There are few career moments as
exciting -- and these days, as perilous
-- as taking over the top job at a
company, business unit, or department.
But what exactly do you do once you're
in charge? Here are eight career savvy
tactics, with supporting quotes from
leaders featured in
Fast Company Magazine, to help you
ramp up quickly and start getting
results.
1.Begin Your Transition
Before You Start the Job What are the key challenges? Which
functions are strong, and which ones
need to be overhauled? What are your
expectations in the first month, after 6
months, within a year? Use that
information to develop your plan as to
what needs to be done.
"The interview process is where
you start. That's where you begin asking
all of the questions to find out what it
will take to be successful."
2.Acknowledge What You
Don't Know Identify those around you who are the
experts and don't be afraid to lean on
them. No one expects an incoming leader
to know everything. And perhaps there is
nothing more off-putting to a future
team than someone who mistakenly thinks
he or she does.
"I had lots of credibility as a
manufacturing engineer and second-level
manager. But suddenly I was responsible
for tool design, fuselage definition,
all kinds of areas that weren't in my
background. And I had to get up to speed
fast."
3.Be an Elephant Hunter,
Not an Ant Stomper You can't fix everything at once
despite the pressures that are on you as
the new leader. Everyday you must go out
and hunt elephants, those high priority
goals rather than stomp ants, those
tasks that are quick kills but do not
put much meat on the table. "Typically you can't do everything you want to do, so you need
to make some strategic choices. This is
where you begin to align your goals
around your organization's key strategic
initiatives."
4.Balance the Big Picture
Vision with Front Line Views Get out of your corner office and
talk with your people and your
customers. They generally will give you
the "real" scoop rather than what you
tend to hear from your direct reports.
"During my first six months, I
visited more than 50 stores, and met
with more than 500 team members. I knew
that they could tell me what the company
needed to do in order to keep on
growing."
5.Target a Few Early Wins Nothing succeeds like success. It's
critical for a new leader to create
momentum during the transition, Pick
some problems the organization has not
been able to address and figure out a
way to fix them quickly to establish a
new direction.
"I didn't want to solve world
hunger in the first three months, but I
was looking for a couple of things that
would pay immediate dividends."
6.Keep an Eye on the Clock Make sure your time is used to its
best advantage. If you're like most
hard-charging leaders, you've got a
well-articulated to-do list. Now take
another look: Where's your stop-doing
list?
"We've all been told that leaders
make things happen -- and that's true.
But it's also true that great leaders
distinguish themselves by their
unyielding discipline to stop doing
anything and everything that doesn't
fit."
7.Fix
Your Mistakes Faster
than You Make Them Taking over a top job exposes a new
leader to pitfalls ranging from the
personal to the organizational. Accept
that you can't know everything in your
first six months and can't insulate you
from making mistakes.
"The key is to assess yourself
and your progress as rigorously as you
do your new colleagues and workplace and
to be prepared to make your own course
corrections as you go along".
8.Finally, Ask Yourself ...
Who Do You Really Want to Prevail, You
or Your Organization? You'd be surprised by the difference.
In Good to Great, Jim Collins found that
the CEOs who took their companies from
good to great were largely anonymous.
"There is something directly
related between the absence of celebrity
and the presence of good-to-great
results. Why? First, when you have a
celebrity, the company turns into 'the
one genius with 1,000 helpers.' It
creates a sense that the whole thing is
really about the CEO. And that leads to
all sorts of problems - especially if
the person goes away or if the person
turns out not to be a genius after all."
Take Charge and Take Action Now!
Do you know there are three kinds of
people in the career world? Those who
make it happen - those who let it happen
- those who are surprised by what’s
happening. Which one are you?
Invest in Your Future
Find the keys to
career security in an insecure world with the Career Success System. You
will learn to avoid career crash and increase your competitive edge.
Check out
strategic coaching services to help you revitalize, reposition or retool
your career. Do you know where you want to go and how to get there?
Read free articles on how to
jump start your career, make a quantum leap to the next level and play the
career game better.
Contact Marcia for a
complimentary consultation. Make sure you’re always in the driver’s seat of your
career.
“My
coaching experience was profound. It
identified my leadership style and
helped me be much more effective and
confident in my new position."
---
Regional Vice-President,
National Health Care Organization
