3 Steps to Onboard New Managers Effectively

This is a written Transcription for the Leadership Hustle episode about 3 Steps to Onboard New Managers Effectively, from Season 1 Episode 37.

Listen to the full episode below, or click here to listen on your podcast platform of choice.

Transcript:

Andrea Fredrickson: In this episode of The Leadership Hustle, we'll discuss where leaders fail in the promotion of managers. Hello and welcome to the Leadership Hustle for executives whose companies are growing fast and need leaders who are ready. I'm Andrea Fredrickson, and.

Michelle Hill: I am Michelle Hill of Revela, where we've helped hundreds of companies build healthy cultures with confident leaders.

Andrea Fredrickson: Welcome back to the Leadership Hustle. I'm Andrea Fredrickson, and Michelle has joined me. And our topic is really related to a conversation we had not too long ago. There was a VP that is hiring a person into a new manager role, and they're also hiring somebody from the outside into a manager role. So I was sitting down with her and I said, okay, so you've got these two new roles. Brand new positions. Um, and so what's your plan? And literally, I swear, I could just hear go. What? All right. But that's not what you know. It's like, that's not exactly how she said it, but it sounded, you know, look like. Like what do you mean? And so I said. You're. Let's look at the person that you are promoting from within. Do you have to do orientation? No, I don't have to do orientation. What's your onboarding look like?

Michelle Hill: Hmhmhm there is no onboarding because they are existing, right?

Andrea Fredrickson: Right. So it's like, let's put this person over to the side. You hire a new person into a manager role. Do you have to do orientation? Yes. How about onboarding? Yes, yes. What does that look like? I don't know what's the answer.

Michelle Hill: Or they know some do that situation.

Andrea Fredrickson: But in this case it's just like I haven't gotten that far yet. I don't know what that looks like. I just know I have all these projects that I need to have taken care of. I need these off my plate. And so I'm just going like, these are the things I need both of them to do. And I'm so looking forward to that. I'm like, all right, this subject, this conversation is how do we set them up to be really great managers in your department? And you not be frustrated because they're not doing what you hired them to do.

Michelle Hill: Yes, yes. And I think it's important to recognize it doesn't matter if they are someone that's been with the company for a long time, because I think I know from working with individuals, they'll make the assumption that, oh, they already know this, they already know this. There's there's a lot of assumptions made. And so they don't have quite the detailed plan. Whereas in sometimes working with organizations they are a little more organized than, than that situation where they're like, oh, we do this, we do this, we do this. But that doesn't happen for that internal person.

Andrea Fredrickson: I can remember some the scenario that like, how come people aren't filling out PTO slips or what what happened to PTO slips? It's just like, and this leader's like, well, she used to fill out PTO slips. She should know how to take care of him. I'm like, really? All she knows is how to fill out a PTO request. It was a slip at that time, but a PTO request. She doesn't know what happens afterwards, right? She just knows they magically go somewhere or they get approved or disapproved or whatever it is, right? So there was no nothing there. So we have three main parts of a plan that we believe are critical in getting managers, people into the manager role up to speed. So it's like you've promoted them now what? Right.

Michelle Hill: Yeah. Promoted. Now what? And I mean, and within the first 90 days.

Andrea Fredrickson: Like right away we got to get this going right. This isn't one of those I have all these projects. I'll do the orientation. I'll do the onboarding later. Like, nope, you got to do this first. So first thing we have on our list is that we need to set expectations. Give me some of the things that when you when we talk about expectations what are we talking about? Making sure that this brand new manager leader understands as it relates to expectations. What are some of the things.

Michelle Hill: Well, I mean, so expectations are for a person in this role. What is it that we expect to see them doing? What are you know what? What are they responsible for accomplishing? But even to a point where they may do versus they may need to get done through others. Okay. Um, I also think that if it's an internal manager, so someone who's been promoted, I think is really important to talk about. Yes, you know, how to do all these things, but your job is no longer to do them. Your job is to train and develop people to do them. And because they're going to have a hard time letting go of what got them promoted, what was, what's easy for them, right? Right. And they're no longer necessarily they may have some responsibilities in doing, but what are those? Right. What are those things that you want? You know, you want them to make sure that they've delegated permanently. So they're not doing them any longer.

Andrea Fredrickson: Which is actually the second part of our. So we have expectation. But the activities and priorities are those things. That's the second part of our it gets our step right. So expectations might also include what do you want them to know or be able to deliver or to um, to be a part of in that first 30, 60, 90 days. So when we bring on a brand new manager, like with Revela, we talk about what? What do you want them to know or demonstrate? The first day, the first week, the first month that like those are expectations and.

