Page 206 - Successful Onboarding

190 • Successful Onboarding

2. From your perspective, how are we (the organization) succeeding
at executing against these strategies?
3. Do you have any ideas that may help us in executing the strategy?
4. Have you encountered any challenges or hurdles in trying to
perform your role in the organization?
5. Have you had any exceptional “successes”—when everything
came together and you could see our strategy in action in the work
you and/or your colleagues were performing?
After the conversation, the manager or mentor should determine with the
new hire what appropriate actions the company could take as a result of
the new hire’s ideas. The hiring manager or mentor should also take notes
during the conversation so that during a subsequent pulse check or for-
mal interview, the discussion can resume and the manager/mentor can
learn if the new hire’s experiences or perceptions have changed.
Ideally you will initiate these exchanges as a distinct discussion, sepa-
rate from other activities. If this topic becomes a single line item as part
of a periodic performance review, than the scope of the strategic discus-
sion will likely be minimized, since other topics at the meeting will likely
receive greater airtime.

Best Principle #4: Make use of stakeholder maps.
In our chapter on social networking, we advised that managers help
develop stakeholder maps for new hires, identifying specific individuals
whom the new hire should approach for specific needs or with specific
ideas. Another way to talk about strategy to the new hire is to pull out a
stakeholder map and explain how each of these stakeholders will work in
concert with the new hire to achieve strategic goals. Using the stakeholder
map, and an accompanying organizational chart, helps make the differ-
ent layers of strategy (corporate, business unit, etc.) visual for new hires;
you can literally connect the dots for the new hires as to who is doing what
in the organization and why. At the same time, you will also be support-
ing another part of onboarding, the forging of social connections.

Best Principle #5: Unveil the strategy in layers.
Since strategy is highly detailed, organizations will do best to unveil it pro-
gressively and in layers. That way, new hires will not feel overwhelmed with