By David M. Sluss
Stepping into a role as a leader is both challenging and exciting. How you handle this transition can have a huge impact on your career. You need to hit the ground running not only with your bosses and key stakeholders, but also with your direct reports.
Research shows that having a 90-day plan with 30-day and 60-day milestones along the way increases your chances of success. But while these plans are great tools, direct reports will evaluate who you are and what you bring to the table long before you hit those milestones. Indeed, they’ll make “sticky” evaluations of you from the very first conversation. That’s why I think you should have a “Day 1” plan, or what I like to call a “new-leader pitch.”
You should never assume your direct reports will automatically follow your lead just because you have the title of manager or vice president. You must win them over, and you should have a strategy for doing so that you can translate into a cogent set of talking points to guide all your early conversations with them.
What should a new-leader pitch include? To answer this question, I asked full-time professionals, via an online survey platform, what they would want to learn from a new leader in their first conversation. In total 278 people responded. Based on their responses and the research I have conducted over the past decade on work relationships and new employee onboarding, I have created the recommendations that I discuss in this article.
Before you create your new-leader pitch, you should pause to consider what your direct reports might want to learn from their new leader in their first conversation. Based on my research, you can divide your employees roughly into two groups: “warriors” and “worriers.” Each group had a distinct set of concerns. Chances are, you’ll have representatives of each type among your reports, so you’ll need to figure out how to address both in your pitch.
Warriors will evaluate your knowledge, competencies, experience and leadership approach to decide if they will support you. They will want to know if you can handle the job and understand how to help them do theirs better — or will just get in their way. Worriers, in contrast, are more focused on whether you’re a “safe” investment that makes them feel secure in their jobs. How can you set these reports at ease? By clarifying job expectations and sharing your plans for the future.
To address both groups, make sure your pitch provides information on your competencies and the changes you want to make, your experience and expectations, and your overall leadership approach. Jonathan (a pseudonym), a global product development associate at a pharmaceutical company based in the Caribbean who responded to my survey, described how a hired leader did all this in an initial conversation: “The new leader reviewed his past accomplishments in significant detail. It was impressive. He laid out his approach to learning the priorities of the various departments. He also told me that although he would restructure the organization to support the business, jobs and opportunities would expand. No one would be fired, but everyone would need to interview again for positions. That first meeting left quite an impression, and I was excited to see what was to come.” Although it’s true that the prospect of interviewing for positions might have alarmed some worriers, setting clear expectations settled the future for them.
As you craft your new-leader pitch, you should also reflect on how you could get off on the wrong foot — and what you should be doing instead. Focusing on the two recommendations below will help:
Don’t overshare, but do relate to reports on a personal level
Relationships with supervisors can be powerful motivators. Research shows that when a direct report has a strong connection with a leader, the report is more likely to identify with the organization, engage in creative behavior and help others at work. As one professional said in the survey, a good connection with the boss helps with morale and teamwork.
Interestingly, another respondent, an information-technology consultant, provided nuanced guidance on how to create a productive connection by sharing a small bit about their personal life. “Nothing too revealing, but enough to make them feel like an actual person,” he said. Another professional went a bit further: “I would like to know them more, not just about where they worked. ….If they could do anything in life besides what they are doing now, what would that be?”
Ultimately, sharing personal details will make you seem more relatable and may help lay the groundwork for presenting your vision for change and continuity at a later stage. While it may seem as if relaying that vision right away will help you get your reports excited about you, you may not want to rush in, choosing to wait until you know the staff better.
Don’t just share your résumé, but do tell them your ‘story’
While warriors may be examining your experience and worriers may be wondering how it influences your approach to them, both groups want to know about your work history. In particular, they want you to stake your claim as the new leader through your career “story,” or narrative. They want to know, for instance, why this particular job makes sense for you at this time. As one warrior said, “I would like to know what led my supervisor to get into a role like this. We help hospices manage their patient care, and our company is only medium-size and not wealthy. It takes a certain kind of person to give up money and work for a good cause.”
In your narrative, you can and should project your story into the future. Indeed, several respondents to my survey wanted to know about their new leader’s goals for the leadership position itself. A health care industry professional commented: “I would like to know what their vision for the position entails and how this vision affects me personally.” Employees also appreciate it when you explain why your new position is integral to your story and, most important, how your direct reports play a critical role in that story.
Everybody likes to be part of a story—especially a success story. And if, as a new leader, you put some thought into how to make a good first impression on your reports and win their support, you can help them be part of yours.
David M. Sluss is an associate professor of organizational behavior at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business.