“Been there, done that” never applies to starting a role with a new company. Anyone who has been there and done that can tell you it’s true. Each opportunity brings unique opportunities.
CIOs and other C-Suite leaders are a major addition to a team. Expectations are built up, questions surface, uncertainty prevails, and the hype parallels the hope.
You know this. It’s why you are tempted to impress early. But early impression isn’t the goal; effective influence is. Impression flows from influence; it doesn’t foster it.
We impress by trying to do too much too soon or by making promises without strategies or by cheer leading rather than critically listening.
Influence To Impress
Five commitments will promote early influence and lasting impressions.
Build Up Rather Than Burn Out
Employees are used to the high-speed executive who promises dramatic change and shifts employees into overdrive.
And they are used to the three year fizzle.
I have three priorities with staff when starting in an organization. First, do some conversational assessments with the key leaders and contributors. That gives you an idea of what is top of mind for them when it comes to improvements and challenges.
Second, frame change as toward fulfillment. The company has been waiting a long time for preferred states; the change you lead is on the path to the future they have wanted.
Third, use the relational assessments to also get real about values. Are the values in place, if they have any, legitimate? Do they conduct audits to live up to them? If not, find out which one matters and introduce the personal work values you operate on.
The combination of asking questions, framing change and establishing stability builds believability that you are focus on building and not burning.
Your First Key Strategies Require Serving Key Stakeholders
You won’t be able to do everything everyone wants in the time in which they want it. And you know - they want it all from the new person.
Identify who the primary and secondary stakeholders are and go after the quick wins you can deliver for them and the long-term planning you can begin with them.
Alignment Beats Arrangement
The worst mistake I made in starting a new role was convincing myself that current leaders who didn’t necessarily align with me and the strategy could be brought around.
Influence occurs when confidence spreads. If leaders are not spreading confidence because they are aligned with your vision, they are eroding confidence and your influence by maligning your vision.
As hard as it can be, make the personnel changes you need sooner than later.
Check-in To Avoid Check-outs
Schedule time in your first year to meet with as many key leaders and teams as possible to keep a pulse on how people are regarding the changes, progress or setbacks occurring on your watch.
Do not assume that what you see as positive growth, whether measured by numbers or accolades, is perceived as valuable by everyone. Growth comes at cost. Leaders who seek to influence and not merely impress structure opportunities for feedback and the ability of others to process what is happening in the changes they are experiencing.
Know Your Self, Grow Your Self
You have not arrived. Whatever this new position is, it does not define you or validate you.
Every new start is a great start to discover what ideas and ways of doing things need to change for you, and what lies, masks or pretenses that betray you must be confronted, discarded and transformed.
You have nothing to prove. You have everything to become.
Get a coach. Join a peer-advisory group. Tell your story repeatedly.
W/hen leaders and employees hear how you are changing while also bringing change, your influence spreads exponentially.
You have heard it said that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Well, sure. But we are after more than a first impression. We want a lasting impression, and that comes through effective influence. Start right to sow right.
