Throughout my career, I have changed roles: within the company or changing companies. Recently I was asked “what did you learn to help you change roles successfully?” and I realized there were some things I do that seem to help.
1. Schedule “meet and greets”. When I start a new role, i get a sense of who my key stakeholders are: who do I need support from? Who are the naysayers? Who are the opinion makers? Once I have my list, I set up half hour meetings with each of them to introduce myself, learn more about them, and get a sense of who they are and what their perspective is. I take notes, ask questions, and listen.
What this does is 1) begin a relationship with the person, 2) provides you with more intel on the situation, 3) indicates to the person that you’re willing to listen. When it’s time for me to ask them for something, they’re more likely to respond.
2. Initially, focus on being liked. The first question on everyone’s mind about you is “will I like you?” Meaning: will they trust you, find you reasonable, good to work with? Do you listen? Are you self aware? Will you fit in? Too often, new people anxiously try to prove their value immediately by criticizing and trying to change things. We just met! Focus on being liked first. Then you can make your suggestions.
Note: if you talk about your old company all the time, stop it. The new girlfriend/boyfriend never wants to hear about the old one…bad or good.
3. Then add value. Once you’ve established your “likeability”, now you can start making suggestions and gathering feedback. You’re there to get a job done….so now is the time to start executing with your team and putting points on the board.
4. Circle back. Once you’ve been in your role for a number of months, put together a short presentation that allows you to update those folks you met with before, but may not deal with day to day. I like to start with “What I heard”, which tends to be common themes as a result of my meet and greets. Then a page on what we’re doing: what, who, when. A few exhibits if needed. A next steps page: always ending with “is there anything else I’m missing?”
Changing jobs is always a little scary. This time, you want them to assume positive intent about you.