Get ready for a new role (Week 1-2)

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Your focus area for weeks 1 and 2 is making sure that you’ve got a really clear plan of attack for your new role – both what to achieve and who to achieve it with.

Spend 30-40 minutes creating your plan now, then follow it for the next 2 weeks.

Simple.

Reading time: 5 minutes

Take aim and connect

What to do

Get a really clear picture of what success in your new role will look like and make sure that you’re building great relationships with the key people from the start. Make sure you’re really clear on your starting point, so you can use the important first few weeks for maximum impact on your confidence and performance.

Why do it

When moving into a new role there’s usually a huge amount of stuff to try and organise. There’s usually also pressure, real or imagined, to start delivering results quickly. If you don’t get a plan, this combination of factors can add extra pressure and distractions. So, some planning time now will help you:

  • Take control of a lot of the possible pressures and manage them effectively
  • Manage the worry you may have by knowing which things to tackle in a sensible order
  • Have a clear foundation for building confidence as you go, by focusing on successes
  • Make sure you’re connecting well with the key people you need to be working with

How to do it

There are 3 steps to take with this. Read these through, look at the example and then create your own plan.

 1) 12 weeks of success.

First of all, it’s important to get a clear picture of how you want to use the first 12 weeks of this new role to provide you with a strong foundation. Make a list of everything that you want to achieve in terms of new environment, the impression you want to make, knowledge you need to add, key relationships to build, results to be delivered and skills to develop.

For each of the things you write, put them in a ranking of importance to help order them.

 2) Connect and share

Having pulled your ideas together, it’s time to gather some other points of view. The focus is for the next two weeks, though this is an activity that you might keep coming back to as opportunity arises to connect with more people.

Identify the key people that you’re going to be working with in your new role. Show them your list of success factors so they know what you’re trying to achieve. Ask them if there’s anything else they think you should be focusing on and ask them if they have different views on the ranking you’ve got. Then bring their views together alongside yours.

3) Taking action and delivering success

Create a hit list of the key areas of performance you want to focus on, what you’re actually going to do in these two weeks, and beyond. Also identify who else is going to be involved in helping you achieve the successes you’re after. Once you’ve done this, share the output with colleagues and get any key activities and deadlines in the diary. Once you’ve done that, use the rest of the training plan as a foundation for making the most of the next 12 weeks.

Example plan

You’re nearly ready to take aim and connect so you can transition into your new role with loads of confidence. To help you along the way we’ve completed an example of a Project Manager moving into a new, senior position. Read through it, get some ideas from it and then create your own plan.

1. 12 weeks of success.

By the end of my first 12 weeks in this role:
Key area of focus Result I’m aiming for Importance
Ranking
Adjust to new location/environment Travel second nature and home life into a good pattern. Got my office sorted and set up for maximum efficiency. 4
Impression I’d like people to have of me Organised, ahead of the game, in control and collaborative. 5
Knowledge I need to have added Business Insight, Competitor activity, Overall strategic view understood, Core strengths of everyone on the team. 1
Result/s I need to have delivered Project plan pulled together and communicated. First phase under way. Everyone on the team has excellent role clarity and are ready to collaborate. 2
Skills I need to have developed Virtual leadership. Stakeholder management needs taking to a new level. 5

2. Connect and share

Additional views from my meetings.
Key area of focus Things I need to do Importance
Ranking
Adjust to new environment Get a plan for how to deal with the cross-site/time zone team. 5
Impression I’d like people to have I get things done. I can be trusted. 6
Knowledge I need to add New software roll-out coming. Be ready for that. 4
Result/s I need to deliver The team looks like a team to the wider business. 1 or 2
Skills I need to develop New software skills. 5
Additional successes to aim for Reduce level of worry around the Project. 1 or 2
Reporting schedule organised and delivered. 4
Get ready to grow the team by another 3 people. 6

Once you’ve gathered these views, use them, along with your initial thoughts to complete step 3.

3) Taking action and delivering success

Key area of focus Things I’m actually going to do Who else is going to be involved?
Adjust to new environment Build a meeting structure to help with cross-site communication. James + rep from each site. Marsha
Impression I’d like people to have Execute my plan. Regular project updates and proactive sharing to keep people informed. Wider Team. Anya.
Knowledge I need to add Regular meetings scheduled with key knowledge holders. Meet with IT for new software training. James, Bret and Fi.

IT lead.

Key relationships I need to build Create some shared objectives and reporting requirements. FD.
Results I need to deliver Emphasise collective delivery. Deliver everything through a Team approach. Whole team.
Skills I need to develop Connect with new network to develop leadership approach and update them regularly. James. Marsha.
Additional successes to aim for All of the above done with focus and consistency will deliver the other outcomes.

Coaching tips

Your meetings in step 2 are a really important chance to kick the relationships off very positively. Take the time to set these up really well and think about how you want to use these regularly, rather than a ‘start of job’ activity.

I'm ready to start!

   Ok, it’s now time to create your own.Put your training plan together