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Jess arrived early, eager to meet her new team and get stuck in! Of course she was nervous, up until now she had related with them as peers, not as their manager. Hours later as she was winding up for the day she recalled what she had experienced:
* Tammy was openly hostile, refusing to respond to Jess’ greetings and turning her back whenever Jess entered the room.
* John hurriedly brought a report for Jess to endorse, 5 minutes before it was due for submission to their Head of Department.
* Natasha was ever cheerful and super helpful.
* Rob excitedly shared fond memories of his previous boss and advised Jess what and who to look out for if she was to succeed in her new role!
* Oh, and there was the client who stomped into her office and demanded to see the real manager!
She was mentally and emotionally exhausted. "What a day! I don’t know if I can do this again tomorrow" she said to herself.
I empathise with Jess because I’ve been there. I understand how overwhelming, exhausting and crazy it can get when you’re trying to build a relationship with a new team and get your work done at the same time.
While there are specific challenges like dealing with naysayers whose default response is “Oh no, that won’t work” or the “yes, but we have always done things this way!” advocates, there are some things you can start with. Here are four key tips:
Get to know your team
You may get tips and pointers from your peers or supervisor but it is vital that you put them aside (not ignoring them) and start with a clean slate. You can then gather contextual, first-hand information that will help you build a good picture of your team’s overall strengths and weaknesses, the prevailing work culture, and team dynamics such as who plays a unifying role or is influential.
Don’t forget to let your team get to know you too! Talk about your family and hobbies once in a while; share your vision; and fully express what your expectations are, for example punctuality when it comes to meetings.
Be flexible
Be open to other perspectives and different ways of solving problems. Going in with a know-it-all or rigid approach is likely to encourage apathy and prevent you from seeing what your team is capable of doing.
Whilst being flexible is important, it is also critical that you keep discussions focused on making progress. So seek to arrive at consensus in a transparent manner even if there are members who are not happy with the final decision.
Once you set this tone, team members will gravitate away from resistance and push back when you bring in new ideas or suggest different ways of doing things. In short, if you are open to change your team members will be open to change too.
Communicate wisely
Listen more than you speak!
Avoid dominating discussions. Ask a lot of questions, enquiring from a place of curiosity and seeking to understand:
How things are done;
Why they are done that way; and
What opportunities are there to do them better.
Ask the right kinds of questions to help you figure out where the gaps are, like:
What can we do to improve what is working well?
What can we do right now to address our biggest challenge?
How can I support you to get this done?
Encourage team members to speak freely and be ready to hear what they have to say!
There’s no point in asking for feedback if you are not willing to receive and act on it. Take note of it and assess it later, when emotions and initial reactions have subsided.
Demonstrate that you are there to support and guide by being available, making time for them and responding to their efforts to communicate with you. Ignoring emails, calls and meeting requests is a surefire way of demonstrating your lack of interest in team members’ ideas, concerns and solutions.
Be kind to yourself
When you are not sure what to do or when indecision creeps up on you, tap into your intuition. Ask yourself if what you are doing is aligned to your values. For example, if a team member informs you that your predecessor always approved certain types of payments without checking, but something tells you that you need to check all the supporting documents for correctness and adherence to company policies, then insist on checking!
There will be times when being vulnerable is appropriate. For example admitting that you don’t know what to do in that moment or asking for help when you are overwhelmed.
Remember that it takes time to build relationships let alone trust, so don’t be in a hurry to build the perfect team. Take it one day at a time and try to stay consistent, transparent and value driven. You’ve got this!
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