Your Newcomer's License Is Expiring

Why "I'm still learning the landscape" is the most reasonable-sounding way to fall behind.

"I'm still learning the landscape."

"I want the lay of the land before I start changing things."

"Once I understand the org better, I'll be in a better position to do that."

I often hear versions of these from the managers I speak to every week. 

Every one of them sounds sensible.

Most new managers treat their first 30 days as listening mode. Some call it a listening tour. I'm all for it. I've recommended it many times.

The trap is what happens to the work that's supposed to come after it.

The work that keeps getting pushed

Here are a few examples of what gets pushed to "once I understand the org better":

1. Getting deeply aligned with your boss on what success looks like.

2. Building a shared vision of success with your team.

3. Assessing whether you have the right people in the right roles.

4. Making sure your team's top priorities line up with the top priorities of the broader organization.

There's more to the foundation of a high-performing team than these four. But each one is a core piece of it, and they're often the first things new managers tell me they aren't ready for yet.

Nobody experiences this as putting off leadership. They experience it as not being the guy who charges in on week three.

That's what makes this trap so hard to see.

The work never gets cancelled. There's just always a better week coming. The reorg will settle. The quarter will close. The roadmap will firm up.

Six months later, the foundation still isn't in place. Two things make that expensive.

The clarity you're waiting for comes from the work

The first problem is that the logic runs in a circle.

You don't understand your situation yet. That's exactly why you start.

Aligning with your boss is how you learn what your job actually is. Building a vision with your team is how you learn what they care about and what they believe winning looks like. Assessing your people is how you learn what you're working with. Aligning your team's work to the org's top priorities, and deciding what to say no to, is how you learn where your team actually fits.

That work is how you learn the landscape.

Waiting for clarity before you do the work that produces clarity means you wait until something forces your hand. A missed commitment. An escalation. A hard conversation with your boss that should have happened in month one.

At that point, you're taking action on someone else's timeline.

Your newcomer's license expires

The second problem is a window that closes.

In your first months, you have a newcomer's license. You can ask your boss what success looks like. You can ask your team what's broken. You can ask the questions you'd be embarrassed to ask later.

Everyone reads those questions as diligence.

Six months in, the same questions sound like a manager who doesn't have their arms around the job yet.

Nobody tells you when that window shuts. It just does.

And your team isn't waiting while you get oriented. They're forming their read on you from day one, based on what you pay attention to and what you let slide.

Spend six months reacting to whatever lands on your desk, and that's the leader they decide you are. Now you're working to change an impression instead of setting one.

Give your listening tour a job

I'm not telling you to skip the listening. I'm also not telling you to start changing things before you know anything. That's a real mistake too.

Keep the listening tour. Point it at the foundational work.

A listening tour with no purpose collects impressions. A listening tour aimed at building the foundation collects what you need to lead a high-performing team. Same conversations. Same first 30 days. You walk out of each one with something you can use.

Gathering information on purpose is action. What I'm against is waiting for clarity to show up on its own. It won't.

If you're not sure where to start

Two sets of conversations this week.

1. Book a real alignment conversation with your boss.

This isn't your regular 1:1. Set aside 30 to 60 minutes and focus on three subjects:

• Situation. How does she see the current state of the team and the business? What's top of mind for her right now?

• Expectations. What outcomes will define success over the next 90 days and beyond?

• Early wins. What could the team deliver right away to show you're on the right track? 

Afterward, summarize what you heard and send it back to her in writing. That gives her a chance to correct anything before it turns into a gap.

2. Ask each person on your team two questions.

• "A year from now, what would tell you this team is winning?"

• "If you were in my seat, what's the first thing you'd fix?"

Write down what you hear. All of it.

By the end of the week, you've started the foundational work.

Your boss's answers are the start of real alignment. Your team's answers to the first question are the raw material for a shared vision. How each person answers, what they notice and what they care about, is the first page of your assessment. And when you put your boss's answers next to your team's, you'll see where your team's work has drifted from what matters most to the org, and what may need to come off the list.

None of that requires a plan, an announcement, or a single change. It only requires starting.

Watch out for this pitfall

When your team answers the "what would you fix" question, hold your reaction. No "we're definitely doing that." No "that's never going to happen."

This week is for gathering. Decisions come after.

If you react in the moment, people start answering for your approval and stop telling you what's true.

You're going to feel new for a while. Waiting won't fix that. Doing the work will, and the best time to start is while everyone still expects you to ask questions.

There's no better week coming. Now is the time.

Best,

Jeff

P.S. If you've recently taken over a team and you keep telling yourself you'll get to alignment, vision, and team assessment once you know the org better, let's get on a short call. We'll look at what you already know and where to start this week. Here's a link to book that strategy session.