The importance of comprehensive onboarding

The new year is a great excuse to think about new beginnings.  We all know the importance of thinking far in advance as we prepare for new opportunities.  Why then don’t more people take a more comprehensive approach to onboarding?  Probably because it is not something they do every day; and because it is hard to get good at it.

Onboarding encompasses efforts to acquire, accommodate, assimilate and accelerate new team members, whether they come from outside or inside the organization.  These efforts are interdependent.  The onboarding organization and the person joining the team both start setting the stage for success (or failure) even before they first contact each other.  Getting a head start before the start can make accommodation and assimilation that much easier.

Most people understand these pieces.  One of your New Year’s resolutions should be to take a more comprehensive approach to onboarding, thinking through and integrating these pieces at every step of the way.

George Bradt

PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration

From “You and Me” to “We”

The Harvard Business Review dedicated its entire January, 2009 issue to “Transforming Leaders”, One takeaway from the issue as a whole is the need to move well from “you and me” to “we”.

Of course transitioning leaders must pick the right strategy across Start-ups, Turnarounds, Accelerated Growth, Realignment or Sustaining Success (Watkins).  Of course CEO succession candidates must redouble their communication efforts with the current CEO, peers, direct reports, customers, analysts, shareholders and the board (Goldsmith).  Of course shareholder value must top any CEO’s agenda (Gregory Carrott and Stuart Jackson).

But visions are inspiring and enabling only if people can see how “We all get to the end vision together” (James Kouzes and Barry Posner).  And it’s important to include the broader shadow networks in the new “we” (William Byhan).  And quick wins at all cost can end up as Pyrrhic victories unless the win is seen as “our win” by the collective “we”  (Van Buren and Safferstone).

Put that all together and you end right back at that point that all leadership is personal.  Delivering better results faster as an onboarding new leader happens only when you align people, plans and practices around a purpose that is so well shared by everyone that each of them thinks of it as “our” purpose, something that “we” all are committed to personally.

George Bradt
PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration

Decision Making When It Matters

At the end of the year, I’d like to shift gears and not talk directly about leadership or onboarding.  I would like to share some thoughts about decisions and decision-making.

I’ve had several conversations recently with people who have made significant choices in their lives.  Not easy decisions; we all make easy choices all the time.  Which TV to buy, whether to eat at Joe’s Pizza or Sushi Buni, how late to sleep.  These are simple choices, reversible choices, ones that are out of your mind as soon as they are concluded.  The people I spoke to were talking about the few really tough choices they have made at various points – to pick one career and walk away from another, to take a job or not; to get married, or get divorced; to move to a new town, or a new country.  These were life-changing choices that put you on a path that has implications for years if not decades, choices that are very difficult to change or reverse.

Each person had made a major life choice, and knew that, had they made a different choice, their life certainly would have proceeded differently. In some cases it might have turned out better, at least by some criteria.  And some of those choices were made for less than perfect reasons.  One friend told me he decided in his senior year of college not to pursue medical school, not because of a rational analysis of the options, but because he didn’t want to spend that long in school.  Had he been more thorough in his analysis, he would have learned that the course he chose (graduate school) took almost twice as long as medical school.  Another friend chose to marry someone with a chronic illness, which resulted in several years of pain and loss that was, at times, agonizing for everyone close to them. 

What made these conversations interesting was that none of the people I talked to had any regrets about these choices.  They might wonder about the implications of the choice itself, and muse over what might have been different.  But shat they all told me, each independently, was that the unfolding of their lives subsequently was so unique and invaluable that if they really could not consider the other path as a real option any more.  If they thought seriously about the other choice, they would have to consider losing all of the things that make this path important:  children, friends, experiences, possessions.  They knew, without really having to force the thought, that choices are much more significant at the time you are making them than they are looking back.  What is truly important is what happens after the choice.

I think good leaders know this intuitively.  When confronted with a really difficult choice, they approach it with the best information and the clearest mind they can. They consider options and weigh the pros and cons.  But in the end, they know that what they do with the choice they make is probably more important than the choice itself.  The senior managers I have worked with take on the choice, own the choice, and push it forward with all their energy and passion. This is not to say that one cannot make bad choices. All of them (and all of us!) have made some doozies.  What I am saying is that really effective leaders follow up a difficult choice with focus and intensity, and a clear understanding that the future will become something of value if they make it so.

