Whether you are promoted, given a new role to lead a team, or new to managing people entirely, there are several things you can do to ease into the work without losing your rhythm. There will be many changes in the way you work but these should not stop you from doing your work well.
A good organization will have an onboarding program for new leaders. However, most organizations do not have a built-in onboarding program and they rely solely on the person to adapt to the new environment. These new managers might even find themselves in a hostile environment where the person they are replacing is instructed to teach them the tasks of the position before resigning. Add to these are the pressures of the new work environment and the new people you need to deal with.
The first thing you need to do, then, is to understand the work cycle and the deliverables of your team. Familiarize yourself quickly with the workflows and, if possible, ask several team members to walk you through their workload. This will help you get a feel of their work cadence and at the same time provide you an insight to their learning opportunities. Reinforce common work processes but also take note of inconsistencies because these point to a misalignment of workflows. You can then engage your team to work on those inconsistencies and discover the best way of doing them.
After understanding what needs to be done, take time to reflect which areas in the workload you need help in and identify the people in your team who can help you in that area. This will also provide a touchpoint in getting to know your team better, and hopefully it becomes the push for keeping them engaged and productive.
If you can and time permits, take courses offered by your learning and development department so you equip yourself with the soft skills needed in handling the different issues of your team. If you see common issues for the team, engage your training department for other learning interventions which can benefit the entire team. You also encourage your team to continuously learn and seek to equip themselves to become better at what they do.
Remember that you were hired or promoted for a reason. Make sure you set a time to talk to your manager about what their expectations are and the goals of the team. This ensures that you are aligned with the organization’s goals and targets. Take the time to also ask your manager the pain points in the team so you can start investigating root causes and plan how to improve the team’s work processes. It would also help to understand what your manager’s key performance indicator is so you can align your goals and strategies. Identify quick wins to inspire your team and to improve your credibility.
Do not be afraid to ask questions to further understand work force expectations and needs. This is helpful in understanding what your team really feels, but at the same time it also provides you an avenue to temper expectations and allay fears. Remember that they were led by someone that you replaced, and they might expect you to carry over certain processes that you do not agree with. Manage your team’s expectations by answering their questions, but do not also be afraid to set your own expectations. Make sure they know where you stand on certain processes so they can also align themselves to your expectations.
After ascertaining your team’s goals and areas of development, you also need to understand the organizational structure and identify the decision-makers in the company. This will be a challenge if you are new, but this will help you understand the power dynamics of management. Aside from the reporting lines, you also need to know your main customers so you can understand their needs and your team can provide better goods or services.
Create your own network by tapping into the informal organizational chart. These are people who might not be recognized formally but contribute significantly to the smooth flow of transactions between departments and offices. You can identify them by asking the go-to people for certain parts of the workflow. Often, these people do not take management roles but because of their tenure and good working relationship with others, they get the work done quickly.
At the start go with the flow without compromising your own values. Understand how decisions are made within the team and adapt your decision-making as needed. What people do not want is for you to disrupt what they have been doing. Understand their processes first and then recommend better ways of doing things after. The team needs to understand you can learn their process so that they know you completely understand their ways of working. Once they know that, it will be easier for you to convince them how to do it better because they know you have put in the effort into understanding their way of working.
Practice saying “no” to tasks and projects which do not add value to your work. It is understandable to bend your work habits in the beginning because you want to create a good impression with your manager. But success in your new role means focusing on the goals and deliverables of your position, and this means saying “no” to workloads that do not contribute to your success. This will also prevent others from taking advantage of you because you are new to the role and they know you are out to impress. As early as your first week, you need to set boundaries so people will not exploit you.
Onboarding to a new role can be both challenging and fulfilling, but if done right it can yield better working relationships with your team and your manager. You were trusted with the position because management believes you can do the job well. All you have to do is prove them right.