Michelle Hill: Having it broken out not to interrupt, which I did. That's all right. Uh, to having it where if if you break it out on what? What is it we want to start noticing them doing and seeing into this week, this third, fourth week, the month or whatever. It helps you remember to work with them on that, right? Because otherwise it's really easy to bounce around and just be in the moment and not be intentional winging it. Oh, we need to do this, this, this, you know, kind of scenario. Yes.

Andrea Fredrickson: And focus and give them those eggs, those experiences. Yes. To make sure that that happens. There may be expectations of we're going to meet weekly for this period of time, or we're going to meet every other week. Yeah. What is this.

Michelle Hill: Training? What is this development right look like.

Andrea Fredrickson: In your role? What is expected like I, as the manager leader might have expectations that they're not written in any job descriptions. Oh, they're not written in any place. We may have mentioned them during an interview. By the way, if an internal person was given an interview, that isn't always happen. So, you know, it's a matter of, have we had that conversation about what those expectations are? And that starts when you write the job description or when you start thinking about creating this position, like, what are the expectations we really have, right.

Michelle Hill: And it's expectations between you and them, but expectations between them and their people, right? Because if you expect us to have one on ones weekly, what do you expect of us, of me to do with my employees? Because a lot of times it just stops at that's expected of me, doesn't necessarily transition to, oh shit, I should be doing that with my employees, right?

Andrea Fredrickson: You should be having one on ones. You should be checking in. You should. Here's a couple of questions you can start asking. Right. So there's there's the second is what activities and what are the priorities. So in this scenario, this this VP was saying I have all these projects. And so she was dumping going to dump them on on this on these new positions. I'm like.

Michelle Hill: Well, the existing person, we're going to make a lot of assumptions that they could probably do them.

Andrea Fredrickson: Making the assumptions. And by the way, don't forget, if you promoted a person into a role, they're leaving an open position behind them. So they have a foot in the old position, right? What does that look like and what does that look like? And they're now learning something new. And it takes a minute to get the new, you know, get your sea legs, as they say in that new role. Now you're and it takes a little jobs.

Michelle Hill: It takes a lot for them to let go of some of those things too.

Andrea Fredrickson: And so do we help them understand what activities need to be delegated to people who aren't the people who are remaining until they get a new hire, who's doing the hiring for the position that is now going to be reporting to this manager. Like there's all these activities and priorities, and sometimes it's not just telling people what, but we have to teach them how to fulfill those expectations. So if an activity expectation is one on ones, how do you do them.

Michelle Hill: Yes, yes.

Andrea Fredrickson: Is there a place that they need to be recorded that they need to go into Paylocity or Paycor or bamboo or some software? Or is it you can use your own system or whatever it happens to be?

Michelle Hill: Well, and I think even that step further, it's not just the what and the how, but it's also the why.

Michelle Hill: Um.

Michelle Hill: Why are we doing those? Why do we find those? How do those help the team? How do those help their their productivity? How does it help? You know why? Yep.

Andrea Fredrickson: So a third thing on the plants. So we have, um expectations. We have activities and priorities. The third is how do they want to be viewed as a leader within this company. Yes. And when I have brought that up in the past, you know, this VP that I brought it up to, she's like, what? What does that mean? So in your mind, you know what? When you're like, how would you do that. What would you do.

Michelle Hill: This okay. Kind of aligning this a little bit with a previous episode with coaching we talk about impact right. So oftentimes when someone is well getting promoted they just get so into the do it stage. I get this done this done this done this done. And they don't recognize or realize the impact that they have on their people. Well, when they first step into this role, if they're if they're new to the organization, there's no history. So right away, at the very beginning, when they step in this role, they are having an impact on the people around them. That creates perception, how people are going to perceive them and view them as a leader right off the start, right now.

Andrea Fredrickson: Taking their baggage with them well.

Michelle Hill: Well. And a person who's promoted, they've already had impact, by the way. Right. So we got to make sure, you know is the impact been what. Hopefully we've kind of worked through that a little bit. But what what is that impact. How do they want to be viewed as a leader. And we're going to view ourselves again through our intentions. People are going to view us through our actions. So let's first think about what do you want people to say? You know, I think it's as simple as if I were to interview your team and say, what's it like? You know, working with so and so. What's it like working with Andrea? What do you want them to say? Right. And what then very specific actions do you need to do to create those, those feelings that that experience. Because again, we can get so into that. I'm just going to head down, get this, you know, get shit done. Right. Right. That we don't necessarily think about, oh, you know, you're doing I'm just helping the team. We're getting these projects going forward and you don't recognize, oh, I don't really know my team members that well or I. I haven't taken time to find out. What do they think our team does really well versus not what are their strengths? I mean, just all these various things that we should be doing. On more of that. I hate using the soft skills side of it, but it's that interpersonal. It's that social connection, that social capital that we need to be building with our people to help build trust and build those relationships. So we start having the the positive impact that's going to allow us to get buy in and where people are doing what they need to be doing.

