Taking over a new team
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Toddi Gutner wrote a great piece in the Wall Street Journal titled, "Plotting a Smooth Course When You Take the Helm." Here's the lead.
"A record 1,484 chief executive officers left their jobs in 2008, according to Challenger Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement firm. And experts expect those numbers to rise this year. CEOs joining in tough times must act more quickly and decisively than usual. "But, leaders need to resist the pressure to be a know it all, have all the answers and be the savior," says Jim Citrin, a Stamford, Conn., senior director at Spencer Stuart and co-author of "You're in Charge, Now What?" For starters, you'll need to "find some people you can trust to really tell you the way things are and give you the lay of the land," says John Challenger, president of Challenger Gray in Chicago. Here are other ways to smooth the transition."
Read this for great advice about what to do when taking over, whether it's as CEO, or any other boss job. One of the people interviewed is Jim Citrin, co-author of a great book on this topic, You're in Charge, Now What?
That's a worthwhile book to have on your shelf. It includes questions that CEOs who've gone through successful transitions ask their people. Here are two that I've incorporated into my questionnaire for first time clients. They're always the final two questions.
What do you hope I do?
What are you deathly afraid I might do?
Boss's Bottom Line
I tell everyone I know who's becoming boss of a new team that you can't under-communicate and you should never mistake communication to the whole group for communication to individuals.
Do both. Meet with the group. Meet with individuals. Repeat.
One more thing. If you're the leader of a team where there have been layoffs, consider it a new team and follow this same advice.
Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.
Wally, great advice. I believe one of the greatest challenges any incoming CEO has relates to bad advice. They might be receiving input from the board, from the exiting CEO, from the existing management team, to word on the street. Since every CEO realizes the time clock they're working under is short, they're inclined to take such advice as a realistic view of how the business works. However, if the incoming CEO takes the resident view and adopts it and it's wrong, they're in for a rough ride. Obtaining a realistic view of the business upfront must be the cornerstone to any onboarding process. Unfortunately, this may take time, which there is little of.
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Sounds like you're the voice of experience on this one, Rodney. Thanks for adding to the discussion. Two books that cover this very well are Jim Kilts' Doing What Matters and Lou Gerstner's Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?
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A group that is floundering can sometimes appear to be full of clueless individuals to the incoming leader. Their behavior and vision clouded by a demoralizing run. It is very difficult to pick out the visionary in a crowd like that, very easy to discount the whole crew as a write-off. But poor group performance can often be because leadership was deaf to changes and innovation bubbling from below. If they have lived in an environment where they couldn't be heard long enough, then it is likely they stopped talking. So, in creating this ring of trust, the new leader must look beyond the obvious, loud resources and try to find the beaten down visionary as well.
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Great points, Fred. A long run of bad leadership can cause a lot of talented and potentially engaged folks to pull back. It takes time to bring them forward. Thanks for adding those insights.
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Very good advice
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Thanks, Jim
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Thank you very much. Great article. Concise and to the point. I've learned a lot from it and from the discussion as well. I'm still junior and trying to become a better manager, a better me to better serve my team.
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Thank you, Enrique. That was a great way to put it.
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