3 Important Lessons I Learned the first 90 Days Leading a New Division
Several years ago I was hired to elevate a demoralized culture and give hope to 150 employees that had experienced a toxic leader who was every Human Resource department's worst nightmare.
The job was an awesome opportunity and a challenge right up my alley! What I didn’t realize is that 149 employees had already decided who their next leader was…and it wasn’t ME! A very loyal and ultra-capable “2nd in Command” had paid his dues, had the right temperament, and was a safe psychological hire for these wounded warriors that had withstood years of abuse.
Strategy #1:Where There’s Silence, There is a Lack of TRUST…
While I checked off the boxes for weeks after taking the position including personally interviewing 75 of the team members plus countless other department heads to see where the bottlenecks were, there was still one virtue that needed to be tackled before I could be accepted….TRUST!
Developing trust became very apparent and most noticeable during one of my staff meetings. I was gifted a VERY competent staff and replacing any of them was not even on the board. However, I’m a leader who rarely has the answers but I definitely have questions and expect those “smarter than me” at the table to eagerly jump into action. As I worked my way around the table asking for updates, I still got the blank stares and uncomfortable quietness that speaks louder than words. I finally asked the “2nd in Command” for an update and got “nothing”. I asked him again and appeared to wake him up and he answered my question. However, I’m dying in the room! I’m wondering why I took this job and was witnessing the WORST meeting of my career.
Strategy #2: You Can’t Engage If You Don’t Ask For Opinions
The end of the meeting couldn’t come quick enough and I put my tail between my legs and walked dejectedly back to my office. One of the other executives in the meeting took a different route to my office and sprinted to meet me at the door. His response SHOCKED ME as he looked at me and said, “THAT WAS THE BEST MEETING WE’VE EVER HAD!”. I said, “you’ve got to be kidding me”! How deep in the gutter was this culture that I had inherited this meeting from hell that was in this executive’s opinion the best meeting they ever had?
I walked over to the office of Mr. “2nd in Command '' and calmly asked him, “Why were you so hesitant to respond to me when I asked you a question in our staff meeting? He looked at me and said something so simple yet so profound, “NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED FOR OUR OPINION”. Wow! The simple answer wasn’t tactical or technical, it was TRUST and giving each of them the RESPECT they deserved.
Strategy # 3: Come Clean as the Leader!
You can only guess my opening remarks at our next meeting. It started out with “I’m NOT the guy with the right answers to lead this organization… It’s each of YOU! And we’ll either succeed or fail but I guarantee you we’ll do it together. From that point on, they had a skip to their step and recognized they were directly responsible for our collective success. To this day we laugh about those first few meetings and will fall on the sword for each other. It was a learning experience that has served me well through the years.
Love to hear your story of when you or a leader recognized your gift and unleashed your competency. I would love to learn and possibly post your response in an upcoming blog. Thanks for “Listening”!