Andrea Fredrickson: Yeah, it's it's actually surprises me. And yet maybe it doesn't that that conversation doesn't happen. It doesn't happen in interviews. Rarely. It doesn't happen in the initial conversation. Whether they're being promoted today into a manager leadership role. Right. Or if they've been in a manager leadership role. Is that conversation happening between the leader of the leader? Right. Like where is that conversation happening unless you go to a class, right? Yeah. I don't know if some people even do that in classes, but we do like, how do we how do we how do people want to be known? We do.

Michelle Hill: Well. And I think the one thing that I can't I'm interrupting you, but you're.

Michelle Hill: Like, no, stop. Um, the one thing.

Michelle Hill: That I think we're organizations sometimes trip over themselves a little bit is they promote that great doer because they get results, they get things done, and they fail to recognize the impact they're having on their peers, the people around them, that now they've taken this person who maybe has had a kind of a negative impact on people because it's all about them right there. They're winning. They're getting their stuff done. They're the ones that are knocking it out of the park. They could be.

Andrea Fredrickson: Having a negative. Yeah.

Michelle Hill: And and maybe they're not helpful from the other team members. Maybe they, you know, blow off the other team members. Maybe they don't consider their perspective or include them and variety of things. And but now I've promoted them and expect them to be successful. Getting that stuff done through these people who really don't respect that person. And that's unfortunately sets that quote unquote person who was extremely successful in getting stuff done. I'm not saying with people the doer. Um, and it can really set them up for failure because there are so many barriers with how the people around them view them before they promote them. Yes.

Andrea Fredrickson: So looking at creating this plan for their first for sure, six months, I mean, there are books out there, you know, the first 90 days. And I think those are really, really good resources. Right. But how do you get that person up and ready to roll? And what is your support role in this? It's not only inspecting, it's coaching and developing, it is following through. It is asking questions. It is sometimes training.

Michelle Hill: Yeah, it's that coaching for development, that coaching for training. It's that coaching for impact. Right. You know it gets into all the different purposes of coaching.

Andrea Fredrickson: And the other part of all of those is where are their resources. And I think that a lot of organizations don't have lists or a location for where resources are. So if I need to learn how to, you know, what do I do with a PTO request? What do I do with that? Is there anything that is written anywhere? Where is that located on an intranet somewhere? Is it, you know, on SharePoint someplace? Is there, you know, something like that that people can go to for sure. On the leadership side, there's all kinds of things. Are there videos? Are there books? Are there classes they can be a part of? The person who is their leader needs to be involved as a resource in there. Yes. Right. And so where these one on ones, especially during the first six months, people should be having one on ones all the time every month. Like that's, that's our belief. But initially they should be more frequent because there's a lot more questions. And so we're big advocates for when people first start. They need to be keeping journals on. What did I learn? What's still confusing? What questions do I have? Is there anything you know that you see could be changed or different? Maybe we're not ready for that, but we need to keep a list of those things as we're going through because, Because, you know, yes, as a new as a person in a new role or a new person in the organization, you're going to see things differently than the people who have always done things.

Andrea Fredrickson: And so there may be some things that we should take a look at. Yes. So you promoted somebody into this management role. Now what. So the the end of this maybe the the next chapter of this story was when I talked to this VP. We worked through all of these things. We talk through these things. And it took some time because as she was, um, as we had the conversation, it was from the very beginning of, I've just gotten permission to do these things. We kind of know what we're going to be doing. She could start putting this plan together, and she didn't have to do it all one night because they were all starting tomorrow, right? Which that has happened to. But the reality is she did put some things together And as she's doing this, she's been adjusting and tweaking things, adding things. But she's also learned that her intentionality of putting this plan together has made the transition so much more smooth than as she reflected back and said, this would have been a shit show, I can tell you that. And we would have been frustrated going back and forth. So the moral of that story is it's ending well, you know, this, this phase of things. And I'm really proud of of the work that she's done. So if you, as listeners, are looking for more resources as it relates to developing your leaders, there are links in the show notes. And don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss another episode.