, but you will empower them. "Knowing the
mission and strategies gives people a great sense of pride, meaning
and commitment," Farren said.
Identify your network of support.
Your first days on the job should be spent getting to know the people
upon whom you will rely, as well as those who will rely upon you. In
the first few months on the job, you should meet face-to-face with these
people. If you manage people in different locations, start traveling.
Find out how they work, what stumbling blocks they face, what they need
to succeed. What do they expect of you? Build an organizational chart
if there isn't one, and create a plan for communicating regularly with
the members of your team.
Devote extra time to establishing good relations with the administrative
assistants of anyone whose ear you hope to have, including your own
boss. Administrative assistants, who often have more power than assumed,
are sometimes the confidantes not only of a top executive but a whole
group of executives. If you are sarcastic or dismissive with them, they
may give you a negative review when a higher-up asks them, "What
do you think of the new guy?"
"Never think going into an organization that you are too big or
too powerful or too important to pay attention to this very critical
group of people," said Hollander. "They may be the watchdogs
of the culture."
Listen and learn.
One of the best ways to start a new job is to be open about what you
don't know and to use your newness to ask questions. For many executives,
displaying ignorance is difficult to do, but it's essential. After all,
you may know your field, but as a newcomer to a specific company, there's
no reason you should know everything about the way it operates.
Confront the legacies of your hire.
One of the stickiest challenges of starting a new job is dealing with
the internal candidates who were passed over for the position you got.
Ask your boss for the background, and then approach those people directly.
"Incite the dialogue rather than try to ignore it," said
Michael Shahnasarian, president and founder of Career Consultants of
America, Inc. in Tampa, Florida. "You can't go in there like a
bull in a china shop. You have to be very knowledgeable of all these
little dynamics that could undercut your effectiveness."
Soon after starting in a new management position at a brokerage firm,
one of Shahnasarian's clients ran into difficulties with a subordinate
who had been passed over for his job. The subordinate not only was angry;
he had the sympathies of his co-workers. Shahnasarian counseled his
client to befriend the man and look at ways to help him advance his
career goals elsewhere in the organization. The client did, and ultimately,
the subordinate was transferred to a different department, where he
got the promotion he had wanted.
If you were hired at a particularly high salary for your company, you
should be careful not to mention a fancy vacation, a new car or anything
that will suggest you're flaunting your hefty compensation.
Approach change carefully.
A common mistake of new executives is to make a change that is less
rooted in strategy than in a desire to flex one's muscles. Those changes
often backfire, as they don't take into consideration what is actually
needed or how the employees will react to the message.
"Changing the wrong thing, or changing things too soon, is worse
than not changing anything at all," McKay said. "You need
to know what the impact of the change is going to be. You have to know
enough about the organization to know what change is going to be effective
in bringing about the desired results."
Limit your promises.
New executives often make too many promises about the things they are
going to change. This tendency is often motivated by enthusiasm for
the job or a desire to win over new colleagues, career counselors say.
But you'll do better to hold your tongue until you know not only what
needs changing, but also the most effective way to achieve those changes.
Develop an exit plan.
It seems counterintuitive, but developing an exit plan before starting
a new job-or even before accepting a new position-may be the best thing
for your career, according to Hollander of Wise Workplaces.
Hollander counsels her clients to develop an exit plan that includes
how long they will stay in the job, when they will leave and, most important,
what they want to leave with. What skills do you want to acquire? What
kind of contacts do you want to have? What kind of new knowledge?
"That's a developmental plan that has teeth in it," Hollander
said. "If you just say, 'I've got some goals', those goals will
be blown away the first month you're there. They'll evaporate because
there will be so much on your plate. Your exit plan won't evaporate
because it has got dates and timelines of what you need to learn by
what time. It compresses your developmental approach."
Said Hollander, "You will be a better executive, a better entrepreneur,
if you start with the exit in mind."
After all, your overall goal is not simply to start a great job, but
to build a stellar career.
Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter
Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann
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