Tips for New Managers

With fast paced moving companies, reporting lines often change due to realignment of departments, promotions or general business needs.  Change creates natural trepidation but also hints at great possibilities. Reporting relationships take time to build from both a manager’s and a direct report’s perspectives. This week’s blog post is for a manager with a new direct report & next week’s will be for an employee who has a new manager.

For a Manager with a New Direct Report:

Getting to know your team is a big challenge. You want to create quick wins and not steamroll new reports with big changes right away. These tips will help you gain credibility and build trust.

-          Listen first. Seek to understand procedures, strategies, organizational charts, and roles/responsibilities of your new team. As a new manager, you are likely eager to make your mark in your new role. First seek to understand why things are done a certain way before barging in with changes.

-          Ask questions - understand what your team thinks works well, how processes align to goals, and ask what they would change. If your team agrees on priorities they are more likely to buy into such change. 

-          Create transparency – talk to your team about your goals/mandate and what you are trying to achieve so they can be part of the solution.

-          Get to know your team – your people are your greatest asset to create quick wins in your new role. Potentially use a questionnaire that they fill out and then book time to review it together. It’s a way to have a little fun, get to know them professionally and start to build a personal relationship. I often use something called a management contract to start this (read here: http://bit.ly/gOr24X). You can ask things like: favourite coffee, morning or afternoon thinker, and then things like strengths, growth opportunities, personal goals, what they like in a manager, etc… Using this to facilitate a conversation can get you going on a great foot right away.

-          Transition from past managers - If you are taking on an employee from another manager within the same organization, book time to do a proper transition. Ask them to share previous performance reviews and tips for management.

-          Talk about your management style – just like you want to get to know your new team, they want to get to know their new manager. Talk about tips for working with you, the working environment you like to create and your plan for the team.

-          Have regular team updates – book a bi-weekly or monthly meeting with your direct reports to discuss your findings, recommended changes & the team’s progress. This will help you create buy in and overall transparency and be viewed as a leader who is creating team work right from the get go!

 

For those who have recently moved into a new role managing a new team, what do you think about the above tips? What helped set off your new relationship for the better and what do you wish you had done differently?

Stay posted for next week's post on tips for employees with new managers.

Talent Management 101

Talent Management is a HOT topic. It is really about managing your talent proactively, aligning talent to organizational values and opportunities, and succession planning to keep your top talent happy at YOUR Company. According to Wikipedia (the best definition source) talent management “refers to the skills of attracting highly skilled worked, of integrating new workers, and developing and retaining current workers to meet current and future business objectives.” As the article calls out, “companies engaging in a talent management strategy shift the responsibility of employees from the HR department to all managers throughout the organization.” HR is a lead player in working with a company’s senior leadership team to align on a talent management strategy but ALL managers must then take accountability for developing their direct reports. Thus, training & organizational education is also a key part of a talent management strategy.  Talent management also goes hand in hand with recruiting so you can acquire the right talent to meet your business needs once you create a language to discuss skill gaps or needs. Talent management is increasingly a point of differentiation as happier employees are more productive and it helps you keep your high performers/high potentials happy and not seeking (or being open) to other opportunities.

The economy is picking up and the market for strong talent is getting hotter than ever. Many companies are failing to bench mark their talent, create guidelines for talent management development, and build succession plans for top performers.  This puts your talent at risk when other’s come calling and puts you in reactive mode dealing with counter offers or potentially being too late in the game to keep your high performers.

Here is Talent Management 101

If this is a hot topic for you, please let me know so I can build out further posts on the topic.

Step 1: Determine bench marks for talent.  What are the key pillars involved in each role & at which level to you want each manager (based on title) to be an expert? This is an exercise in itself that takes time.

Step 2: Make a companywide plan on succession planning & create guidelines for promotions, bonus plans, talent reviews, and learning & development.

Step 3: Internal Talent Review. Work with all of the senior managers to bench mark your employees (aka your talent) & identify the top performers/high potential candidates. Ensure that all managers are aligned. There are many tools/processes/templates out there to help you with this process. This should be an executive/senior manager discussion so you can really compare talent from multiple teams and have a consistent evaluation among all employees. Start with your most senior managers and work your way through each level. HR should manage these conversations.

