Stepping into the role of new (to the team) leader for an existing team is a daunting task. It’s also a time rich in opportunity for everyone involved, if the new leader executes a proper start-up strategy and avoids the most common start-up pitfalls.
The 4 Stages of New-Leader Assimilation
Regardless of your background and success, teams tend to view the new leader with a bit of healthy cynicism. You’re the newbie, and you haven’t done anything to earn the respect of the current team members. Manage the process properly, and you will help the team move quickly through the first few of the four stages of new leader/team relationship:
1. Doubt and Uncertainty-People wonder: Who are you? Why are you here? Why should we listen to you? What can you do for us? What does this mean for us? What do you mean for me?
2. Hope-Their eyes open: Maybe you can help, I wonder…, Perhaps this is different. Maybe I should jump in.
3. Belief-Momentum builds based on respect and credibility earned: She does care. Her focus is truly on us. She’s helping us succeed. This is different. Perhaps I should…
4. Trust-A bond is forged and the nature of the relationship is positively changed forever: This person is focused on helping our business, our team and me. I’m going to give my trust, because she’s earned it.
Your goal is to move quickly beyond the cloud of Doubt and Uncertainty to Hope and then Belief. Trust is something that comes much later, usually after a lot of reinforcement and after individual team members have engaged and benefitted in some form from your leadership support.
Fair warning, many new leaders start shooting themselves in both feet from the moment they open their mouths for the first time, and end up destroying any possibility of progressing through the stages. Once Doubt and Uncertainty turn to Cynicism and Disregard, it’s all over for you with this team.
5 Key Issues at Start-Up:
As the new leader, you’ve got to:
1. Understand the business mission of your team and how it fits in the bigger picture of the firm’s strategy. You owe your team context for their purpose and reinforcing (or building) the linkages between team priorities and organizational priorities is a key task. Of course, you need help from your boss, your peers and your internal and external customers to gain this context for yourself. Your networking, questioning and listening skills are critical in this phase.
2. Break the Ice…help the team get to know you and of course, you need to get to know your team members as individuals and as performers in a group. In both group and one-on-one settings, you’ve got to ask and execute on these questions:
- What’s working?
- What’s not?
- What do you need me to do?
The first two create content ripe for group assessment and action. The third one opens the door to identifying opportunities for you to knock down walls and accelerate your movement through the stages.
3. Identify opportunities to help the team…while quietly assessing performance and talent. You won’t know this team and the people for a while and unless there are raging people problems, resist a rush to judgment. I tend to begin realigning new teams very carefully at around the 45-day mark, with a target to have this part of the job completed by day 90. Your actions here must be preceded by a great deal of observation and listening.
4. Begin forming an effective working atmosphere based on accountability, transparency, fairness and a propensity towards action. Once you break the ice and get people talking about key issues and obstacles, you can support their efforts to deal with the issues. Establish accountability and standards for quality from the start and don’t let go of these key issues.
5. Identify opportunities to support the development of your team members. Within the 90-day window, but somewhere beyond the first 30 days, it’s appropriate to add to your list of questions above:
- What do you want to do here?
For those team members going forward with you, you owe it them and to yourself to provide developmental opportunities that allow people to explore their desired directions.
4 Common Pitfalls of the Start-Up Leader
Avoid:
1. Making it all about you. You’ve invaded their world…it’s truly all about them, not you.
2. Asserting your agenda without context for the team and its’ perceived mission or for the culture and values of the team. Again, it’s their team…until you’ve earned the right to say “my team” or better yet, “our team.”
3. Imposing your way instead of helping the team understand the need for a new way.
4. Operating with a hidden plan. “The Secret Plan” didn’t help Nixon engender trust when talking about unraveling the Vietnam conflict, and not talking about the expectations from your boss for the team engenders doubt and cynicism. (Note to my readers: I may be showing my age with the Nixon comment here. I was only 7 when he uttered those words, and I didn’t believe him then.)
The Bottom-Line for Now:
For a brief moment in time as you start-up as the new leader of an existing team, you have a remarkable opportunity to make a difference. You get one shot at working your way through The 4-Stages. Don’t squander the opportunity by tripping all over yourself.
I agree with all of that! I think one mistake new leaders can make as well is to forget to do their job. They are so afraid of making an employee angry or losing their respect and trust from the beginning they fail to perform when they should. New leaders should understand (as best they can) the line of aggressiveness when starting out and making team decisions.
Amanda, that’s good guidance. Thanks! -Art
Hi Art,
There are so many people that struggle with making the transition to a new team. I have seen it go very well for some and very poorly for others. One thing that I believe helps is to resist making changes too soon. It’s kind of like when you leave home for college or the real world and 2 days later your parents have transformed your bedroom into their new office, sewing room or TV room. It’s important for the new leader to get the lay of the land first before making sweeping changes. Another key element is to keep an open mind. Tune out the voices that are telling you about your team and do your own fact finding by using the questions you suggested.
