Nine Rules For Successfully On-boarding To a New Position

I am working with a experienced client who just accepted a leadership position with an organization on the other side of the country.  To displace his rumbling sense of guilt at his act of “disloyalty” – did he place his own career interests ahead of his allegiance to his current organization where he has been treated well for the past 13 years? – he is anxiously wondering how to prepare himself for his new role so that he makes and has a strong, positive impact from the start.

In preparing to work with him, I consulted Michael Watkins’ excellent book The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders. Here are some “Rules” to follow, based on his kernels of advice, that all people embarking on a new job can adopt to accelerate their time to productive performance.

1. Fully separate from your past job. Transitions are critical times in which a new leader (or any employee who wishes to make a contribution and be seen as having high potential) can decide how to make a mark on the organization. But first, you need to let go of the past even if it means going through a process of “mourning”.  You must release yourself from all obligations and constraints of the previous role, and mentally promote yourself into your new role so you are ready to take on the new set of challenges.
2. Quickly gain clarity about expectations. Be well prepared and proactive as you explore and clarify what is expected.  Establishing a shared understanding about common frameworks very early on will enable you to more effectively take charge and benefit the organization.
3. Listen to accelerate your learning.  You may have been hired for your brilliance or expertise, but you must be in learning mode when you begin at the organization.  Use your first few weeks to systematically find out who are the key players and best sources of insight, irrespective of their roles or titles, and what are the most pressing and important issues. Ask questions to reveal what the underlying issues may be, and allow time for you to absorb and process the answers so you can more accurately diagnose the situation and develop the right strategy.
4. Create a compelling vision.  People will be looking to you for inspiration and possible new direction, so, once you have heard their perspectives, begin to craft a vision of the future of the organization.
5. Secure early wins. While you are creating a compelling vision and building your personal credibility, you need to focus both on identifying the top handful of priorities and also on getting started improving a few select areas of organizational performance.  Pick ones easily recognizable as important, and avoid falling into the trap of trying to do too much too early.
6. Solidify relationships, and build your team.  It is critical to build a productive working relationship with your new boss. Negotiate what you both mean by “success” as well as how you will meet expectations.  By creating a conversational framework where you are both “on the same page”, you should come to agreement about your diagnosis, plans and resource requirements. With your organizational architecture in place and a good awareness of the root causes of any area needing improvement, you will then be in position to build your team and to align the strategy, structure, systems, skills and culture. If new team processes are required, put them in place.  If there is tension between what is needed inside your team and what is needed for the whole organization, manage it in addition to any tension between short and long term goals.
7. Create coalitions and keep your balance.  Do not make the mistake of thinking that your title or position of authority is enough to get things accomplished. You will need to identify whose support is critical, who has influence across the organization and who is likely to resist change.  All too frequently, new leaders are thrown off balance by all of the demands they face, so it is important to have good self-management strategies, to practice personal disciplines and to be able to draw upon the support of an advice-and-counsel network.
8. Create an implementation plan.  A good tip is to create a personal implementation plan.  Before you step into your new office, write down the answers to these questions:  What do I wish to accomplish by the end of Day 1? Week 1? Month 1? Month 2? Month 3?
9. Expedite everyone.  Taking a new leadership role is an opportunity not only for you but also for members of the whole organization to take a fresh look at not only how they do business but also to implement well-needed and productive changes.  Most organizations operate on the principle of “sink or swim”, but forward-thinking people can pre-empt problems and plan their way to success.

Fredia Woolf, founder of Woolf Consulting, blogs to help people improve their workplace effectiveness and optimize their careers.  As an organizational consultant and leadership coach, she works with clients to increase insight, inspiration and impact. She can be reached at fwoolf@woolfconsulting.com.

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How Misery Can Turn To Happiness: A Summer Tale

I am on vacation this week on Cape Cod.  It has been a very hot summer, and I was looking forward to a pleasant week of relaxation, enjoying the warm sun, long walks on the miles of golden beaches, biking along the sand dunes and indulging in fresh seafood and summer ice cream cones as I strolled around the harbor watching the boats bobbing gently in the cooling ocean breeze.  These images kept me going during the sweltering, pressure-filled weeks of deadlines and to-do lists running up to this vacation. 

Now we are here, and the reality has not at all lived up to its billing.  We are in the third day of a nor’easter that has brought high winds and driving rain.  The cottage we rented has become claustrophobic.  We have ventured to the beach every day layered to the hilt with our inadequate summery clothes; the sea is grey and wild, and we come back drenched and shivering.  And, the forecast calls for the return to brilliant warmth and sunshine on the day we are leaving.

Now, isn’t this typical?

It strikes me that this experience is a metaphor for all of life’s expectations, and it is a good reminder for me to practice what I preach.  Instead of bemoaning my fate and the miserable weather, I choose to look at the situation through a different lens.  Instead of feeling like a persecuted victim of circumstances and of the rain gods, I am determined to stay appreciative and to enjoy the unexpected, unintended pleasures of a series of wet days.  Recognizing that I am just not going to get that easy feeling of wellbeing that lovely, warm days bring, I have to put my expectations aside and work a little harder to get the dopamine and other “happiness hormones” into my brain.