May your choices in 2009 be wise, and your passion for those choices be boundless.  Happy New Years to all, and talk to you on the other side of the year.

Bill Berman, Ph.D.

Managing Principal, Berman & Associates

Partner, PrimeGenesis

Director, APT, Inc.

Ensuring Intentions Lead to Results

Professor Harry Martin wrote in Monday’s Wall Street Journal that there are several ways to improve on-the-job application of training and development programs. Writing an action plan, having objective performance measures, and meeting regularly with peers to keep each other on track were three of the five tools he recommends. All of these are well-tested and reliable means of getting people to apply what they learn.

These tools are also critical in the new leader’s efforts to getting better results faster. Virtually all of the leaders I have worked with develop a strategic plan, and have a set of metrics by which they measure performance on that plan. What differentiates the really successful leaders is that they take the next steps. First, they put the strategic plan in a one-page, easy to read format so that every member of their team knows what they are working on and what they are responsible for. This is what Harry Kangis calls his One-Page Strategy(tm).  Second, they translate this one-page strategy into measurable, observable actions that can be tracked on an ongoing basis.  The objectives are an ongoing part of their management, rather than remaining hidden in a drawer until the end of the quarter.  Third, they meet with their teams and the individual members of their team on a regular basis to make sure that they are sharing their successes, identifying risks to the plan, and getting help or support from team members when needed. 

Professor Martin is right on target when he states that you have to work hard to make sure that people integrate change into their daily life.  This is just as true for leadership teams as it is for a new learning group.  Writing down the change plan, tracking it, and getting support from peers and managers are the keys to ensuring the change is enacted.

Bill Berman, Ph.D.

Managing Principal, Berman & Associates

Partner, PrimeGenesis

Director, APT, Inc.

Preparation Breeds Confidence. Confidence Breeds Success.

It’s almost a truism.  “The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win.”  That quote has been attributed to Vince Lombardi, Joe Paterno, Bobby Knight and almost every other great sport coach that ever tried to get their team to practice:

It’s true in sports.  It’s true in business.  It’s especially true in onboarding.  There’s a huge differences between those that get prepared, get a head start before their first day and those that wait.  It’s been a big part of the impact of our 100-day executive onboarding service.  It’s the main driver of our live onboarding preparation workshops.  It’s the reason we’re launching www.NewJobPrep.com, providing a self-managed, online program to help new managers at any level prepare in advance of starting a new role.

Whether you’re moving into a new role your self or helping somebody else, invest in preparation.
George Bradt
PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration

Leading Up and Out, Managing In and Down (Part I)

One of my clients named Rick was brought into a finance organization that for all intents and purposes was broken.  The company had grown rapidly through both acquisition and organic growth, and his predecessor had paid attention primarily to internal workings and processes.  As a result, no one in the broader organization was satisfied with the contribution of finance, and the responses to their needs and expectations were fragmented, function-centric and always urgent.  Rick had experience in a global organization, and chose to spend the first months of his job literally flying around the globe, personally meeting with regional business unit managers and global teams, understanding their needs and addressing urgent problems while creating a structure, building a strategy and creating a plan.  He relied on brute force and lack of sleep to get it all done.After six months, his manager told him that he had done a phenomenal job of winning back his customers, and had built enormous good will and confidence in his ability to solve the problems that neglect in finance had caused.  He and the rest of the executive team couldn’t be more pleased with his achievements, Rick was told.  Now, however, his manager wanted Rick to focus some of his energy on his internal team, which the manager had learned was feeling lost at sea and unattended to. 

Bill Berman

Managing Principal, Berman & Associates

Partner, PrimeGenesis

Director, APT, Inc.

Definition of Onboarding

In a recent article in BusinessWeek, Joseph Daniel McCool defines onboarding as “Crucial Feedback for Executive Hires - An emerging ritual to measure performance 90, 100, or 120 days into a top manager’s new job”.  Others define onboarding as “the process that includes all of the initial paperwork to become an official employee and to sign up for any and all company programs”.  We think these are part of the definition, but not the complete definition.

Think about “onboarding” on three levels: accommodating, assimilating and accelerating.

ACCOMMODATING is all about helping new employees get set up in the office and at home, particularly if they are moving.  This certainly includes completing initial paperwork and securing the tools required to do the job.