Step 4: Coach your managers on how to have conversations with all employees – especially those high potential individuals and take them through template succession plans to determine their 1-3 year plans. Work to have a consistent strategy on getting these candidates additional exposure & opportunities based on their long term talent to truly grow them into your company’s future leaders. Templates, training & education is very important at this step as some managers may be leading high potential candidates but they themselves might be more a “steady Eddie” – also people important to keep happy & developed.

Step 5: When new business is secured or a promotion is justified, ensure that you look to those ready & willing candidates who have the right skills & the right aptitude to move into the role. Base your promotions on fit & talent versus things like tenure.

Step 6: Visit your talent review annually to revisit how you are doing on your strategy & re-evaluate your team’s growth over the past year.

Step 7: repeat repeat repeat. Remember that training & development of your managers & support from a strong HR Talent Manager/Lead is very key to lead all of the change management necessary to properly build & execute a strong talent management strategy. This is different way of thinking and thus this strategy will take time and needs alignment between HR and Sr leaders in developing the organizational plan and managing this change for your organization.

There are many assessments/processes out there to support your talent management strategy. Remember to use tools & research research research! Have a plan & then work that plan.

For those of you with existing talent management strategies, what is working? What have you learned? What would you do differently? For those just starting, how are you doing in your planning?

Below is just one visual example of an important talent management strategy as it should include everything from Acquiring Talent, to Developing, Aligning, & Assessing Talent.

Wikipedia definition of Talent Management: http://bit.ly/oDuhlt

Talent Management Process Example <via Taleo>: http://bit.ly/q3q3hE

Do Unto Others

This is a short blog post with just a note on work/life/living. I work with so many different people from so many different cultures & it always amazes me that the saying "you get more bees with honey than vinegar" is true. Just a reminder that in recruiting new people or in managing existing people you must treat them well & with respect. By doing so you will go further in your career than if you use others as a stepping stone to personal higher aspirations. My belief is that I can only get ahead by driving the success of those under me as I can't be promoted until others are ready to fill my shoes. Are you living by this rule?

Art of Listening

In a managers hope to guide and support their direct reports, they often forget the power of listening! I think that managers often want to stop their employees from making similar learning mistakes they made – but is this the right thing to do? Isn’t self realization more powerful than being told what to do!? Let’s just think back to a parent-teenager moment and when told what you do, you (the angry teenager) likely acted in the opposite way!  Let’s learn from the past & learn the art of Active Listening.

As a manager, asking the right open ended probing questions and guiding a direct report in a certain direction is a better technique than just directing. However, asking & listening is a WAY more difficult skill than just telling. As those who know me well, I’m a bit of a total talker so my natural premonition is just to TELL. I have to push back this part of my nature and instead focus on active listening traits I have nurtured like asking, clarifying, & confirming. By asking, being comfortable with silence (and not feeling the need to fill those silent moments) and being fully present (versus thinking of the million things on my to do list etc), I can be a better manager.

A few inspirational ideas & quotes:

-          Think of an 80-20 rule in terms of the ratio to listening versus talking in a coaching/management moment

-          “To listen well, is as powerful a means of include as to talk well, and is an essential to all true conversation.” – Chinese proverb

-          "Seek first to understand, then to be understood" – Steven Covey

-          "I can't hear the words you speak for your actions are deafening" - Unknown

How do you practice active listening? What are the best questions you use as a manager? Alternatively, what are the best questions one of your favourite managers has asked you to take a different perspective on a tough matter?

10 Quick Tips on Onboarding New Employees

I recently spoke at a conference about using New Hires Perspectives in your Onboarding Process. For the sake of learning, I choose 10  tips from my 90 minute presentation to share here (and on twitter)for quick things you can implement ASAP to improve your onboarding process.  Remember that onboarding goes beyond initial training/orientation as it includes the first 90 days of a new hire's employment as candidates are most likely to leave a new employer during this period.  Get engaged hires faster by checking out the below 10 onboarding tips:

 Tip #1 - Recruiting promises + onboarding = engaged or disengaged new hires!? We promise the world in recruiting; ensure your onboarding program delivers! So often recruiting & onboarding are run by different departments or individuals; ensure that these owners of these aspects work together so you deliver on recruiting promises in the first 90 days of a new hires employment.

