"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss", The Who
Using a structured “New Leader Integration Process” can:
- Reduce the time that it takes a new leader and his or her new work team to begin to communicate more openly and freely, and build trust, inclusion, and collaboration
- Offer the new team the opportunity to surface, explore and discuss their perceptions with the new leader, focusing on needs and expectations, concerns and issues, team direction, goals, and current or anticipated projects.
- Increase and enhance the assimilation of the new leader and their new team, improving the new leaders’s learning curve and overall management effectiveness.
The Process
This is a facilitated meeting with team members and new leader that should take approximately 4 hours. The flow and process would potentially look like this:
1. Set Key Groundrules for session with leader and team members.
2. The leader leaves the room and a facilitator leads the next part with team members only. Write the following questions and team responses on a flipchart:
- What do we (think we) know about (name of new leader)? What have we heard?
- What would we like to know about (name)?
- What concerns do we have about (name) being here?
- What do we need most from (name)?
- What does (name) need to know about us?
- What problems/issues will (name) need to face/resolve in the first 60-90 days?
3. Break. Facilitator summarizes with new manager key points from the data gathered.
4. Team reconvenes with leader. Facilitator presents and leader responds to team’s responses.
5. Leader and team mutually decide on next steps needed to address any issue/concern.
- Reduce the time that it takes a new leader and his or her new work team to begin to communicate more openly and freely, and build trust, inclusion, and collaboration
- Offer the new team the opportunity to surface, explore and discuss their perceptions with the new leader, focusing on needs and expectations, concerns and issues, team direction, goals, and current or anticipated projects.
- Increase and enhance the assimilation of the new leader and their new team, improving the new leaders’s learning curve and overall management effectiveness.
The Process
This is a facilitated meeting with team members and new leader that should take approximately 4 hours. The flow and process would potentially look like this:
1. Set Key Groundrules for session with leader and team members.
2. The leader leaves the room and a facilitator leads the next part with team members only. Write the following questions and team responses on a flipchart:
- What do we (think we) know about (name of new leader)? What have we heard?
- What would we like to know about (name)?
- What concerns do we have about (name) being here?
- What do we need most from (name)?
- What does (name) need to know about us?
- What problems/issues will (name) need to face/resolve in the first 60-90 days?
3. Break. Facilitator summarizes with new manager key points from the data gathered.
4. Team reconvenes with leader. Facilitator presents and leader responds to team’s responses.
5. Leader and team mutually decide on next steps needed to address any issue/concern.
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