Helping New Leaders Succeed from the Start

Every day, someone gets promoted to be “the boss.” Often, they get promoted from within a team to lead a team of former peers and friends. This is a situation fraught with challenge and offers great opportunity.

This promotion is often awkward both for the new leader and their team members. Far more than just awkward, the transition to a first leadership role is extremely important to the organization and that new leader.

Think about it this way: the organization needs someone to succeed in the role of leader for a variety of reasons. When leadership is weaker than it could be, opportunities won’t be captured, productivity will be reduced, costs may increase, quality or safety may be impacted, and a host of other things. Moreover, quality and safety are something that cannot be compromised to run a business successfully. So, it is the leader’s duty to ensure that the workers and staff stay safe on the work premises and don’t fall prey to accidents like slip and fall or fire. Workplace safety, high visibility signs, security features, and more can be monitored and maintained regularly under the leader’s supervision. Moreover, a neglectful leader can cause huge losses to the business.

Of course, the success of the individual is important too – but not just in the short term for their confidence and ability to do the work, but because, when we learn new skills and apply them, we create habits. If we aren’t helping people start with the right habits, or providing them with the correct equipment they need to work, whether that’s a particular piece of software, or something practical like these work platforms for a more industrial setting, we are hampering their leadership growth for the rest of their careers.

So helping these new leaders is important, but how do we do it? Here is a short list

Make it a priority. New leaders lead on day one. Without support, they will do the best they can; and wouldn’t it be better if that had initial support? (Hint: getting them in the corporate new supervisor training “the next time it is available” is useful, but that isn’t even close to what I am talking about).

Set clear expectations. Job descriptions rarely describe all the leadership components of a job, let alone discuss the specific expectations. Work with those new leaders to understand the expectations you have of them, what the organization expects of them, and what they should expect of themselves.

Talk about it. You can’t set expectations without a conversation, but the conversation needs to be broader than just that. You can’t promote people, pat them on the back, give them a new office, and then leave. Have a conversation about their fears, concerns, and needs. Then, take action on what you learn.

Give them resources. If you have internal company resources – e-learning and other online resources, training, or mentoring programs – get them included and involved as quickly as possible. If you don’t have those options, or want to augment them, connect them with external resources as well (personally, I recommend my book From Bud to Boss, our public workshops, or the Bud to Boss blog).

Take them to lunch. After a couple of weeks, get them out of the workplace at lunch. Have a meal and a chat. Ask them how it is going, then shut up and listen. Find out what their questions are and answer them. This is a meal where you should be finished eating long before them because they are doing most of the talking.

The specifics of what each new leader will need will be as different as those people themselves. These steps will help get them off on the right foot, and just as importantly, will let them know they are not alone on an unknown leadership island. The idea is to help employees in such a way so that they can be more productive as well as have job satisfaction. For instance, business owners can provide relocation help (probably with the help of a company like Atlanta Home Movers) to an employee so that they can relocate their family to a house closer to the office location. That way, they won’t have to spend a lot of time traveling and can reach their home much earlier.

The value of these ideas is more than just helping a person cope in a new job. As new leaders, people are building habits they will carry with them the rest of their careers. The more you can help build more effective and productive habits, the more effective leaders they will be today, and for the rest of their careers.

You remember that your first leadership role isn’t easy, right? Using your experience and by taking these simple steps, you can help make it easier for those that follow you.

Article by Kevin Eikenberry, Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (Kevin@KevinEikenberry.com)