As the downturn continues to play out, many will find themselves in roles with increasing responsibility as under performers are let go and companies are prepared to take more risk on internal talent with promise as budgets are tight. As a result you could very well find yourself inheriting a variety of people or full teams. Great news, you have been afforded an opportunity many others would kill for!
It is important of course to be understanding and go through an initial information gathering phase in the first 2-3 weeks to really understand where the opportunities within the team really lie. But clearly there is a lot to do, so I have put together the following list from my own trials and errors and from being inherited myself which will hopefully help you avoid some of the mistakes I have made. Enjoy…
- Assess each person’s capabilities, deep diving into their day-day work. Who has the potential to be a star and what are everyone’s strengths and weaknesses?
- Set homework – give everyone a week and set out 10 or so questions. These can be based on strategy, goals, core practices of the team or whatever you like provided you get people thinking and engaged about their own future and the possibilities for that team. The benefits of this can be wide ranging. The speed at which the assignment is done can tell you who is onboard, who has a foot out the door – a key thing to watch out for at this point in time. This can also give you an insight into where some differences of opinion may be over working style, practices and expectations of output. Importantly, you can gain some great ideas to keep, tweak or double down on further. You might get nothing of importance, but at least then you know what you are dealing with
- Share the workload – leveraging off the skills, experience and culture from other teams to influence through idea generation, knowledge and experience sharing in order to provide autonomy to the wider team for problem solving
- Be clear about key factors that are essential for you as a leader and don’t budge on those. Also outline which factors are flexible or will take time to figure out
- Develop a GTM (Go To Market) strategy – which processes and systems to implement and when they are deliverable over the first 6 months. What targets will you have in place to assess whether you are on track? For example, phase 1 could be ensuring the team has a clear client split and that they are very clear on exactly how to grow their client base at both a strategic level as well as executional. Phase 2 might be ensuring a longer-term client acquisition strategy is worked on, which could take 3-6 months to map out. Phase 3 could be hitting the revenue targets likely or stretch, mapped out at the start of the plan
- Lead from the front – showing the team your work ethic, process improvement and adding value through things like client introduction or problem solving
- Give clear guidance, leave nothing to ambiguity. The team is not looking for a friend, there is likely quite a bit of confusion and potential nervousness. Provided everyone has clear goals and knows what is expected of them, you will get the best result possible.
- Where possible, try to elicit ideas and actions required from the team themselves. If someone originates an idea, they are far more likely to take ownership and complete it
- Forward looking – Try not to dwell on the past, look forward only and ensure you do not have any negative words for your predecessor. It is impossible to say how the remaining team members feel about that person. Any leadership change can have an unnerving effect on the team, no matter how good or close the previous incumbent was to their people
- Praise where possible! Look for opportunities to say a big well done, especially on the small things. Particularly in the early days, the small things build up to be the big things
- Try not to get noticeably frustrated at the quality of the new team. Provided you have a plan and people are hitting their weekly goals to show they are on track for a change, you can breathe knowing things will change
- Time – building close relationships does take time, often longer than producing results in fact. If you are consistent in your behaviour, create value by developing each member and results follow the changes you have decided on together, buy-in will arise from all parties
- Pride & culture – instil a sense of pride to the team. Ensure they have one area of knowledge that significantly better than any other team in the business. It might be an industry focus or technical specialization. This can be an incredibly powerful tool from which to build/rebuild that team
- Sharing – talk through your background outlining successes and failures as well as how this could apply to this new team. Get other people to share their stories as well. Either 1 on 1 or as a group.
- Clearly explain the mandate or objective for the team – this can seem obvious but can easily be lost.
Balance empathy with your personal drive for success of the team. Build strong relationships and when you make mistakes, apologise and set the standard for everyone else. Above all else, have fun and create long lasting relationships!