Instead, think of all the wonderful compensations!  My beach walks are bracing and, coming back with red cheeks and soaked clothes, I’ll remember them forever. I spare the world the uncomfortable view of my lumps and bumps in a swimsuit and spare my skin from nasty solar radiation. I can go to matinees at the local movie theater and watch escapist movies.  I can complete a jigsaw puzzle.  I can read to my heart’s content.  I can produce this blog on time.  I can try out new recipes.  I can spend time with my significant other without any pressure to do anything.  I can laze around and not feel guilty.  And on and on.  I’ve convinced myself.  From now on, my vacations will be in November!

So, what does this have to do with you as you run your organization or search for your next job?

Everything.

What this blog is actually about is Managing Your Expectations and Reframing – the famous mindshift technique that helps the Danes — who have the worst weather in the world — constantly score at the top of the happiness league tables.

Here are some questions to consider if you want to master the technique:

What is it you expect from your colleagues? Bosses? Family? Job search?  Organization? Self?

How do you react when those expectations are not met?  Are you angry? Frustrated? Resentful? Do you feel you have been persecuted? Victimized? Unfairly treated?

Well, think again.  Take a good hard look at those expectations, and remind yourself that they are simply a story you told yourself. Also, remind yourself that you are quite capable of telling yourself a different story more closely aligned with reality.

Voila!  You have just learned the secret of happiness.  Shift those mind-limiting, closing-down expectations. Open yourself to reinterpreting what is actually going on, and the world becomes a different place.  Suddenly, you see things differently, you experience them differently, you react differently. And then, your luck seems to change.

Try it out, and let me know how you do.

Fredia Woolf, founder of Woolf Consulting, blogs to help people improve their workplace effectiveness and optimize their careers.  As an organizational consultant and leadership coach, she works with clients to increase insight, inspiration and impact. She can be reached at fwoolf@woolfconsulting.com.

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Should You Approach Life and Career As Would an Artist/Entrepreneur?

I am reading the novel Parrot and Olivier in America, by Peter Carey. It is based on the travels of a young French nobleman, Alexis de Tocqueville, who visited the United States in the early 1800s and wrote about the young country.  His observations about the American “character” and society were captured in his work, Democracy in America. I am not madly enjoying the book, but I am sufficiently intrigued by the human characterization of a developing nation to press on.

What strikes me is, at that time, everyone was in some form or other an “artist” or an “entrepreneur”.  In the absence of rules and a strict blueprint for acceptable behavior, the human spirit seemed inventive, daring, courageous, self-reliant and devious.  When employment was unstable and social structures in flux, people were forced to live off their wits and to make things happen for themselves.

It could be argued that, outside of certain well-established institutions, conditions two hundred years ago bear some resemblance to those today. Everywhere we look today, the rules are changing.  The old codes and expectations of employers and employees are outdated.  The way we work and the way we think about work is splintered and fragmented.  In a 24/7, wired (or wireless?) world, work is everywhere and nowhere.  The job we have today is not necessarily the job we will have tomorrow because funding or positions can dry up overnight, industries and priorities can change, whole organizations and jobs can implode. 

In short, we would do well to be able to use some of the skills that the early settlers in this country had to develop, skills not dissimilar to those of the artist and of the entrepreneur. Here are some of them:

• Foster a belief that you have the capacity to make something from nothing.  View your efforts to write a resume and to fashion a career out of disparate experiences as your opportunity to shape something of substance out of unprocessed or even unpromising materials.
• Develop an ability to make sense out of chaos and confusion.  Build your sense-making capabilities, and tell yourself and others a more compelling story about who you are, what you have done and, more importantly, what you can and will do once you have seized the opportunity.
• Become an expert or a thought leader.  In a world of specialization and fragmentation, you can identify a little corner that you make your own.  Feed it, nurture it, fence it, own it and help others understand its value.
• Become an explorer.  Don’t expect a nice, well paved road ahead of you at all times.  The adventurous traveler is willing to go into new territories, to explore unmade paths and to take some risks.  There is some danger to this, but there is also the possibility of unexpected rewards. 
• Reach out to others who share your experience.  It could help to see you are not alone. And, if you seek connection with other fellow travelers, you never know where your adventure may lead.  Two hundred years ago, people had the advantage of high density human interaction; we will have to make do with social media, the internet and old fashioned, face-to-face communication.   

Times were tough in America two hundred years ago, and, for many, they are tough today.  But, with an artistic, creative eye for an opportunity, and with an entrepreneurial, can-do spirit, you can ride the waves of change and fashion a career path for yourself that others will come to admire.

Fredia Woolf, founder of Woolf Consulting, blogs to help people improve their workplace effectiveness and optimize their careers.  As an organizational consultant and leadership coach, she works with clients to increase insight, inspiration and impact. She can be reached at fwoolf@woolfconsulting.com.

