Unless you specialize in start-up companies, where you get to handpick your direct reports as they come in from the outside, the chances are excellent that you will inherit your teams now and then. And, let’s face it, some of your new team members will be coming in with baggage. That’s the drawback of working with humans. It’s a drag, I know.
Eventually you’re going to find how who those extra, uhm, special team members are. They may reveal their true nature to you directly. But, more likely than not, their reputation will precede them: “Watch your back with Joe.” “That Mary, she’s a piece of work.” “Daria? Well, she’s not exactly a self-starter.” “Between you and me? Peter, well, you know….” Innuendo. Hints. Flat out indictments. You’ll get it all. And your own excitement about your new job will be threatened by the looming feeling that maybe you’ve taken on the Dirty Dozen. Or that you’ve landed on the Island of Misfit Toys.
Yay.
The situation may not be as bad as you might think it is. What you’re getting is a report of how people performed in the culture that your predecessor had established. With you as their new leader, you’re changing the alchemy of the group. And so you represent a fresh start, even if the rest of the team continues to work with each other the same way they did the months and years before you showed up. And, as a leader, it’s quite possible that the most valuable thing you can do for your team (at least in the first quarter) is give them a chance at a do-over, without having to change their own jobs to do it.
Here’s how:
- Check your own assumptions. Do you believe that people are basically zeroes until their performance starts racking up brownie points? If that’s how you evaluate people, then the ones with a bad rap really do have the odds stacked against them. Unless you change that fundamental approach to your people, your team is truly at a disadvantage. Work with a coach (or a therapist) to help yourself neutralize this attitude about people.
- Give all your people an A. It’s much easier to (not to mention more inspiring) to keep up a perfect score than it is to haul yourself out of a ditch. Let everyone know that starting now, what you care about is what they can do for the team and company. You recognize that they were hired for their capabilities. And, as far as your concerned, from this point forward, that’s what you’ll be focusing on.
- Make your team about performance, not about reputation. People with dinged reputations already feel bad. You don’t have to remind them. Give them measurable and identifiable performance goals and focus your conversations with them on that.
- Establish a no-bad-mouthing rule. Because you’re changing your team’s culture to one that focuses on performance, this is also a great time to remove the focus on reputation. Let it be known that you won’t tolerate your team members speaking ill of each other. And you especially don’t want to hear it. Naturally, at first people will still talk — mostly behind your back. So keep focusing on performance in your messaging, and eventually the talk will die away.
- Make “that was then, this is now” your motto. It’s quite possible that the real source of your team’s difficulty was your predecessor (but you may not know for sure, since you’ve established a no-bad-mouthing rule). You may have just replaced the main source of bad chemistry, ill-will and demoralization. That team member whom people have pointed out as being a misfit or nonstarter? That person might have been a scapegoat picked on by your predecessor. The fresh start you represent just might save this valuable player’s career.
If you’re starting a new job leading a new team, it’s a fresh start for you and your career, to be sure. But it’s also a great new opportunity for your new team to press the reset button on their own professional lives. Helping save great talent that just needed a chance with a new leader could be the most valuable service you perform for your company during your first year as the new boss.
Martha Finney, president and CEO of Engagement Journeys, helps companies build authentically engaging workplace cultures. She is the author of more than 15 books, including The Truth About Getting the Best From People.
Image credit, thomasd007,via iStock
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Very good article. This is a great philosophy.
Fantastic post. I wish more new managers formed their own opinions vs. hearing and internalizing bad-mouthing by one or two others.
For example, although my reputation with the rest of the organization is very positive as I keep hearing and as I receive feedback, I've been on the receiving end of bad bosses so have been told I have a "bad reputation." Is there a way to manage this?
This is really great advice. Never judge your team members until they have been given the opportunity to perform under your leadership. People work for people so that trouble maker may be your superstar undercover. State the vision and let your team live up to it or not. with the new ground rules and direction and vision you could have top notch players that were having the life sucked out of them from their previous leadership.
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good advice for those taking on new teams. I like the idea of giving everyone a clean slate, one caveat is that team members need to own prior objective results and possibility behavior (if behavior has been documented and is egregious) . The team needs to know that the new leader will be evaluating them primarily on their future results and behavior. Considering past subjective impressions/ratings forward will limit the new leaders impact. All this must be done very carefully. Extra care is generally given to poor performers… don't forget about the top performers in the team and how they will buy in to what you are doing.
Useful advice. However, sometimes individual team members are "troublesome" because they simply have a very different personality profile. For example, the team is composed largely of analytic types and this one person, who is considered the cause of the strife, is a creative person. Maybe we can have our cake and eat it by enabling the majority to appreciate the minority and vice-versa. Let's not deystroy diversity for the sake of harmony.
I've always maintained this philosophy and it's great to hear it being spread to others.
Your second tip reminds me of a story in which a new teacher is hired and given the worst class in the school. All she is given is a list of names and numbers which she assumes are their IQ scores. She teaches them according to her supposition and they settle down and perform well. She later goes to the principal to express her gratitude for being given such an awesome responsiblity for a greenhorn. He looks at her like she is crazy and tells her that the numbers were for their lockers.
Yes, there are different personalities in play but sometimes teams don't work because they've been told they don't work. It is on the manager to pay attention to his/her attitudes towards others and how these can affect performance.
Some great thoughts. I've always tried to start everyone out at 100%. I like the idea of consistently reinforcing that with yourself, and your team.
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