Early Onboarding Wins

Early onboarding wins are essential, especially when they’re related to results, personal wins, and emotional deposits.

Early result wins

There is almost always a conversation at a new employee’s six-month mark.  It starts with the question, “How is she doing?”  If the answer is “Great.  Wonderful.  Kind of off to a slow start, but going to be fabulous.” she’s toast.  She may not find out about it for another six to twelve months.  But a seed of doubt was planted with “off to a slow start”.  That seed will grow and color everything that happens next, making it hard for her to recover.

If, on the other hand, the answer is “Let me tell you all the things she’s gotten done….”, then she’s fine.  The difference is early result wins, delivered before that conversation takes place.  This is why it’s so important to pick some early wins in the first 60 days and deliver those results in the first six months.

Early personal wins

People in new jobs have a lot to prove.  In some ways, the first people they have to prove something to are themselves.  Early personal wins do that.  These don’t have to be of the same measurable caliber as the early result wins.  They just need to be strong enough to make people believe in themselves.

It’s important for the bosses of people in new jobs to set them up for early personal wins and acknowledge those wins when they happen.  To be clear, these need to be real wins that the new employees deliver themselves.

Early emotional deposit wins

New employees at any level start with a zero balance in their emotional bank accounts – if not a deficit balance(1).  The must make deposits before they can make withdrawals.  The early deposits don’t have to be big.  They can be a simple as thanking someone, acknowledging someone else’s good work, or even greeting someone with a friendly smile, eye contact, and cheerful voice.

Early wins are good things.  It is worth the effort to invest in early result wins, early personal wins, and early emotional deposit wins.

George Bradt – PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration

(1)  The “Emotional Bank Account” concept comes from Steven Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”.  The ideas in this note were sparked by that concept and some presentations at the IQPC’s “Onboarding Talent” June 21-23, 2010 conference, and particularly presentations by Alan Momeyer, Dessalen Wood and Sue Edwards.