When leaders transition into a new company, they want to make an immediate impact. Many quickly implement a tried-and-true strategy that has historically worked well for them—only to realize later that this initial impact move had unintended negative consequences. Let’s explore why early big-impact changes will often backfire.
Going In Full Throttle
You were hired as a change agent. So you come in hard, fast and head-down, focused on driving results. Oops! You forgot about the people.
You over-indexed on results and under-indexed on building relationships and bringing people along. While you’ve probably created a strong first impression on your direct reports and cross-functional stakeholders, it may not be a positive one. Right out of the gate, you failed to build one of the most important components of leadership: followership.
Unless you start by building deep trust quickly and communicating with great nuance and effectiveness, your personal and professional brand will take a hit.
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
As a brand-new leader, you do not have enough data points to dictate a substantial change. You have not adequately done your homework, so sudden moves and significant impact changes will often feel disrespectful to the established culture.
Instead, early on, spend time building relationships with key stakeholders and gathering data. You need the historical context of successful and unsuccessful strategies and a deep understanding of your new team’s and company’s pain points and challenges prior to making big changes. You want to know who the influencers are, who your strong and weak players are, what cultural norms exist and how to navigate the organization effectively.
Try A Listening Tour
I recommend going on what I call a “listening tour” as one of the most important actions you can take within your first 90 days on the job. Lead with curiosity. Ask lots of thoughtful questions. Listen deeply. Understand and evaluate what the systemic issues are, and then put together a strategy for how to execute the results you want to see. This listening tour will reveal strengths and weaknesses, as well as whether you have the people you need and whether they are as strong as you need them to be.
Prioritizing listening to your team can significantly boost your leadership capacity. The last thing you want to do is arrive over-confident, embodying an attitude of “I know better than you.” Instead, hone your active listening skills and facilitate communication between you and your team members.
And don’t forget, people want to get to know you, too. Let them experience who you are, what you stand for and what your expectations are.
Address Early Mistakes Quickly
If you have stepped into a new role and sense a shift in the team dynamics or feel you have lost support, you must quickly understand what your miss was. The earlier you can identify and understand your missteps the better. Mistakes quickly get compounded when you are unaware.
And unless you have created deep psychological safety and trust, it is unlikely your directs will have the courage to speak up—even if you solicit their candid feedback using tools like online performance surveys.
It is at this juncture that executive coaches are often brought in. We will do a deep, immersive, qualitative and quantitative 360 assessment with your key stakeholders. And unlike online surveys, we elicit candor, safety and confidentiality, so people feel comfortable telling us what they would not share in writing. We are then able to uncover the perceptions people have, pinpoint the behaviors that created those perceptions and help executives understand their misses and blind spots.
In some cases, if a lot of damage has been done, we encourage an important and powerful tool I call an “apology tour.” This is where you host a series of one-on-one meetings with anyone who has been impacted by your actions. You authentically take accountability, communicating that you understand that you and your actions alone are responsible for creating others’ perception of you and thoughtfully apologize. This is a powerful step to begin to repair the damaged relationship and rebuild trust.
Then your work is to mindfully change the behaviors that were causing the issues in the first place.
Restaurant Regrets
My first leadership role fell upon me when I was just 22 and working as a server in one of Chicago’s top restaurants. I took the job to pay the rent as I figured out my next step in life. After only a few months on the job, the owner of the restaurant promoted me to manager. Everyone I worked with was much older and more experienced, but he saw leadership potential in me.
I honestly do not know why, because I had absolutely no idea how to lead people. The only leadership model I had was movies involving the military, so I looked at leadership as hierarchical and authoritarian. After a couple of months of leading this way, one of the waitstaff expressed concern about how much I had changed. How different I was. He said everyone loved working with me before, but no one could stand it now.
I was shocked, but I thanked him. I did not yet have the self-awareness to understand that I had changed. Nor did I see the negative impact my behavior was having on others. I thought I was doing my job—and modeling “leadership.” At our next team meeting, I apologized. I asked for input. I listened. And I started to understand and practice what worked for everyone. It was an easy transition for me because this “new leader” I was building was authentically who I was.
Ensure you’re not making a new transition harder than it needs to be. Bring deep curiosity to the forefront. Focus on listening, learning and building connections early on. You and others will be happy you did.
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This article was originally published on Forbes.com as a Forbes Coaches Council post.