The creation of a personal onboarding plan is one of the crucial pivot points of onboarding well. The earlier this can be accomplished in the process the better. The more thought that is put into this, the better. The more thoroughly this is executed, the better.
Partnership is key
We’ve seen all sorts of people do personal onboarding plans in all sorts of ways ranging from the completely reactive “I’m going to do what they tell me to do” to the totally controlling “I’ve mapped every word and know exactly what I’m going to tell those losers”. Guess what? Either extreme is doomed to failure. Assimilating and accelerating are critical tasks of onboarding. Both require partnering with others for success. This is why the most effective personal onboarding plans are a blend of proactivity and flexible reactivity to set up a two-way transformation.
The most important partnership is the manager/new employee partnership
Done right, the co-creation of a personal onboarding plan can serve as one of the most valuable partnering exercises there is. This is one of the few moments when the manager and new employee are completely aligned around the same goal – making the new employee and his or her team successful. Shame on the manager who does not include this task in their Total Onboarding Program. Shame on the manager who does not capitalize on this moment to strengthen the partnership and hand-off primary responsibilty for onboarding.
Lots more on this in our books and tools including The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan, Onboarding, and The Total Onboarding Program, summaries of which are downloadable from our site: www.www.www.primegenesis.com.
George Bradt – PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration
