Transitions

Currently I am in midst of a ‘transition’ at work.  I have been thinking about ‘how do I ready myself for next role while keeping focus on current role’.

Then I realize we face a related challenge throughout our work lives and possibly our lives itself - ‘How do you manage current while preparing base for future?’. There might be some additional elements involved in a role transition – building up new relationship networks, understanding a new context, etc. But more or less approach should be similar.  It also with right focus should be doable.

Here are few thoughts on how to approach a significant role transition at work:

·         Build a short term plan – 30/60 day plan – with milestones.

·         Focus on how you could ready yourself better even before landing in role. So an element of pre-work might be necessary.

·         Keep aside time periodically (possibly every week in the first month) to reflect on what you achieved against milestones and where you need to course correct.

·         Remember 3 quadrants of onboarding – networks (trust and working partnership with stakeholders), contribution (early successes), and learning (nuts and bolts of job).

·         Prepare for being uncomfortable. In first few months, you may be passing through zones of Unconscious Incompetence (you don’t know what you don’t know) to Conscious Incompetence (you know what you don’t know) to Conscious Competence. Be intentional, stick to your efforts, and don’t let uncertainty impact you too much. It should pay off.

·         As for current role, contract with your current stakeholders on what you will achieve in your remaining few weeks/months in current role. It is important that you leave still feeling on a high.

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Sourav

Onboarding

Is it an employee’s responsibility to onboard himself/herself on to the role or is the company’s responsibility to ensure that an employee onboards to a role?

 

I will contend both. But I do think that organization has a role to play in ensuring the employee is set up for success.

 

First, both external and internal hires have a need for onboarding.

 

Second, an onboarding plan needs to have defined objectives and a structure.

 

Objectives of onboarding primarily are a) establishing relationships with key stakeholders in/outside organization, b) understanding organization eco-system, c) learning the nuts and bolts to do the job independently, and d) starting to contribute in the role (with quick feedback loops) that in turn leads to increased confidence.

 

How do you want to go about building a structure around these 3 pronged objectives?

First, set a time limit for plan– a fortnight/1 month/2 months.

Second, create a week wise plan with defined objectives.

Third, have a review/check-in mechanism in place with employee’s manager.

 

Finally, a plan is only as good as its execution. So ensure that onboarding plan is executed well.

 

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Sourav

Establishing Connect!

So here I am, trying to understand the ecosystem i work in and establishing 'connect' with my stakeholders.

Hey, but first hold on! Who are my stakeholders?

Only after you have figured out who your stakeholders are, do you get to the next stage. This next stage is about establishing working connect with each stakeholder.

I have been wondering - what does a 'working connect' mean?

I have been going through these series of introduction rounds. Yes, you are supposed to be in a listening mode, and get 'inducted'. But should getting inducted only be a passive process - a one way street?

So after having had a few of these introduction/induction sessions with stakeholders, I came up with a model for structuring these discussions.

With every stakeholder, in the first meeting, I am:

• establishing a 'connect' frequency - an agreement on how frequently should we meet in a structured fashion. The question is 'We will meet once in -- weeks/days/months?'

• contracting the first thing we would work jointly on and make a difference in. It may be a low hanging fruit or an easy win. But that is okay! The essence is to have this mutual feeling of having worked on something together and achieved success (Think of a football team. Would you expect them to build team spirit only by sitting on the bench or playing in the field too?)

'Getting our hands dirty together' is a visual that comes to mind.

I am intrigued to see how 'outcomes' shape up.

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Sourav