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Would Your Career Be Different If You Knew How To Conduct Productive Conversations?

In preparation for an upcoming workshop I am conducting with a Board of Directors, I have been rereading the excellent book Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen.  The need for this workshop arose during the last Board Meeting I facilitated when it became clear that the work of the Board, and consequently of the organization, was hampered by poor communication. 

Rebuilding Humpty Dumpty – The Five P’s that can help Fragmented Organizations Feel Whole again

People often adopt a myopic attitude at work.  They focus on what they, themselves, need to do, lock themselves into their own universe and are often blissfully unaware of the impact they have on other team members or stakeholders.  Communications are scattered via cyberspace, and electronic noise proliferates while human voices grow silent. Unity, community and alignment are increasingly difficult to achieve.

How can you get your organization to feel “whole” and your people to want to contribute their best efforts to furthering your organization’s goals?

Try the 5 P’s.

Purpose

This goes deeper than just “Goals and Objectives”. People work with varying degrees of diligence to accomplish the goals and objectives outlined in a strategic plan or handed down by a manager.  But, to really buy into the purpose of their work, they need to see the links between what they do on a daily basis and the big, organizational goals. This isn’t always completely clear, so it’s your job as an employer to help connect the dots between the two.  

More important than intellectually understanding their work, employees have to care about it if they are to rally behind the organization and its goals.  If this spark is ignited, people will want to participate by contributing their time and talent to solving problems and furthering objectives. 

There is a cognitive element to inspiring others in that, as an employer, you have to help employees understand the business or market realities of your organization including financials and competitive intelligence. There is also an emotional element to this equation; those working for the organization must have something that connects what is personally meaningful to them about the products, services, culture or mission of the organization.  Once people connect the organization’s goals with their internal worlds and understand why their individual work and efforts matter, they will buy in.

Plan

To be particularly productive, people need a sense of structure. They need to clearly understand who is responsible for what, when tasks are due and what they are expected to deliver.  They need to grasp whom their actions affect. They need a road map outlining where they are now and where they are headed.  Once these issues are outlined, give your employees the freedom to plan for themselves how to best accomplish the tasks at hand (as long as they know they will be both supported and held accountable).

Process

It is often taken for granted that people will work well together, and if often comes as a surprise when there is conflict or inefficiency in the workplace, both of which are counterproductive to working toward the organizational goals.  Take time to establish basic ground rules so everyone knows the expectations of their behavior and their productivity. By doing so, much annoyance and even heartbreak can be avoided.  Have people decide together what kinds of behaviors are and are not acceptable, desirable and necessary.  Have processes in place to help deal with conflict and increase efficiency.  For increased effectiveness, be clear about who is invited to meetings, who is cc’d on emails, what meeting agenda will be covered and what documents will be shared.  For those who work virtually, it is even more worthwhile to spend time designing processes to enable better working together as this investment always reaps great rewards.

People

It’s a funny thing that organizations generally encompass a straight-forward, focused mission but are comprised of a whole variety people, each having a different style of working, communicating, seeing the world and responding to it. Helping people recognize their own skills, strengths and preferences is a good starting point for a successful organization; enabling them to harness the talents of others for the general good is the secret to a more engaged, motivated and committed workforce.  Employers who take time to develop “soft” skills – the two most effective being better listening and real-time constructive feedback – will allow people to build relationships, to express their “authentic” selves at work and to accomplish their work while enjoying it.

Practices

Predictable practices are how culture is created.  When leaders model best practices, those practices get “baked” into the DNA of the team or the organization.  When you repeat ways of doing things that have proven effective over time, you will be surprised to see how small details can have major, long-term impacts on performance.

Fredia Woolf, founder of Woolf Consulting, blogs to help people improve their workplace effectiveness and optimize their careers.  As an organizational consultant and leadership coach, she works with clients to increase insight, inspiration and impact. She can be reached at fwoolf@woolfconsulting.com.

Is Lack of Focus Dragging Your Resume Down?

How many of you can honestly say you know exactly what you want to be when you grow up? Maybe you already have it figured out, and maybe you are already living and working it. If so, does your resume know?

Every day, I work with clients, and every week, I speak to hundreds of job seekers — all of whom have no idea what they want to do in their professional lives. And when I ask them about their aspirations, I receive the blanket, “I just need to feed my family,” or “I just need a job – I don’t care what it is.”

Working With a Search Firm

Search firms are useful job market intermediaries. They are used as brokerage firms and clearing houses between organizations and individuals. The experience and expertise of professionals in these firms in finding, filtering and evaluating candidates can be extremely useful. But, there are limitations to using such firms, and it is important to understand what those are before determining how to best use a firm for your needs.

Are You Disengaged At Work? What Can Be Done About It?

At times, organizational life by virtue of its structure has the capacity to stamp out the human spirit. It can shut down the spark of creativity, cramp boldness and individuality and perpetuate mediocrity. The result is a pitiful waste of human potential.  Careers fail to flourish, learning dries up, and opportunities for positive change and growth wither on the vine.

Yet, it is possible to undo the damage and unleash the