9 out of 10 People Make these 3 mistakes with new leadership roles? Are you one of them?

One constant with organizations ironically is change.

In recent years, organizational leadership changes have been dominant given COVID-19, remote work, supply chain issues, great resignation, quiet quitting, return to work mandates, and so forth.

If you happen to be one of those leaders taking on new roles or if you’re one of the team members lucky enough to be inheriting new leaders, It is important to avoid 3 mistakes that make assimilation longer than it should be.

By avoiding these mistakes, you’ll help build goodwill early in a new leadership experience and create a solid foundation for your new teams

Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

Here are the 3 mistakes that I have seen with new leaders that you can avoid or help a new leader avoid in a new role:

Mistake 1: Not Declaring Yourself.

As a new leader, most people want to know about who you are and how you’ll act.

If you do not clarify that, your team will likely make up their own story. One of the best ways I’ve learned to do this is from a practice called “Declaring Yourself” from Doug Conant. You can read more from the practice below.

In this process, he discusses topics you’ll want to clarify in a document with your team as early as possible. Areas like

• What is important to you

• What kind of leader you’re trying to become

• What you value in an organization

• What you seek in direct reports

• How you believe your industry operates

• Your planning philosophy

• Your operating style

• Your background

• Your favorite quotes

Having used this document with my teams, I can assure you it is one of the most positive steps you can take early on to avoid ambiguity and begin building trust.

Mistake 2: Not Giving Your Team the tools/format to communicate with you.

This mistake occurs when you do not clarify how you want to receive information.

Chances are you have a way you have been used to getting information and the team has a way it was used to sharing information. It is important you take the time to reconcile that.

Simple steps you can take to drive this are:

• Figure out the formal reporting mechanisms and templates being used.

• Ask about the informal processes being used.

• (Optional): Share what you’d like to see AND why if it is different from what your new team is used to including

  • Templates you want to use

  • Formats you want to use

  • Operating mechanisms you want to use

Importantly, give the team the time to adjust to the changes you may propose in the communication process you would like:

Mistake 2: Not Structuring Your Communication Cycles.

Last area leaders make an avoidable mistake is not structuring what they want to be communicated and when which results in sometimes unnecessary adhoc requests in the team.

Simple way to think about this is to ask yourself based on the business you are in the following questions.

By Day of Week: What do we need to know and share?

• These will likely be operational highlights and escalations

By Week of Month: What do we need to know by week and share?

• These will likely include but not be limited to

  • Financial results(Week 1)

  • Project Updates(Week 2)

  • Enterprise Risk Items(Week 3)

  • People Updates(Week 4)

  • Current month forecast(every week)

By Month of The Quarter: What do we need to know by month and share?

• These will likely include but not be limited to

  • Prior quarter accomplishments and communication(Month 1)

  • Next Quarter Financial Forecasts(Month 2)

  • Formalizing Next Quarter Big Rocks(Month 3)

All these are examples but not prescriptive. The point is to be explicit with your new team or to ask your leader enough questions to get their view on how they like to work so you limit the guessing in their new role.

In a sentence, Avoiding these 3 mistakes is about codifying how work is intended to happen. Simple Not Easy 🙂 

Thanks for reading. Have a great week!

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