As a Leadership Coach we often facilitate new leader assimilation for our clients.
What is it?
A facilitated dialogue between the new leader and the team. This process was originally developed and used at GE. It creates a structured meeting for new leaders and the new team to quickly acclimate to a change in leadership.
What Does it Do?
- Accelerates transition time by providing the team with a structured way to update the new leader on critical information facing the team
- Provides a process for the new leader to provide the team with critical information that the team will need to know from the new leader.
- Speeds up the process that typically happens by trial and error where a new leader slowly uncovers the issues and challenges facing the team.
- Speeds up the process for team members to understand the concerns, new practices, expectations and preferred style of the new leader.
- Compresses months of “getting to know” the new leader to a few intense hours.
This process will:
- Speed up the integration of the leader and the team
- Uncover for the leader key issues facing the team
- Help settle the team’s uncertainty of what to expect from a new leader
- Address rumors that create gossip and lead to losses in productivity
Questions/Statements for the team to ask of themselves and present to the new leader for discussion:
- The things we have heard about this new leader are:
- What things would you like to know about the new leader?
- What does the new leader need to know about this team?
- What things are going well in the organization?
- What things are not going well in the organization?
- How would you rate the team effectiveness on a scale of 1-10? (1 = least effective and 10 = most effective.)
- What are the major roadblocks to achieving team goals?
- What concerns does the team have about the transition to this new leader?
- List the key issues the new leader needs to address over the next 90 days, with recommendations to deal with the issues.
- What support do you need from the new leader?
- If you could change one thing about the team, what would that be?
Questions/Statements for the new leader to present to the team for discussion:
- The things I have heard about this team are:
- The things I would like to know about this team are:
- It would be helpful for the team to know these things about me:
Think about and share what you value, how you want direct reports to show up, asking for permission or forgiveness, decision making, team work, collaborating, etc.
- My leadership style is…
- My expectations of the team are:
What would you need to see your direct reports doing or saying at the end of 90 days that would have you say they are doing a great job and are on the right track.
- My top five accomplishments in my life and career are:
- Why they are important to this role and building this team:
- The situations where I am most effective are:
- My biggest development area is:
- The concerns I have about this team are:
- I think my biggest contribution to this team will be:
- The support I need from this team is:
As a new leader this will jump start your team to accomplish in a half-day what it would take months of trial and error for the team to experience. Remarkably most leaders have never heard of this!
Give it a try!