HR Best Practices for New Leader Success
Welcome!
I’m Susan. I help leaders and organizations increase their impact, confidence, and results through coaching and unique people strategies and programs that wow employees and boost business!
Now that we’ve been working remotely for almost a full year and it seems that we’ll be continuing to do some level of hybrid work going forward, HR leaders have had to adapt so we can continue to move our businesses forward. Performance discussions and promotions continue to part of our normal business cycle. And we continue to fill vacancies with external hires as well. But how is HR adequately preparing new leaders (whether newly promoted, first-time leaders, or new to the organization) to lead their teams?
My mastermind group recently pondered this question and agreed that while remote working does require some adaptation to our management approach, coaching the new leader herself isn’t that different from what we would do while working in-person. Here’s some best practices to consider to make sure your new manager gets off to a strong start:
One size doesn’t fit all.
Take the time to get to know the new leader and develop rapport. What is her background and experience? What are her goals and how will she gauge success? It’s really important to understand their points of reference and customize your coaching accordingly. Make no assumptions about their capabilities and prior experience. Even if they have a senior level title, it doesn’t mean that they have had any leadership training whatsoever or are familiar with how things are done in your company. Let her guide you. If what you’re providing is too basic, she’ll let you know. Understand whether a “plant the seed” approach will work or a more direct approach would be most beneficial to your leader, based on their individual readiness. Check out Situational Leadership by Ken Blanchard, if you’re not already familiar.
Define and communicate the leadership competencies by which they will be measured.
This will vary a bit from company to company, but you should have a defined set of common competencies identified for each of the various leadership levels (regardless of function). It is important for all new managers to know what behaviors make leaders successful in your organization. For the newly promoted, first-time manager, she also must understand that what may have made her successful as an individual contributor (IC) may not be what makes her successful as a leader. The game has changed and she will need to build up new competencies for long-term success. For example, a strong performing engineer that is promoted into a first-time leadership role will need to shift from being heavy hands-on in the day-to-day technical work and begin to spend more time on things like planning, developing cross-functional relationships with other teams, influencing for project resources to ensure the team’s success. This can be a difficult transition for many new leaders, as they tend to lean on their strengths as an IC. It takes discipline and courage to pull ourselves out of the weeds, delegate work to team members, and assume a broader perspective as a leader. Check out Marshall Goldsmith’s book, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”. Once there is an understanding of the critical success factors and competencies, be sure to work with your new leader to create a customized development plan to begin closing any gaps.
Set clear expectations and milestone/touch points.
It is the manager’s responsibility to put in the hard work, but HR should provide the new leader with a plan of where to start and how to proceed. New leaders often don’t know what they don’t know. Develop a comprehensive guide or plan of action (30, 60, 90-day plans) that can direct your new managers to logically sequenced steps for them to get acclimated quickly in their new or expanded role. This can include key “meet and greets” in their first few weeks to understanding company culture, policies, and procedures. Check out Gitlab’s “Becoming A Gitlab Manager” for some inspiration. Facilitating a new manager assimilation process can also be helpful for new leaders to get acclimated quickly to their team and understand the key concerns and challenges the team may be facing.
Provide training and/or a mentor to guide and close gaps.
While larger companies tend to develop their own training in-house to incorporate company cultural elements, for those of you that may work in much smaller organizations, you likely don’t have this luxury. The good news is there are lots of affordable, online resources available, only a handful of which are listed here.
Udemy has some curated learning paths for first-time leaders.
Effective Training Associates also has an amazing interactive, virtual training for those who are Transitioning to a Manager role as well as several others that are great for building out new leader competencies, such as communication, influence, delegation, and giving feedback.
And don’t forget to include resources to help them with managing remote teams.
Remote Leadership Institute provides courses, blog posts and other resources to help you learn to manage your team and offers a Remote Team Assessment tool to help you assess how well your team communicates and identify ways to maximize productivity.
Workplaceless creates assignments that help you build the skills you'll need as a remote leader.
Remote How’s online training program is a six-week course you complete at your own pace.
Many of us learn best on-the-job, so connecting them with a more experienced and successful leader to act as a mentor/coach may be most beneficial. Such mentoring relationships can be casual, but are best when there’s a bit of structure to guide them. At a minimum, be sure to define the roles of the mentor and mentee and get buy-in and commitment from both parties so they know what’s expected of them, how often/long they will meet, and the types of things they will discuss.
What are some other best practices you’ve implemented to ensure your leaders are brought up to speed quickly and successful in their new role? Comment below, I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas!
Need help putting together a comprehensive onboarding or assimilation plan for your new leaders? Let’s chat!
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Colleen McCreary’s recent LinkedIn post caught my attention. It highlighted a recent quote from Jennifer Aniston where she succinctly captured the essence of a pervasive challenge that many individuals, particularly women, face in the professional world: the struggle to assertively ask for what they want and deserve.
Aniston stated, "There was a time in my world, my career, where I realized it's not being aggressive or combative or bitchy or emotional to stand up for what you deserve and what you want. It's a tough muscle to build. And also be loved and respected. It's hard to achieve."