Things to Remember During Transition

What is it like to switch jobs and move to a new organization?

After 3 years I changed jobs and am now working in a different organization, yet in the same company. You would assume that there would be some things that are different, but on the whole, you are working for the same company, right? After switching from the services side to the business and then back to the services I have come up with a few common experiences.

1. No matter how much you knew at your previous job, the new position has a different culture that requires assimilation into. Learning the new culture requires you to be very observant. Attending your first meeting will tell you a lot about the culture.

2. Write out your observations about the new group in your first month or else you may lose the fresh perspective you bring to the group.

3. Be humble and deferential to leadership, they are going to help your ideas gain traction if you are in a leadership role or if you need their help in making changes.

4. Don't be afraid to ask questions about how things get done. This is especially if you are experienced and they expect you to get busy. You want to get productive as quickly as possible, that is one of the reasons they hired you above others.

5. Leave your old position well. You want your successor in your previous role to be more successful than you were.

6. Ask your new supervisor how you can help them be successful. Get to know them. Is there something that keeps them up at night you can help with?

7. Do you have a competency map you can share with your new supervisor? Or your Career Development Plan? I would recommend you share the Competency Map first and the Development Plan after 90 days.

8. Study the organizational structure and get to know what the name of the influencers are. You also want to find out the undocumented org structure. Who has the ear of the leaders? This is especially important in a networking based organizational culture.

9. At times, it may feel like you are walking through a mud field, especially when you are trying to get something done. Things are going to take more time until you know the decision makers or get savvy about the new processes.

10. Ask the obvious questions. This is your time to preface all your questions with, "I know I am new here..."

11. Listen first before telling them the way your previous organization accomplished something similar.

12. Get to know the people in your new organization, you need their understanding of the 'tribal knowledge' that is undocumented and sometimes unsaid.

13. Acknowledge and thank your previous supervisor for letting you go to the next assignment. Supervisors are the ones that bear the brunt of training the new you. Your replacement may not know as much as you did. Whoever replaces you will require some time to get up to speed. It is your previous supervisor that remains accountable for projects you left behind.

Until next time...

Thanks for the Feedback

I had submitted a list of possible names for selection on a team. I thought the names were all good ideas. No reason to question my logic. I acknowledged to the team leader that it was my attempt to draft the names and that I wasn't beholden to the list. What if someone questioned a name or two? I didn't have any problem with that, or so I thought...

I receive my share of feedback from family, friends, co-workers, customers and mentors. I don't think I am very different than other people that I know. My question in this post is this...How are you at receiving feedback? What is your first response when someone tells you some bit of feedback? Do you bristle? Do you take a step back? Are you shocked? How much time does it take for you to hear what was said and consider whether or not it is true or not?

What is the Character Matter with receiving feedback? Humility and Pride.

I have been paying close attention to how I receive feedback and I am surprised by my response. I begin by defending my logic and my stand. I then move to a willingness to consider that my idea or position may not be the best. Then, with more time, and more introspection, I find myself most open to hearing what was said.

How does Character Matter?
The character of humility matters when it comes to working with other people. For the good of the team or in my life or marriage, my ideas could not possibly be the best all the time.
How open to others ideas are you? Do your colleagues or family see you as always needing to be right, even if you may be wrong? How are the teams you are working on? Do they kid you about your need to be right?

I want to include something, I know there are some things where I will be right and other areas I will be wrong. I attitude I am most concerned with is my attitude when I am right and someone has the courage to question it. Or what is my first response when someone posits an alternative?

How can we grow this vital Character like humility? Is it only through practice? Is it repeated humiliation that leads to long-term humility?

Making a Wrong Right

There was a lady on yard duty when I was in 3rd grade that I thought was ugly. In fact, I thought she looked like the "Sea Hag" from Popeye the Sailor cartoons. I had the bright idea that I should tell her that I thought she not only looked like the cartoon sea hag but she was indeed THE sea hag.

Somehow word got back to my family the content of my words. My father saw my disrespect of her for what it was and after receiving my punishment it was now my opportunity to apologize to the woman, eyeball to eyeball. He wanted me to see that my careless words had the ability to hurt someone. He also had had me stand up in front of a Kindergarten class and tell them why I was having lunch with them in the kiddie yard instead of the 3rd grade class yard.  I felt at the time that this experience was absolutely humiliating. In my own little self-centered mind, I wondered what I had done to deserve such humiliation? I found the comfort of self-pity all too comfortable.

I went to the lady the following day and apologized and then stood up in front of the Kindergarten class and told them what I had done and how sorry I was and that was why I was having lunch with them.

What was the Character Matter?

What is at stake when making an admission of wrong to the one that has been wronged? What is the lesson that can be learned? The ability to look someone or a group of people in the eye and tell them what I did was wrong and set that wrong right takes courage and a humility.

How does your Chracter Matter?

Can you make an eyeball to eyeball apology and ask for someone's forgiveness?

It is a reality that I am not going to be able to live life in the workaday world without hurting others or being hurt by others.

So when the time comes to ask or receive forgiveness will I be able to give forgiveness and receive it too?

And when my son is disrespectful to the music teacher at school and is removed from class, how do I suggest he straighten it out with the teacher? Do I have him right Mr. Music Teacher a letter apologizing and take the character building step to go to the teacher and eyeball to eyeball ask him for his forgiveness?