So you just got promoted to a leadership position or you are newly hired into one. What are the things you can do to be a successful leader and get your new team to want to follow you? Well, there are a few things you should do, and quite a few that you shouldn’t. Here are some of the things I can share:
Do the things right off the bat that are easy and don’t require any advanced knowledge or training. Be the first one in and the last one to leave for the first few months. Make yourself available to your new team. Study up on your job alone in your office after everyone leaves or over the weekend. When in doubt, put a smile on your face and laugh in front of your team. Say, “Please” and “Thank you” when engaging with your team. Ask your people how you can help them be successful or make their job easier.
10 Things That Require Zero Talent (Author Unknown)
- Being on time (or even a little early)
- Work ethic
- Effort
- Body language
- Energy
- Attitude
- Passion
- Being coachable
- Going the extra mile
- Being prepared
Don’t try to impress anybody to show you deserve the position. Just because you have a title and have been on the job for 2-1/2 weeks, doesn’t mean you have everything
figured out. I was newly promoted to run a region, and one of the first things I did was send an email to one of my new managers detailing all of the things I wanted to look into when I arrived. I wanted to show my team, and my boss (the president of our company who I copied on the email) that I meant business and was going to hit the ground running. After arriving, my boss called me into his office and asked me how I would feel getting an email like this from my new boss before I had even met him and he had even gotten to know me. I visibly shrunk in the chair as I realized I was not trying to win over my team, I was trying to impress my boss. I never made that mistake again.
Do show you are no better than anyone else on your team. Roll up your sleeves and help with the hardest tasks. Take on the same burden you are asking your people to take on. As a newly hired vice president, we were figuring out who would be the leader and come into work the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve. I told them which days I would take, and my whole team looked at me and informed me that they had never had a vice president offer to take on one of the holiday work days. I told them that when I need them to cover for me I would ask, but if I could cover for them, I would do it every time.
Don’t think getting your people to like you will make you successful. Leadership is not a popularity contest. Just because your team thinks you are a nice person, does not mean they will follow your lead. We all want to be liked, but that should be because of our character and our natural actions, not because of something we purposely did to gain attention and affection.
Do try to earn the respect of your people. Respect is not given as part of a title. It is earned over time. The best way to get respect is to give respect. Respect the people that were there before you. If you find something that seems odd and want to question it, do what one of my truss managers shared with me. He would call the process in question “silly” instead of dumb or stupid. Once you earn your team’s respect, that’s when you can start being a high-performing leader and team member.
Remember, you only have one opportunity to make a first impression. Use that time wisely and remember the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Silly).
