Leadership | Checklist for starting as a new leader
The first 100 days as a new leader
From Zarah Speck, executive coach and trainer at netzwerk managementberatung | coaching
How should I manage the first 100 days as a new leader? How should I behave when I take over a team or an area? What do I say when I introduce myself as the new boss? These and other questions are asked by many managers who take on a new responsibility within their own company or even in another company.
Zarah Speck, experienced manager in the SME sector, management coach and trainer in our network, gives tips on how you should organise your first 100 days as a new manager in order to establish a basis of trust and find acceptance as a person and in your role. This is the only way you will succeed in gaining support for the necessary changes. And you will need this if you want to set up your division successfully.
The first 100 days as a new leader: What to do?
The first 100 days of a new leader have five focal points:
- Personal introduction
- Getting to know the team and taking stock of the processes
- Getting to know and managing expectations of colleagues
- Team workshop
- Initiate change and celebrate success
Let's look at the first four points in detail.
Checklist for starting out as a manager | Convincing as a human being
Personal introduction as a new manager
Of course, you start the first 100 days as a leader with a personal introduction and explanatory words about your role. You should answer the following questions in this introduction:
- Person and expertise
- Who am I?
- What did I do before?
- Motivation
- Why am I here?
- What attracted me to take on this responsibility?
To make yourself more tangible as a person, you should say something about yourself and your understanding of your role:
- Person and role
- What makes me tick as a person and as a leader?
- What are my strengths?
- What quirks do I have?
- What do I need so that I can work with you in confidence?
- What are things that I do not tolerate?
- What do I understand by my role?
- What tasks are involved?
- Which tasks are not included?
Then initiate the dialogue and ask for your team's expectations. Depending on the team, the really important wishes and expectations may not be expressed directly. Especially teams that have not lived an open communication culture so far find it difficult to do so. Be patient and keep asking questions.
- Initiate dialogue / enquire about expectations
- How does that sound to you?
- What questions have arisen from this?
- What expectations and wishes do you have of me?
- What do you think I should do most urgently in the first 100 days? Why?
- Next steps
- What will I focus on in the coming days and weeks?
- Why am I doing this?
- What will be a next milestone as a team (e.g. a workshop)?
Checklist for starting as a leader | Understanding the current situation in the team
Getting to know the team and taking stock of the processes
Depending on the size of the department, the first 4-8 weeks are meant to understand the team, its members and the existing processes and structures.
- Try to observe and perceive in a non-judgemental way during this period.
- Ask questions to understand, listen. Ask why things are done the way they are done. Try to let the answer stand and not to counter with: "...but, we could make it much easier".
- Have procedures and processes sketched out on an A4 sheet of paper. If they do not fit on an A4 sheet, they are usually too complex. Complexity always means susceptibility to errors and the risk of hidden costs.
- Record the communication in the team. Who talks to whom and how? Who does not speak? Why? Who is hardly ever spoken to? With what effects?
- See the team members as individuals and in their respective roles as well as in their interaction with each other.
- Perceive the cooperation and communication behaviour to the interface areas.
Checklist for starting as a leader | Building trust outside the team
Getting to know and managing expectations of colleagues
In this phase, the main thing is to get to know your colleagues at the same level, to understand what makes them tick and what expectations they have of you as a person, of your role and the area you are responsible for.
What has worked well so far in the cooperation with your team? What was the problem? What can be improved?
The goal should be, through this getting to know each other and through the then ongoing interaction, to break down silo thinking and make cross-divisional trusting cooperation possible.
Checklist for starting as a leader | Growing together as a team, preparing for change
Conduct a team workshop
The conclusion of getting to know each other and taking stock should be a team workshop (1.5 - 2 days). The following guiding questions can help you design the team workshop:
- Goal clarity: Where do we want to go?
- What structures do we need to get there?
- How can we measure that we have reached the intended goal?
- What do we need to be able to work together in trust?
- How do we want to communicate with each other in the team?
- What common dates (meetings) do we need for good communication? What is the content of each meeting? Who should take part? How long do we need? When and at what intervals should it take place?
- What do we need from other areas so that we can work productively and our processes run smoothly?
- What next steps do we agree on after the workshop?
The agenda of the workshop should be known to the participants in advance and they should also prepare for the workshop. The following guiding questions will help:
- What can and do I want to contribute to our common goal?
- How well can I already do that in my current role?
- How well does the role match my strengths?
- Which of my tasks do I enjoy?
- What space do these tasks take up in everyday life?
- Which of my tasks do I not enjoy?
- Why not?
- How much time do they take up in my everyday life?
The outcome of this workshop should be the following:
- There is clarity of purpose.
- Roles, tasks, responsibilities and the central processes are clearly defined.
- Everyone in the team has the role that suits them.
- The basis of trust in the team and with you as the new leader is strengthened.
- There is clarity in terms of communication and meeting culture.
- Potential for improvement in the interfaces is visualised.
- Everyone has clarity about the next steps.
Summary
The first 100 days in your leadership role
The aim of the first 100 days is to create a basis of trust that enables you to work constructively and trustingly with your team, your supervisor and colleagues on an equal footing.
This is helped by showing yourself not only in your role, but also as a person and clearly expressing and grasping expectations.
But transparency and clarity is needed not only in expectations, but also in goals, roles, responsibilities and processes.
For this, you take 4-8 weeks to get a precise understanding of your area, the people involved, structures and processes. After this time you can start to initiate changes so that after 100 days you can already demonstrate, communicate and celebrate successes.