Tip #2 - Do not have a uniform onboarding program. The demographics of your new hire + their role will impact HOW you should onboard them! Would you really onboard a new executive and a millennial in their first job in the same way? NO!  Don’t make the same mistake in assuming that Gen X or boomers (with lots of work experience) don’t need onboarding as they have experience. Onboarding is about educating an employee about your company’s culture and setting them up for success in their new role

Tip #3 - Millennials, Gen Y, Gen X, baby boomers, executives all have different values for onboarding. Great article here by Madeline Laurano on what you should include in each generation’s onboarding: http://bit.ly/bHjCEH. Key takeaways: ensure that you use mediums that make sense to the age groups. Social media is key as part of your onboarding strategy for millennials & Gen Y.

Tip #4 - Poll your new hires/ search social media sites (via a listening strategy) to gain insights on where your onboarding delivered/needs improvement. Do regular check-ins with your new hires – day 5, day 30, 60 and 90.

Tip #5 - Action feedback from new hires to improve onboarding processes & let them know the actions you have taken! Though they may not have felt engaged about a part of the process, you will re-engage them by letting them know you heard them and have changed the process.

Tip #6 - Onboarding goes beyond orientation. Orientation= first 1-5 training days; onboarding = first 90 days of employment! Don't forget about a new hire after the first week - ensure you have regular check-ins and support for them ongoing.

Tip #7 - Effective onboarding programming = in-person orientations/buddies + technological solutions

Tip #8 - 40% of newly promoted managers fail within 18 months of starting new jobs. Know potential pitfalls & build plans to combat them. Great article from John G. Agno here about Executive onboarding: http://bit.ly/bT8kkI

Tip #9- Onboarding is about connecting your new hires to the company culture; create a community ON & OFFline

Tip #10 - Remember onboarding is all worth it as you will ALL be successful with an engaged + productive team!

Please let me know which of these tips spoke to you the most & the results of implementing it into your onboarding program!

To Mentor or Not? Developing & Participating in Mentorship Programs

Mentorship is a tricky subject as it relies on absolute buy-in from the mentee and the mentor. The best organizations out there have formalized mentorship programs as part of onboarding, talent management and employee engagement best practices. My advice is that not everyone is a natural mentor so some formalized training & a program kick off will likely set your program up for success!

Here are some of my thoughts on mentorship:

-         Planning out a program including your vision, training & assigning mentors is key. Plan your program versus just jumping in without a clear plan and vision

-         If someone doesn't want to participate in a mentorship program, forcing them is not going to inspire them to take advantage of this great opportunity. Focus on making the opportunities available, educating your employees on the benefits and then leaving it to be a personal choice if they would like to partake

-         Assigning the right mentee to mentor is very important. Ensure that mentees have a say in their mentor. Have parameters like level differences, geographical location & work focus in assigning mentors & mentees. Find out what’s important to your employees

-         Training your mentors on how to be a mentor is important. Not everyone is a natural coach!

-         Confidentiality is key. Mentorship programs are not to glean who is unhappy in an organization but is about providing confidential coaching and being a safe sounding board to have happier employees

-         Mentors need to prompt their mentees to come to the meeting with a list of topics or a situation they want to discuss. Mentors should actively listen & ask lots of probing questions. Don’t just tell your mentees what they ‘should’ have done but work through the situation together

-         Mentoring needs to be a priority for those involved in the program. It is very easy to cancel a mentor meeting in the face of a client deadline, but what kind of message is this to your mentee about the importance of their development? Time management and prioritization is key if you are involved in a mentorship relationship

I’m a big believe in being & having mentors. Providing guidance to others builds my management and coaching skills & I honestly learn from them just as, I hope, they learn from me!   I personally have a work mentor but I also have a couple of people in my life who are my informal mentors. When I meet someone who inspires me, I talk to them about potentially playing a mentorship role in my life. I like having different points of view, different sounding boards and choose people I respect, admire and have traits/skills I hope to learn from them.  In terms of your own mentorship, grab the bull by the horns as no one is going to drive your own development but YOU!

Do you have a fabulous mentor in your life? What makes them great? Please comment below to get the dialogue on this topic started!