Background

There you are. New job. New company. You want to make a positive start, which means both in your brand new relationships and your new and mostly unknown business priorities.

Can this start up process really be done systematically? Answer: You Betcha!

Unspoken assumptions

I am assuming you are a lot like me. You like to achieve positive change. You like to work with good people, and are willing to do difficult things to get good results. You have “good” morals and business ethics, which I define to match mine. You treat people with respect. You know good business and management principles.

Day 1

Here you go! Just one of the days to be followed by many more!

  1. Park where the regular people park. Avoid any reserved spot. These are status markers that can create unhelpful distance, and starting out that way will mark you as “that type.”
  2. Be friendly and at ease and cheerful with everyone you meet. Give each person the same eye contact and respectful greeting, no matter their role.
  3. Spend just a little time on start up administrivia, like logging into a computer or finding a desk and the bathroom. Everyone will be dying to meet you and find out about you. Don’t be cruel and keep the suspense going for too long.
  4. Figure out the organization chart. Your mission is to get in front of the broadest possible group of people quickly for a quick introduction and some questions. If there are multiple shifts or locations, figure out how to do that for all, as soon as possible. Don’t cut corners with, say, the third shift or the out of towners: get to them as soon as possible. They already feel left out or second-class as it is.
  5. Look for special circumstances. For instance, if there is a union, be sure to meet the leadership of that union early: even before many managers. They are used to being grudgingly included by management and will never forget if you treat them with such respect.
  6. Depending on the organization size, meet with everyone individually, or in small groups. You are trying to get to know them, to introduce yourself, and to find out facts and opinions. People really appreciate being listened to — it is an important version of respect. You need their insights to get a fast start, and you need to know them to figure out how best to work with them.
  7. Do not cut corners on meeting with people. Anyone left out because you ran out of energy will never forget it.
  8. Get your meetings done as early in your tenure as possible. Otherwise, your job duties will swallow you up and make meetings much more difficult to schedule. The last people to be met with will remember if their meeting is months after the first people.
  9. As a new manager, you don’t know a lot about the business details and how to best manage it. However, there are some jobs that only you can do as the manager. These include some people things, some money things, etc. Focus first on those things you alone can do while you learn the business.
  10. Keep your ego under wraps. Let your competence and consideration of others speak for itself and smooth your path to a quick integration.
  11. Consider writing and presenting a clear statement of who you are, what your philosophy of business is, and how you work as a manager. Present this verbally and in writing. Post it or hand out copies. One page only. Review it first to be sure it hits the important points. For instance:
    • I believe that an employee/employer relationship is a business arrangement with some extra obligations on the employer to remember that the employee’s life is being inalterably changed and the employee is more vulnerable than the employee. So, as an example, poor performers should be fired, but only after an honest effort to improve has been tried by the employer. And no one should be paid more or less because they need it more or less. Et cetera.
    • I have listed my values to include things like striving for excellence, valuing positive group interactions, respecting everyone regardless of role. It is important to eliminate vague happy talk here: specific and honest instead.
  12. Find a way to get feedback and ideas directly and also anonymously. Ensure people know that “talking dirty” about bad news or problems is encouraged, and that concerns about other people will be kept confidential and also corroborated.
  13. Lead by example: hard work, civility, respect, work products. Give feedback kindly but directly.
  14. Look for smaller thorn-in-the-side problems that can be solved quickly by you or by others while you figure out the bigger issues. Start chipping away at these.

OK, now what?

By now you are truly in the thick of things and are being swept away by the demands of your job. Now, however, you have a strong foundation of knowing your organization and a lot of its needs and issues. Your organization also knows a lot about you, too, and can settle into working with you smoothly. That foundation would take a lot more work to acquire now than it did when you were brand new.