03 Feb Getting Ready for Your New Job
Congratulations on landing your new job!
We are sure that you are filled with excitement and imagining how your life will change with this new step.
One thing is for sure, you can realistically expect that you’ll need to do two things:
– Rebuild Internal Relationships
– Internalize a New Corporate Culture
Internal Relationships
1. Getting to know people across the organization
– You need to make sure you’re being proactive in introducing yourself and talking with as many people as possible. Have a little script ready about how you want to present yourself and make sure you are an active listening to remember their names, titles, responsibilities, backgrounds and the other personal stuff that will inevitably come out.
– Not everyone is sociable during working hours and you’re the new face and still don’t know the environment but while it is nice to think that everyone will come up and show an interest in you, it’s more important to take the initiative and pay attention to how people are reacting to you when you’re introducing yourself. If they seem busy, keep it brief and don’t judge them as they might take time to open up to newcomers or prefer a social venue for getting to know you.
– You’ll probably get information overload and sometimes forget people so don’t be afraid to ask them again for their name. Ask HR for a seating plan as well as that can help you learn people’s names quickly.
2. Building up Relationships with your Team
– If you’re coming on board and joining as a manager or team leader then we cannot stress enough the importance of regular communication with each of your direct reports.
– The key points to people management lie in one-on-ones, feedback and coaching. An incredible source of practical people management advice we would recommend is from a well-respected podcast called Manager Tools. Their Management Trinity can be a great methodology for effective communication and relationship building with your team.
Internalizing a New Corporate Culture
Generally speaking there are 3 cultures at play at any time within an organization. Their first is the national culture where the company is located; the second is the national culture where the company originates from and the third is the corporate culture specific to the values, vision and management of the company itself.
There is no easy way to internalize a new corporate culture other than to say that it will take time, require an open mind and patience with things that may frustrate you while you become accustomed to and slowly internalize the flavor of the firm. It could potentially be just as challenging to adapt from a Toyota to a Nissan as it could be to adapt from a Mazda to a Ferrari corporate culture.
Tips for Success:
– Understand and accept that things will be different and that it will take time to adjust.
– Stay positive about the challenges of learning and adapting because it is after all a growth opportunity.
– Keep a good neutral support network around you and preferably not from your previous firm. This network needs to be concerned about your success and be neutral compared towards the current and previous firm. Ideally this person would be a mentor or executive coach type person who can bring a balanced perspective on how to handle or view certain issues.
– Avoid making direct comparisons with your previous company because let’s face it, no-one likes to constantly hear how you “did it differently in your previous company. This is a critical point and one that we encourage you to embrace.
Keep things in perspective, have fun and Good Luck!