5 Advantages of Being New Even When You’re Not
Some of the best things leaders do, they do when they’re new. Show up today likes it’s your first day, even if it isn’t.
You wanted to learn everything when you were new. Now that you’ve been around awhile, your head is full.
A closed leader lives in a small shrinking universe.
Open
The advantage of being new is openness.
Pretend that today is your first day.
- What if others were teaching you?
- What if you weren’t the all knowing one?
- What if 50% of your sentences ended with a question mark?
5 practices of open leaders
#1. Practice intense curiosity about people.
- What makes them light up?
- What are their strengths? More importantly, what untapped passions do they feel?
- What do they do outside of work?
- What are their hopes and aspirations?
- How did they get started in their career?
#2. Inquire about processes and procedures.
- Why are we doing things that way?
- What are you doing that works really well?
- What are you doing that frustrates you?
#3. Schedule one-on-ones.
It’s common practice to have one-on-ones when you’re new. How would it feel to have another round of one-on-ones? Remember how curious you were.
#4. Invite suggestions.
- If you were in charge, how would you handle this situation?
- What do you suggest?
- Let’s generate a list of four possible solutions.
#5. Get your hands dirty.
- Sit at the receptionist’s desk and take a few calls.
- Go out with a sales person. Meet a client.
- Walk down the hall and learn how to do something new.
Seize the opportunity of being new again. Maybe, just for today, you might pretend that it’s your first day and you’re dumb.
If today was your first day, what would you do?
Great! In a non-industrial setting I’m finding myself ‘new’ after 35 years at a different, larger non-profit! The curiosity is not a practice but a requisite (!) as I move in a new organization.. Yes, sometimes they look at me a little strange when I ask about the basics.. “is this your normal practice here?”
I’m enjoying the newness, and I’m refreshed by learning “new old practices!”
Thanks Ken. Congratulations on embracing openness. Sometimes it can take some time for people to welcome “dumb” questions. I think some organizations look down on learning by looking down on people who ask dumb questions.
One thing I’ve learned when I coach people in sectors where I have little or no experience is that dumb questions aren’t so dumb. People think they know things, but when asked, they realize things aren’t as clear as they assume. (Yes I choose ‘assume’ intentionally.)
Hi! This is yet another “good one”. I actually AM new, so I wonder if you might write something in the future about appropriate questions for a one-on-one. I would like to seem curious and know more about who is on my team, but don’t want to cross any lines or appear that I am looking for gossip. Thank you for your insight.
Thanks Margaret. Congratulations on your new role. My first suggestion is to turn the conversation toward the person sitting across from you. Be interested in them.
Second, leave a bit of yourself with people. Let them know something about you.
Questions for one-on-ones is a wonderful suggestion. Who knows? Maybe you’ll see a post on that soon.
Dan
My Italian mother who travelled around our country as a WAC in WWII used to say “you only make a first impression once”.
But I like this approach. We can remake and improve ourselves as we age and the excitement and enthusiasm of that first impression is worth trying to replicate. And the effort and feeling which will be noticed and welcomed by others.
Brad
Thanks Brad. Wow! That’s a cool tidbit about your mom. She’s right! Hopefully, we all grow beyond our first impression. Hopefully we allow others to grow beyond our first impression of them. However, it easy to pigeon hole team members.
Thanks for getting me thinking about this in a new way.
The weakness of a new manager can often be his greatest strength, that curiosity can lead to uncovering some easy fix problems just because hes still listening. We should all practice a little conscious incompetence from time to time! Good read!
Thanks Kyle. Yes! Of course, some organizational cultures expect their leaders to have all the answers…that makes learning difficult.
I like the idea of the strength in weakness.
Great questions to add to my list of questions for an information interview!
Thanks Around. I wonder what’s more powerful than a well timed, open ended question?
Thank you Dan for another interesting and thought provoking piece. I wonder what happens to people when they have been in an organization for a long time such that they stop being open and curious. What interferes with people continuing to practice curiosity after they have been in a setting for a period of time? How can we stay open and non-judging, both of which are key to being curious?
Thanks Kathy. Great seeing you here today. Love your curiosity. I wonder how you might answer your own questions. For me, I think curiosity feels destabilizing. Many of us prefer stability, consistency, and sameness to challenging the status quo.
Plus there is value in consistent predictable rituals. Having said that, leaders challenge the status quo. Curiosity is one powerful way to poke the box.
Dan I’m a CEO of a 60 person credit union and have been doing one-on-one’s with the entire organization every 6 months and just completed my 4th iteration. I want to remain curious but the content seems to be lagging as people have shared things that are working, aren’t working, etc. and there isn’t as much to share in the meetings. I have been thinking about switching the one-on-one up and instead of me leading it the employee does and comes prepared to ask me questions. Your thoughts on this and suggestions for team members who may feel intimidated leading the conversation?
Great question, Brandon. First of all, a one-on-one where employees control most or all of the agenda is a fantastic approach. If we say we want to empower people, we should give them some control.
You might consider a transitional approach. How about sending out a one-on-one worksheet with potential agenda items that they might choose from.
#1. Goal updates:
Project goals.
Career goals.
#2. Setting new goals
#3. Questions;
Ask me anything.
I wonder about ….
What would you like me (leader) to ask you?
#4. Needs, wants, wishes
#5. Feedback
They might ask, How am I doing with _____ ? (fill in the blank with something specific.
#6 Feedback for you
Personal: You might tell everyone about some leadership behavior/quality you are working on and invite them to discuss it with you.
Organizational: Ask for one or two suggestions on how to make meetings more effective, for example.
#7 What’s working in your area? What’s making it work?
#8 What could be better in your area? How might we make progress in that area?
#9 Praise:
When I see you at your best, I see you…. (This could go from you to them and/or from them to you.)
#10 Problem solving/Opportunity seizing
What problem might we work on?
What opportunities could we consider?
You might make the first agenda item:
What three things might make our one-on-ones more useful.
What would you like to get out of one-on-ones?
If we had a perfect one-on-one what would happen? What would be the result?
The idea I’m suggesting is give them a long list of topics/questions they can choose from. This might make a transition to a one-on-one that they control a bit more comfortable.
This is starting to feel like a blog post!
Maybe there’s an idea or two in the above list that will get your juices flowing.
Wow thank you Dan I appreciate the wonderful content you provided! This has really gotten the juices flowing!!
Yes, please write this up as a blog post!
Thank you for a good post!
Could not agree more on the curiosity & inquiry. Getting to know your people, and not just what they are like at work, but who they really are will have a huge effect on your relationship with them.
It’s difficult though to keep those relationships alive after you’ve been on the job for years and you are swamped by the day-to-day stuff…
Thanks Marcus. Time pressure is the main reason we end up isolated. It’s a real challenge. I wonder if frequent brief encounters is a better option to infrequent long?
Perhaps become intentional about the things you bring up in brief encounters.
Today is praise day, for example. Tomorrow is what are you working on? The next day is, what would you change if you could? Friday is, what’s happening this weekend. Monday is, what’s one thing you want to get done today or this week?
That’s a very good idea. It’s easier to find 5 minutes here and there to spend with your people. I guess the challenge would be to structure it so that you actually follow through and do those 5 mins consistent with all employees. There’s where your “theme” days really can help a lot probably!
This stopped me in my tracks and made me think. I’m going to try it tomorrow. There is nothing like the energy you have when you start a new role. Top blogging.