ASSIMILATING includes much of what Joe describes in his article from early onboarding conversations to network building to check-ins and is extremely valuable in jump-starting people’s ability to work with others.

ACCELERATING is one more level up and is more than just doing the check-ins earlier. Accelerating is about building a high performing team quickly to deliver better results faster.

Each of these can help reduce the risk of failure. Doing all three can serve as a catalyst for transformational change as part of onboarding, defined as efforts to accommodate, assimilate and accelerate new team members.

George Bradt

PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration

Adapt

From the very beginning PrimeGenesis has focused on executive onboarding and transition acceleration.  Not all transitions involve someone switching companies or divisions or even offices.  Some of the most complex transitions happen when the world changes around a leader who is otherwise staying in place.  Think new boss, merger, acquisition, restructure, or fundamental change in customers, collaborators, capabilities, competitors, or conditions.

When changes occur, pause for a moment to determine if the change is major or minor and has a temporary or enduring impact.  It it’s minor, stay the course or evolve as appropriate.  If it’s major, but temporary, manage it as an incident.  If it’s major and enduring, hit a RESTART button and deploy all the onboarding tools you’ve got.

When Darwin talked about survival of the fittest, he wasn’t talking about the strongest or the most intelligent.  He was talking about those best able to adapt - to see changes and adjust as appropriate.  An idea that is as important today as ever.

George Bradt
PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding

Leadership and onboarding signs and symbols

The Jets humbled the Titans twice this week.  Once in Sunday’s football game.  Once during congressional hearings.  I’ll leave the football commentary to someone else and stick with lessons about signs and symbols to be drawn from the U.S. auto companies’ CEOs this week that can be applied to leadership, executive onboarding and transition acceleration.  The main lesson is simple:

EVERYTHING COMMUNICATES

The auto companies are in trouble.  Millions of jobs are at risk.  The big three CEOs went to Washington to beg for money.  They knew they were going to have the spotlight shown on them.  They knew people were going to listen to what they said and watch what they did.  Yet they each boarded their own private corporate jet in Detroit and flew them to Washington. Representative Gary Ackerman nailed them:

“It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in a high hat and tuxedo.  Couldn’t you have downgraded to first class or something, or jet-pooled or something to get here?”

Contrast that with Sam Walton who used an old door as a desk for a couple of decades as he built his business.

Think about this as you’re recruiting someone for a new role, onboarding them into a new role or moving into a new role yourself.  Think about how people are going to view what you do, what you wear, how you travel, how you decorate your office, how you greet people (or don’t).  Think about the messages people might or might not read into all the signs and symbols you explicitly, subtley or inadvertently communicate.

Everything communicates.  This is an absolute truth.  Make your own choice about whether you’re going to manage that communication or just let it happen.

George Bradt
PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration

What to do when reorganization and lay-off’s make you feel stuck.

I had a long talk with a friend this morning, a senior executive at a financial services firm.  He’s lucky.  He still has a job.  But he took a big pay cut and feels like the dumping ground for responsibilities left hanging when people were laid off.

My friend is being asked to do much more, for much less.  And his leadership team is so occupied with difficult lay-off’s, they haven’t come forward to define what next.  My friend feels deflated.  If he feels this way, imagine how less diligent, less committed players feel.

We tried to figure out what my friend could do to feel more in control.  We landed on a few actions that might help others who feel stalled in their tracks and leaders who are laying-off while trying to motivate the keepers at the same time.

Action breaks stalemates

1.  Delineate jobs in writing. Every job is a new job after a big reorganization.  Discuss, negotiate, agree on what role each individual will play.  If your boss doesn’t do it, write your own role delineation.  Discuss it with your boss.  Get on the same sheet.  You won’t take risks or commit big if your role is ambiguous.

2.  Find a vision that faces reality but offers a path out of the storm (even if the probability of success is low).  The worst thing a company can do is have no plan.  If the leadership doesn’t offer a vision, pull a group together, and co-create it yourselves.  At least you’ll have a straw man to get the conversation going.

It’s easy to slip into stalemate when there’s turmoil.  We agreed that any leader in his/her right mind would appreciate my friend’s initiatives to organize and move forward.  That’s the big idea.

Mary Vonnegut
PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding