Page 47 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

32 Just Promoted!

be able to make an in-person visit, and plan a number of meetings for each
single location to make the trip as meaningful as possible. Use meal times
as opportunities to spend extended time with the staff members and critical
stakeholders.
Keep your office visits informal and low key. Get to know your staff by
their first names. In pleasant conversation, find out how long they’ve been
here, where they live, whether they have families. You’ll find some common-
alities to build on for the future. Let each person learn something about you
as well: who comes from your area, went to one of the schools you attended,
worked for a former company or boss, shares an interest, or has something
else in common with you. You’ll begin building bridges.
During your first week on the job, you will be winding down your initial
entry activities, working hard to learn your job, and preparing to begin the
organizational analysis.
By now you have met with as many people as you can, either individually
or in groups. You have also met with the candidates who were not selected
from your area. You have circulated throughout the department or team, made
contact with everyone in your function, and identified some planned travel to
the locations of other staff. During this same period, you may need to tie up
some loose ends and continue strengthening new alliances. You need to do
the following:

■ Meet with your old department and their new leader. Help that person
get an effective start in his or her new assignment.
■ Meet or continue meeting with your predecessor to learn as much as you
can about your new job.
■ Meet with your boss.
■ Continue meeting with each member of the department or team indi-
vidually and with the department or team as a group.

One way to quickly and effectively engage with your new staff is to ask
your human resources professional or organizational development (OD) con-
sultant to conduct a New Leader and Team Assimilation Process (NLTAP),
which is Just Promoted Leader Tool 1. Following is the NLTAP as we like to
use it. The process was originally developed at GE, and it currently has many
variations.