The first day of your new leadership opportunity!

This is the day you waited for, the first day in your new leadership role. The role you trained for, competed for, and now it has arrived. As you walk through the door on that first day, I ask that you keep a few things in mind. Today is your first day with many more to follow. Relax, be yourself, listen, and learn.

How you approach your arrival and integration largely depends on one major question: Is your team currently successful or not? Each of those two possible answers deserves a different approach and I will offer a course of action for each.

You are fortunate, it's a successful team.

Let’s assume, for the purpose of this week’s discussion, you are walking into a successful organization. How successful? Let’s posit your team is fully staffed, well trained, and they successfully meet or exceed performance metrics. Furthermore, both internal audits and regulatory examinations find their performance satisfactory. That’s a great scenario to encounter, wouldn’t you agree?

How does your new team’s current success alter your focus, attention, and priorities on the first day? Keep their success in mind as you arrive. Come prepared to listen and take notes. Your first day will provide you with a wealth of information and insight if you allow it. Remember, you are the new person on the team.

They know you are coming.

Typically, your arrival is known in advance and there will be those you encounter sizing you up. How so? From your appearance and bearing, to your courtesy and friendliness, you are being observed. Word filters through the organization of your arrival and first impressions are formed.

With your prior research you may know the workplace dress code is casual. But, you are a leader. So, take it up a notch and let your team see that you exceed their expectations. You can always take off a jacket as the day goes on, but first impressions are lasting.

There’s no doubt you will be a bit anxious. After all, you are assuming a leadership role and all its duties, responsibilities, and expectations. But as you arrive and observe your new surroundings what do you see, sense, and feel? In other words, what is the environment like?

Think about it. Take a step back and observe. Who greets you? Is a new employee orientation offered? If so, does it explain the organization’s mission and role in the industry and community? Are you greeted in the hallway? If your role is a senior one, do folks fall silent in your presence or do they welcome you to the team? How do you feel in those first few hours? Is the atmosphere warm and welcoming or cold and distant?

It may be a long day.

In most organizations there are administrative actions that occur upon your arrival. Come prepared to address requirements associated with Social Security, citizenship, payday direct deposits, health care, insurance, retirement planning, and, in some cases today, your vaccination status. Occasionally, new employees are not prepared and it delays their compensation and benefits.

At some point during the day you may have the opportunity to go to lunch. If it does, are you on your own? Does a member of your team offer to join you? Possibly, your supervisor will join you. Funny as it might seem, lunch provides an interesting observation point. If you are on your own, what does that say about the value the organization places on its new employees? If a member or several members of your new team offer to go to lunch with you, it is a chance for you to get to know them and for them to know you. Most assuredly, your lunch with them is important.

If your supervisor invites you to lunch, it is an opportunity to ask questions that a new employee orientation may not cover or that arose in your administrative in-processing. It is also a chance for a senior person to ask questions relating to your in-processing, first impressions, and questions you might have. Avail yourself of this time, but remember, your first impressions may be premature and ill informed. Tact, courtesy, and professionalism are the watchwords of the day. Take the opportunity to recognize those whose performance merit praise and delay any criticism for another time.

Finally, you meet your new team.

Finally, it is time to meet your new team. If you are being promoted from within the organization, you may know the team and its personality. If the team is new to you, it is a new world in many ways. But, again, be yourself, observe, and listen.

If you have other leaders reporting to you, the initial team meeting may be with those junior leaders. If you have no direct reports, the initial team meeting may be more intimate and personal. One thing to remember is that your team is looking for your leadership and guidance. You may be confronted with decisions to make in that initial meeting that you are unprepared for. Don’t hesitate to defer such decisions pending further information.

The initial meeting is an opportunity to ask for information about the team. You may request key team member résumés, recent performance metrics or audit reports. With direct reports, a few words from them on their team strengths, opportunities, and current priorities gives you a glimpse of what they are doing and where they are headed. Leading a successful team does not mean you are there to maintain the status quo.

Your demeanor on Day 1 sets a lasting tone.

Your role as a leader, succinctly, is to establish, achieve, and maintain high levels of performance. Regardless of your business or industry, change is ever-present. Every day a leader has the opportunity to improve the team. New technologies, new products, and new regulations demand flexibility, vision, and adaptability.

In your initial meeting, you may provide a snapshot of your leadership style and expectations of the team and what they can expect of you. Assuming responsibility of a successful team does not relieve you of a leader’s responsibility for everything the team does or fails to do. On the first day, be yourself, temper your expectations, and demonstrate the qualities and attributes of leadership your team hopes to find in you and they rightly deserve. Good luck!

Next week: The First Day With a Team Full of Opportunity