Thanks for another great post!
Kelly
Hi Kelly,
I agree. A “listen and observe” approach works so much better than asserting early in the process. The exception might be in dealing with the low hanging fruit that sometimes exists to help knock down some legacy obstacles. In this case, the intent is acting to help fix a known and vexing problem. I love the open mind perspective as well. New team leaders gain input from many sources, and some of the most vocal sources are some of the least valuable…and vice versa. Thanks for adding your considerable expertise to the post! -Art
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Art – This is great advice and not just for managers. I just began a new position as a tutor at a University. I have taken over in the process mid-semester and find it has been challenging to step into the shoes of the last tutor, who was well liked and had a strong presence in the classroom. This position is totally new for me and the students look to me to fill in the gaps from what has been lectured in the classroom. I have seen my students go through the four stages you have mentioned: Doubt and Uncertainty, Hope, Belief and Trust. It is almost as though they go back and forth depending on the material or what they do or do not understand.
Would that be the same in the business environment? Would the manager see his/her position within the team varies depending on the different views of the team members? Would it be best not to change anything drastically until there is some cohesiveness with the trust aspect of the stages mentioned? I have seen managers come into a team and not realize they are the newbie. Some managers have saved themselves after the doubt, uncertainty has turned into cynicism and disregard however; the process was painful and took a very long time to rectify the mistakes. I think trust is the catalyst for breaking the ice stage and identifying the opportunities to really help the team and move forward in the process. A manager needs the trust in order for people to confide in them what is working and what is not. It may take a while to insure what the team is telling the manager is truly what is on their minds. I hope I have interpreted your blog correctly. Thanks for the insight – perfect timing. Regards, Kira
Kira, wow! That’s a lot of questions in a hurry. First, thanks for relating your own experience. I’m glad this fits with a real-time experience…keep us posted on how it goes. Yes, in my experience team members move through the stages at their own pace and an iterative fashion more than a linear style. They are looking for proof points and reasons to trust/distrust you. As for the issues of not making drastic changes immediately, that’s certainly a theme in my guidance. Like everything in business, there are always exceptions, however. A crisis situation…a turnaround environment…responding to a major threat or seizing an emerging opportunity all might demand fast action. In this case, the effective new leader engages…seeks input and options, facilitates idea development and quickly helps the group move towards decisions. A series of small decisions by the group on process (goals, objectives, approaches) builds positive momentum. On the trust issue…the manager can use a trust but verify approach. As mentioned in the post, it is unlikely that he/she as the new team leader will earn trust quickly. Great observations…fun example and excellent questions. Thanks, Kira!
Art,
Another great post! I have always found that the quickest way to endear yourself to your new team is to be a worker among workers. The danger in that comes when you need to make the transition to leadership of that team. If you have gained the respect of the team and you are without ego then the transition generally goes smoothly. I find that it also accelerates the time in phase 2 & 3(Hope and Belief) and moves your baseline in the trust phase much, much deeper. Keep up the great work.
Jason, always great to hear from a valued alum from one of my courses! Interesting thought. My own view is it helps if the group knows you’ve got the experience to back up your voice. It also helps if the group can see you in action in a setting that shows you are with them…and doing your job as a leader. I suppose the recent Super Bowl example described by Donald Driver of the Packers about Aaron Rodgers, supports your case. When Aaron stepped into the huddle with the 1st team for the first time in practice a few years ago, the receivers responded by telling him to get out and not come back until he had earned their respect. His hard work with the second squad…his extra time in the film room and on the field after practice…were all key to earning that respect. Thanks, Jason! -Art
Last summer between school sessions I had the rather colorful task of being a team supervisor for the Census Bureau. The job is simplistic in nature, there is little room for individuality (given it is a government bureaucracy), and the people range from competent to psychotic to anything you can imagine. I had 70 people under me and wow, do I wish I had something like this to help me out. WIth only 1 month before action I had to pick out leaders within the group to become the team leaders, assistants, etc. Find star performers and group different personalities together so there was unit cohesion. All of a sudden the seemingly simple task of enumeration turned into a full fledged managerial challenge. An productive strategy to bring the employees to trust and believe in me would have made some days go smoother and some problematic workers be more effective. It really was a jolt into quick management application.
Some great advice here. I know that many struggle with this. There are probably some on the new team that were gunning for the leadership role that now have some animosity towards the new person coming in. Then there are those that like things the way they were & will be adamant about standing firm against any changes the new manager will make. The advice you have given here is great for dealing with those situations. I especially like the idea of asking the team what they view as successful & what they think is not working. If the ideas to change come from them- they will obviously be more receptive to it.