Start Out Right

"Congratulations — you got the job."

Uh…now what?

These days, employers expect new employees to "hit the ground running," especially new management and executive employees. With your enthusiasm for taking on this new challenge, it's tempting to bounce into work and start making suggestions, planning projects, shaking things up, creating change.

You may even think this is what you were hired to do. After all, in the interview they asked questions about self-starting, initiative, new ideas — right?

Well…maybe. And then again, maybe not.

Job descriptions and interviews — particularly if the position itself is newly-created — are at least partially fantasy. When the hiring manager wrote the job description, he took a short-lived trip to utopia. When she interviewed you, she painted the company and the position in the best possible light. What would the perfect world look like?

Now that you're on staff, it's no longer fantasy-land. Utopias don't exist. Welcome to the real world.

And in the real world, people are territorial, easily offended, afraid of change, and potentially unwilling to admit that an outsider — that would be you — could possibly understand what's really going on.

So even if you were hired to shake things up — even if the hiring manager specifically said so during your interviews — be careful and be alert. It's all too easy to tread on toes, and those toes can turn and kick you.

Here are four ways to ease into your new position with sensitivity, so you can do what you were hired to do without unpleasant surprises — for you or your new co-workers.

Be a detective

Yes, you've got great ideas and great experience. Yes, you were hired for those ideas and experience. But before you present them, you must become someone who understands the corporate culture, the history of what you're working on, and the political landscape. This includes:

• What have they already tried? Why didn't it work?
• What won't they try, no matter how good an idea it is, because of anything from the boss's unreasonable opinions to the technical infrastructure's limitations?
• Who is paying lip service to the project or area you're working in, but secretly doesn't really support it?
• What are the concerns of other teams or departments? How does your new role impact them?

Lunch a lot

Get out and move around. Talk to people. As soon as you start seeing who the key opinion-setters are (and they may not be the people with the obvious titles), have lunch with them. Outside the office, not in the corporate lunchroom or cafeteria.

One-on-one meetings with the people who can make or break your success are the best way to get to know who they are and understand their concerns and needs. When you know their concerns and needs, you know how to get their support: by being clear about how you'll answer those concerns and support them in getting their needs fulfilled.

Don't jump in with your ideas. Instead, ask a few simple questions about what they think, and just listen. You may or may not agree with them; that's okay. Stay open-minded and ready to be surprised. Take notes. You'll want to incorporate at least some of their ideas into what you ultimately do.

By staying alert, you'll learn:

• How open they are to you and to what you want to do. Watch the body language, tone of voice, and word choice carefully. What they say may appear supportive, but there can be other clues that they have doubts, hidden resentments, or just plain fears.
• What really bugs them — and how you can help.
• Whether they're social communicators (needing some small talk before getting down to work), or all business, all the time.
• If they prefer phone, face-to-face, or email for ongoing communication. (You don't have to detect this: just ask. People are usually surprised and pleased to be asked.)

Involve others throughout

After you've formulated your plan, go back and talk with all the key players again. Present the plan as a draft, not a finished product. Point out where you incorporated their suggestions, answered their concerns, supported their needs. Ask them if they have more ideas for you, or if new concerns have surfaced.

Be aware of your tone when you ask. You aren't, of course, being helpless or incapable. You are being strong and mature enough to ask for feedback and input.

It can be difficult, especially when you're new on the job and wanting to make a good impression, to lay yourself open to this kind of feedback. The rewards are worth it, though. You'll get:

• Real buy-in, because they'll feel heard, understood, and responded to.
• A better end result, because it will incorporate lots of ideas from lots of people and address the needs of multiple areas.
• Much more complete and effective risk management, because you'll incorporate responses to the concerns of all areas, not just the concerns that you can identify. (And let's face it: you are new, so how could you know where all the risks lie?)

Stay in touch

You've built a good internal network. Cultivate it. Stay in touch, keep people informed, even if they don't seem to have an obvious need-to-know. You never know who can help, whose support you'll need in the future, or how you can help them.

Provide status updates in positive ways. Report on "key successes" rather than "key learnings." You may be reporting the exact same information in either case, but the impression others receive is significantly different when you phrase it differently.

Not just for newbies

These suggestions apply whether you've been hired to work on a brand-new project, or whether you're replacing someone in an existing position.

They also apply if you're a long-term employee who's been promoted to a new area, leading a new initiative, creating a new department.

In fact, these suggestions are part of every smart professional's political toolbox.

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties."
Sir Francis Bacon, 1561-1626, English philosopher, statesman, and essayist.

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About the Author: Grace Judson is an executive coach and business consultant with more than two decades of experience in strategic planning, coaching, business planning, and tactical execution. She specializes in corporate politics and culture issues, and is especially interested in gender politics and the issues of women and gender role expectations in the workplace. For more information, go to: www.svahaconcepts.com.

© 2008 Grace L. Judson. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted here with permission granted by the author.

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