Mid-Career Onboarding
- It is not about your technical skills, or even your job. It is about your transition into the new culture. Taken in chunks, your Onboarding Plan should be 3, 6, 10, 12 (this stands for the months on the job in your first year). See #9 below.
- Keep a journal. Write your notes in meetings from the front to the back. Starting from the back to the front, keep observations about the culture and people you meet. Save these journals for your entire first year.
- Focus Months 1 and 2 on “Meet and Greets.” These are meetings with stakeholders for 15 to 30 minutes, or may include cocktails, lunch or dinner. This is your primary first 3-month focus. Get to know the people. Talk very little about business but make sure you know them as people before you need them. Ask about their career, their family, and hobbies. Always ask their advice about what you should do during your onboarding. Ask them how often they think you two should meet, and set up recurring meeting invitations for the entire first year with them. (It’s amazing how quickly you lose touch with people that you started off on the right foot with if you don’t have these pre-scheduled.)
- Get a peer coach. This could be someone appointed for you, but even better still is someone that you have a connection with that can help you navigate the culture for this first year.
- Meet 1:1 with your boss and your staff every week for the first few months.
- Start identifying “oddities,” things that surprise you and be sure not to sweep them under the rug. Put these in your journal in the back pages (see #2 above).
- Identify blockers and concerns about projects, tasks, and people. Develop your “watch out for” list of people.
- Schedule your regular management routines for your weekly 1:1’s with your boss and your staff. Put these on a regularly scheduled day of the week and time. Book it for a full six months, or better still, the full first year.
- Follow this formula: 3, 6, 10, 12. Months 1-3 are “Getting Acquainted.” Months 4-6 are about “Assessing Changes” you will need to make. Months 6-10 are being patient and not making any sudden moves (changes) until you have hit the 10th. Start cautiously at month 10 to implement change. At 12 months, make your bigger changes (reorganization, new talent, new initiatives, etc.).
- When you hit your first year anniversary, answer these questions as you take stock by reflectively reading your journals from the back to the front: What is your job v. what you were told it would be? What surprises you about the people and culture at your new company? How happy are you? Make your plans for Year 2.
Use this Risk Assessment to determine your going-in proposition:
On a scale of Low to High, identify the Cultural Risk for you in this new company. On a scale of Low to High, identify the Industry Risk for you with this company and your role in it. Map it into a 2×2 matrix, and plot your Risk Assessment. If you are in the High, High box, don’t lose touch with your Headhunter. Chances are very good that you are going to want to leave this position sooner rather than later.
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