Your First Day and There's Room to Improve

Last week I discussed with you the importance of the first day of a new leadership opportunity. In that blog I focused on your behavior and expectations when you assume responsibility for a successful team. But how do you approach that first day when you take on the challenge of a team that does not meet expectations? Depending on the size of the team and the scope of its responsibilities, you may feel a bit overwhelmed by what lies ahead. Are you confronted with staffing issues, regulatory shortcomings, or performance breakdowns? Regardless of the challenges that stand before you, your task is to create the conditions for your team to achieve and sustain success.

Many of the behaviors associated with Day One actions with a successful team apply to the first day with a less successful team. Remember the importance of arriving prepared to observe, listen, and learn. Take the time to evaluate the operational environment and the interaction of the team members. Is the atmosphere you perceive professional, collegial, and supportive? Do you sense tension or anxiety by your presence? The first day with an unsuccessful team presents a unique situation. Your arrival on Day One can set the tone for months to come.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

Theodore Roosevelt

Teams know when their managers or executives are dismissed for performance shortcomings. In many instances, they may feel that a new leader is there to bring in new talent to correct the situation. Job insecurity, whether real or perceived, can foster unexpected behaviors. In your initial conversations, remain patient, nonjudgmental, and inquisitive. People like to talk about their responsibilities, so ask probing questions and seek to understand where the issues lie.

Keep in mind that the organization did not arrive at its current situation overnight and you, regardless of your skills, will not remedy performance shortcomings overnight. But ensuring the dynamic aspects of people, process, and technology are fully understood, implemented, and integrated are key to success.

The foundation of a team's success

Many organizations rely on reviews of people, process, and technology (PPT) to evaluate their current state and prospects for future growth. There are many objective and quantifiable aspects of PPT which you may rely upon. They might be staffing levels, certifications achieved, customer satisfaction scores, mean time between failures, or quality reviews. For now, let’s focus on several aspects that provide a more subjective insight into the health of an organization. There are volumes written on PPT, but far fewer on the importance of a team’s morale, audit or regulatory examination results, or the implementation of action plans.

Recently, I read of a CEO of a large financial services organization speak of the “great resignation.” He was referring to the significant increase in the resignation rate of his employees. I spoke with several executives of this company and they spoke consistently of the toxic environment, the disloyalty at the executive level, and that they would not recommend the company to anyone seeking new opportunities. From those conversations I learned that morale is low, remote workers do not desire to return to the office, and there doesn’t seem to be a plan in place to remedy the situation. In short there’s a failure of leadership driving people out.

As a new leader, assuming responsibility for a team with opportunities to improve, you may not confront the situation that CEO is dealing with. But you may encounter a similar problem – but on a different scale. That is, morale. Much like leadership, morale is hard to define and measure, but you know when morale is up and you know when it is down. Sure, you can review employee surveys or exit interviews. Often they are superficial and don’t tell you anything that is actionable.

Communicate up, down, and across the Organization

How do you learn what you need to know about your team? A great CEO I worked for had a simple mantra that worked well, “Communicate, communicate, communicate.” In the dictionary communicate is “to reveal clearly.” As a leader you talk to your team, publish guidance, and share information. But is it one-way communication? Are you revealing clearly? On your first day, take the time to ensure you are communicating. Ask probing questions and then listen to learn and understand.

One of the more informative sources of the strengths and opportunities of a team are the results of audits and regulatory examinations. Such reports provide a ready-made map to the task, conditions, and standards that must be achieved to meet expectations. Meet with internal auditors and learn of their concerns. I learned long ago internal auditors are a great source of objective information and can buttress valid needs for new resources.

So much of audit and regulatory success is process-driven. Essentially, do you have established processes, do they comply with regulatory requirements, are they consistently followed, and can you provide historical evidence of their performance? If everyone on the team has their own process to perform a required function, that’s a recipe for disaster. Review any written processes and procedures, ensure they are current and consistent, and validate them with your auditors or legal team. Your auditors and attorneys can be a great resource, so take advantage of the expertise.

One aspect of your daily operations may be the use of performance metrics and dashboards. Dashboards should be viewed as a tool providing insights and not the definitive measure of success. Metrics, if crafted accurately and measure the right things, may point to areas that merit attention. Don’t measure activities that don’t impact your operation. Determine what information is important and why. Then decide how to measure it, how to portray it, and what to do with it. Metrics, if not critically evaluated regularly, my lull you into a false sense of success. Ensure you are measuring what truly matters.

In many industries, from manufacturing to financial services, technology drives daily operations. Often, the desire to have the latest technology to create efficiencies and savings fail to deliver when dealing with legacy systems. Listen to your team to understand the strengths and shortcomings of the hardware and software they rely on. Furthermore, a conversation with the information technology team will inform you of the current state of the systems in operation and plans for the future.

Pause, plan, pursue

Assuming responsibility for a team with opportunity to improve presents a new leader with a compelling challenge. You want to wade into the challenge and implement those changes you know will enhance performance. Instead of running headlong to the opportunity, I recommend a discrete pause. Remember, you can’t remedy an unsuccessful team overnight. Take the time to listen, probe, learn, and understand the situation before you. Then develop a roadmap to pursue success. A well-developed plan will look to the people, processes, and technology required. There may be budgetary constraints that will delay implementation or force a reassessment of current priorities. In those cases, having “Plan B” ready demonstrates foresight and your agility.

As you plan, bring in your junior leaders or those doing the work to leverage their knowledge and experience. Their insights may identify gaps in the plan that require further attention or suggest touch points requiring additional research and development. Don’t forget the value of your peers and senior leaders as your plan matures. Action plans, invariably, require additional resources or the realignment of operational priorities. Most certainly there will be those who walked this path before you and their assistance may smooth the way forward.

On that first day, keep in mind the people, process, and technology you now rely upon. Arrive with a keen interest in the morale and operational environment of your new team, develop a well-tempered and cogent plan, and you will find your team ready to embrace your drive to succeed. Good luck!