My 50c On Taking a Role In a New Company
Navigating New Beginnings: Insights on Leadership, Onboarding, and Building Connections
Ciao 👋,
Today's issue is a special edition because we have a guest author! 🎉 I'm handing over the reins to Artur Henriques, author of the newsletter The Long Missing SoW. I'll let him introduce himself - enjoy!
I am Artur Henriques, and I want to thank Simone for this opportunity and collaboration. I write The Long Missing SoW newsletter, which focuses on Leadership and Project Management with a special emphasis on IT. With over a decade of experience managing IT projects and teams, I use my newsletter to share lessons learned and insights with those curious about the rollercoaster world of management. I hope you like the stories and insights on today’s post, and feel free to share your views and comments below.
Hello Everybody!
Want to give a special thank you to Simone for this opportunity. My topic today comes as a continuation of his great post on "Lead Through Mistakes." Both Simone and I switched jobs at the same time. Even though we switched to different companies, his post really resonates with me, and I'll bring my share of stories and experiences. I'll leave Simone’s post below, just in case you missed it (I doubt it lol).
One of the biggest challenges of changing jobs is the transition period, especially those first 30 days. They're crucial for a few things:
Making a good first impression
Figuring out if the job matches your expectations
Getting a feel for the company culture
Getting to know your new colleagues.
I transitioned from a super conservative finance institution—offices all over the world—to a smaller company with offices in a few European capitals. Still, a big company, don't get me wrong, but the differences in culture and how easy it is to communicate were huge. Funny enough, I ended up with a fully remote job, which wasn't even what I was looking for! Part of my "magic" with leading teams has always been building a personal connection. Doing that remotely is a whole new, interesting challenge.
Making a good first impression
So, just to give you a better idea of who I am, I'm basically the go-to guy for leading transformational projects. Meaning, that I am called for migration projects, training teams to new methodologies, and so on. In practice, my day-to-day is all about building connections with project stakeholders and making sure everything gets delivered on time, within scope, and on budget. Basically, getting to know those stakeholders is key to spotting potential roadblocks, conflicting priorities between teams, and all that. My first week was jam-packed with on-site meetings, and getting to know the department heads and product stakeholders. To make a good first impression, I focused on:
I introduced myself at each meeting as if it were a mini-interview: I highlighted my experience, my added value, how happy I was to be part of the company, and so on.
I took exhaustive notes and asked questions to go deeper into my understanding and tried to make those questions as intelligent as possible.
I highlighted my understanding of each stakeholder’s "pain points" and tried to steer the conversation toward possible solutions.
I asked for the media templates! It is a matter of time before I need to prepare a presentation or produce a document. There is nothing worse than presenting an idea with a blank, unprofessional template. Companies have their own PowerPoint and Word templates, and one of the first things I had on my laptop was these templates ready to be used.
Expectation Vs Reality
I think it's normal to have some gap between what we expect from a new project and what we get once we arrive. Organizations are complex, and it's easy to fall prey to assumptions. You only really get the full picture when you're fully immersed in the new company. To minimize that gap, it's important to ask questions during the interview process. The number of candidates who ask one or no questions to the recruiter is astonishing. I've directly recruited over 100 IT professionals in my career, and only a few have impressed me with their preparation for making an informed job switch. I had a list of things I needed to address, and I emailed my now-new company colleagues before signing any paperwork. However, even with all my preparation, a gap between expectation and reality still happened. Nevertheless, it was just small stuff. Overall, I knew what I was getting into, and I am happy with my decision.
The key takeaway is to prep beforehand. Make sure you know the roles and responsibilities of the new project, what the potential pain points or roadblocks are, and who your allies will be during the transition. The more info you get, the better you can strategize for those first few days.
The company culture
Company vibe, or culture, is one of those tricky things to figure out in an interview. It's a huge plus if you know someone on the inside who can give you direct feedback. Personally, I try to steer clear of those internet sites where ex-employees just trash the company for a few reasons: usually, only angry ex-employees bother to leave feedback for potential hires. Plus, company culture can vary between departments and even teams. I've seen situations where certain events or perks were considered a no-go in one department because of a department head’s choice but were perfectly acceptable in another department. Things like micromanagement, office day policies, planning styles, risk tolerance, and even just how formal or casual the communication is between colleagues, etc.
Let me give you an example. A few years ago, I was recruiting a Business Analyst for one of my teams. I try to keep my interviews informal and turn them into conversations whenever possible. A candidate was being considered for two positions within the company: mine and one in another department. We won, with a less competitive project, simply because of the interview's formality. Between the Product Owner, the candidate, and myself, we had a really pleasant conversation, with inside jokes, we were transparent about the position's positives and negatives, and so on. My "competition" held a more formal interview even though it was within the same company. There was a clear hierarchy between them, and even though they had a really nice project, their "vibe check" was worse than mine. It was the same company, but two completely different realities.
The Glassdoor reviews might not be accurate at all. However, I leave here a golden tip to assess a good working environment: Don’t be afraid to ask about turnover rates during the interview. Add this question to your interview checklist. If the turnover is around 1-2 years for the entire company, it’s a signal that something is very wrong (for European standards, sorry American friends!) and it might not be a good move forward. However, I would recommend putting everything into context. For example, is normal to have a startup with a higher turnover than a worldwide big company. So access the numbers with the company context and experience.
The New Colleagues
This is potentially the most critical part of all: the team you'll be working with for the next months, and hopefully, years. In leadership roles, it's normal to have newcomers stepping on each other's toes, especially when the scope of each position isn't fully defined. It's important to establish clear roles and responsibilities for your position. I did this for my own position, to make sure I wasn't overlapping with my colleagues' scopes. Even with this process, it still happened! For me, it's important to have a good relationship with my peers and have honest conversations about everyone's scope. There's a new trend in the newsletter world about leaders being "too nice". To be honest, being a jerk is still a bad trait in any aspect of professional and personal life. That's why it's important to have honest and polite conversations about where one person's scope begins and ends. Of course, there will be gray areas, and respecting our colleagues is ultimately crucial for a smooth transition.
Another important thing is to keep an eye out for those who are struggling to adapt to the new company. New people join every month at any reasonably sized company, so you'll always hear about someone new joining the team. During my onboarding, I noticed one colleague was having a tough time fitting in. I made it a point to figure out why and see how I could help. Figuring out the root causes could keep me from falling into the same traps. Again, being a good colleague really pays off. I figured out the issue was a fuzzy position’s scope, with a lack of task definition. I did my best to help out where I could. That way, I avoided running into the same problems myself.
TL;DR
To wrap things up, I want to share one of my biggest tricks for onboarding into a new context or project: the magic power of group chats! As a newcomer, you can't really over-communicate, and it's key to make sure project assumptions are on track and catch any differences in understanding. Creating a group chat, especially with a trusted inner circle, is crucial for a smooth onboarding. Having an open channel with knowledgeable people and colleagues who can give you advice during those first few days is super important.
Credits: Illustration 1
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Asking for the presentation templates is such a smart move!