You’ve started.
You have been told you’re successful for the role. It’s a great opportunity. You’ve negotiated your package. You’re ready. It’s exciting, and a little daunting. A brand new beginning.
If you are thinking about how to motivate your attention for the best initial impact consider some suggestions…
First and foremost, be yourself. You weren’t hired to fit in, but to bring your unique flavour of leadership in. Trust that the selection process vetted your character and skill sufficiently to begin confidently.
On day 1, you say hello, walk around and introduce yourself to everyone, and learn where all the amenities are. Perhaps you have scheduled a meeting with each of your direct reports and team before arriving. And rehearsed some words of meaning. Even developed an initial plan of intention, activities and priorities. You stake your ground. And discover that a worthwhile introduction to the organisation, on the first day, has been found. A job well done.
Consider what you will do from day 2, and maintain them as ongoing parts of your leadership milieu
- Get to know your team, intimately…from a skill and career perspective. Where do they come from? What have they achieved? And what are their ambitions for the role, and the team? What are their pressing needs? And where can they take their area of expertise for a fresh perspective? Dialogue what you’d also like to see.
- Build a knowledge of colleagues. Who are the peers you need to work with who have an impact on your supply chain activities? What areas of efficiency can you build in? How regularly do you need to link? What joint projects are topical immediately, and check those back with your team? Create mutual understanding of the priorities and pressures each bring. And negotiate a logical sequence of improvements if need be.
- Ask for, or schedule, an internal audit. If you are leading a large and diverse function of businesses, this can be invaluable for an independent evaluation of what you’ve inherited. And gives a menu of recommendations to consider for improvement. Use it to create new opportunities. Avoid seeing the findings as a beat up of what has not worked. Everyone was the sum parts of what they knew, who they were led by, and the culture and priorities of the time. Draw a line in the sand, honour the best of what has been, and create a new focus of attention for improving.
- Adopt a beginners mind. Avoid being the expert for a period of time. Look and evaluate. Beginners see opportunities where experts can have limited perspective. There are a range of ideas to consider from everyone. Explore, dialogue, challenge, and be in a creative conversation of enthusiasm, about what’s possible in growth and expansion.
- Set up your well-being routine. Create pockets of self time, exercise, and nourishing activities. Define professional boundaries that don’t encroach your personal time. Build habits that are healthy for you. And organise a breath of distance between work and home for you and your children. They need to know less about what you do and the stresses that impact you, and more about how you feel, and your interest in the well-being of the family sphere.
- Be clear about your expectations. And consistent with your values, and priorities of attention. Value yourself, your people, and the stakeholders that receive, and contribute. And enjoy the new energies, that broader opportunities, and your expansion brings, to your mandala of wholeness well-being.
SaraSwati Shakti