Q: What’s the best way to get a newly hired or promoted leader up to speed? ACE advises: We use an exercise, the “new leader/manager assimilation,” to accelerate the onboarding and orientation of a manager or leader who is new to the role, the team and/or the organization.A consultant-facilitator leads a process that helps the […]
Q: What's the best way to get a newly hired or promoted leader up to speed?
ACE advises: We use an exercise, the “new leader/manager assimilation,” to accelerate the onboarding and orientation of a manager or leader who is new to the role, the team and/or the organization.
A consultant-facilitator leads a process that helps the team get to know the person behind the role, and helps the new leader get to know the group that he or she is going to manage. It gets important messages and issues on the table at the outset and establishes a solid foundation for future team building.
The group lists questions on a flip chart. The new leader reviews the questions and engages the group in a discussion a couple of hours in length.
We provide talking points that have been useful/successful with other new leaders:
- If there's something you'd like to know, get it up on the flipchart.
- Now's the time to be very honest — I can handle it.
- Say, “I'm invested in this process — I'm taking this seriously and will use this data to help me as I go forward.”
Here are some questions the group will want to ask, but probably won't:
- Will you address all the things we put up on the flip charts?
- Will you be completely honest?
- Is this a one-time event? What are your plans to use this information in the future?