Get ready for a new role (Week 9-10)
Your focus area for weeks 9 and 10 is all about making sure that you’re giving yourself a foundation to keep performing at a really good level and making the most of your talent.
Spend 30-40 minutes creating your plan now, then follow it for the next 2 weeks.
Simple.
Regular habits for success
What to do
Establish a really clear plan of how you tackle each day to the best of your ability, so that you’re focused on leading by example in terms of performance consistency. After this length of time in your new role, it’s important to check you’re still focused on the right things.
Why do it
We know that in new roles, there’s a lot of potential pressure to feel like you have to deliver results overnight. Sometimes, it can feel like the situation is controlling your performance. Being able to consistently focus on performing to your potential, one day at a time, can be a great source of confidence at those times. So make sure you’ve got an approach to:
- Making your performance the consistent factor in what might be an inconsistent environment
- Allowing others to see you’re still making great performance choices
- Feeling you’ve got the energy and headspace to keep learning and performing
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) The story so far
You’ve been in your role for a while now, working on the training plan and delivering the day job. What are your levels of satisfaction with the personal performance levels you’ve been delivering so far? Break the days down into different levels of satisfaction to see how you’ve been doing.
Once you’ve scored yourself, how do the numbers make you feel? Where do you need to target your efforts now?
2) Changing the numbers
What’s the aim then? Which numbers are you going to look to change and what would you like to aim for over the next two weeks of work? Take your scores from step 1 and see what you think you can achieve with them over the next 2 weeks. Realistic, challenging and worthwhile targets are the aim here.
3) Create a new baseline and lead by example
What’s the daily plan for performing to your potential? What do you need to remind yourself of so you keep feeling in control, confident and performing at the levels you expect? Get some key reminders of brilliant basics to focus on that help you deliver to your potential. Remind yourself of them and then deliver them, one day at a time, to make the change you set out in step 2.
Example plan
You’re nearly ready to put your regular habits for success into action. To help you along the way we’ve completed an example of a Project Manager starting a new, senior leadership role. Read through it, get some ideas from it and then create your own plan.
1) The story so far
| Satisfaction Levels | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Poor, let myself down | O.K. – I did enough | Good – pleased | Excellent – thriving! |
| 5% | 20% | 65% | 10% |
How do the numbers make you feel? Where do you need to target your efforts now to build on what’s in place so far?
O.K. so far. Happy enough. Would be good to focus on getting some more thriving days!
2) Changing the numbers
What’s the aim then? Which numbers are you going to look to change and what would you like to aim for over the next two weeks of work?
| Satisfaction Levels – What they’ll look like for the next 2 weeks | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Poor, let myself down | O.K. – I did enough | Good – pleased | Excellent – thriving! |
| 0% | 5% | 75% | 20% |
This feels like a realistic target given that I’ve been in the job a while and I’m feeling more settled. I’m tempted to put 0% for O.K. days, but if I can get this pattern in the next two weeks, knowing what I’ve got coming up, I’ll know it’s been a really good step forward.
3) Create a new baseline and lead by example
Key reminders for delivering to my potential:
Mindset and useful thinking reminders
- Stay in the moment. Don’t get ahead of myself. If I’m organised, I deliver brilliantly, so get a clear head each morning, start with clarity and look forward to staying in control for as long as possible.
Keeping my energy levels in good shape so I can lead by example
- Don’t let nutrition slip. Keep food going in regularly. Lead by example on this and let other people know what a difference great nutrition makes to great performance through the day!
- Sleep quality needs to be taken care of.
Body language reminders
- Walk with confidence around the place – don’t rush. Slow down and walk tall!
Helpful reviewing and learning stuff
- Quick review at the end of each day on the satisfaction level for the day.
- Put some notes in my diary about successes achieved, opportunities taken and strengths used.
- Once reviewed, quickly check what’s in the diary for the next day and switch-off.
I’ve let my PA know about the plan and we’re building some of this in as a way of kicking the day off together.
Coaching tips
Keep working the combination of excitement and curiosity that often goes alongside the start of a new role with the sense of confidence that comes from knowing you’re starting to perform well in it. The longer you can keep the most useful bits of being a newbie with the most powerful bits of being more experienced, the more you’ll perform at the top end of your ability.