5 Things That Make Great HR Partners Great!

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I use to think the title ‘HR Partner’ was played out – and it probably was for a time.  There was a point a few years ago when every HR Pro had to change their title from HR Manager, HR Director, etc., to HR Partner.  It always made me feel like we were all apart of a bad cowboy movie – ‘Giddy up, Partner!’  I’ve actually grown to really like the “Partner” in the title of an HR Professional.  While many HR Pros just changed their title, I’ve met some great ‘Partners’ in HR who have changed their game, to match their title change.

What makes a Great HR Partner Great?  Here are 5 things I think makes them game changers:

1. Great HR Partners know your business.  Now wait.  I didn’t say they ‘knew their own business’ – they know the business of who they support. But wait, there’s more!  They know the business of who they support, the way the person or team they support knows it. Say what?!  It’s not good enough to know the business of your organization.  You have to know how those you support know and support the business. That could be different, based on the leader.  One leader might be ultra conservative in their business practices, another risky. A great HR Partner knows how to support them in the way those they support, want to be supported – while still being able to do the HR part of their job.

2.  Great HR Partners have short-term memory. Great baseball pitchers don’t remember one pitch to the next.  Each pitch is new. Each pitch has potential for success.  If they remembered each pitch, the last one, that was hit for a home run, would cloud their judgement about the next pitch.  Great HR Partners are willing to change their mind and try new things.  They don’t carry around their experiences like a suitcase, pulling them out and throwing them on the table each time those they support want to try something new.  Don’t forget about your failures, but also don’t let your failures stop you from trying again.

3. Great HR Partners allow risk.  A great HR Partner is able and willing to accept that organizations have risk.  It is not the job of HR to eliminate risk, it is the job of HR to advise of risk, then find ways to help those they support, their partners, to achieve the optimal results in spite of those risks.  Far too many HR Partners attempt to eliminate risk and become the ‘No’ police.  Great HR Partners know when to say “No” and when to say “Yes”.

4. Great HR Partners don’t pass blame.  If you are a great HR partner and you work with great partners, you will all support each other in the decision making process.  A great HR Partner will never pass blame, but will accept their share as being one of those who supported the decision to move forward.  This doesn’t mean you become a doormat.  Behind closed doors, with your partners, you hash out what there is to hash out.  When the doors open – all partners support the final decision that is made.  A Great HR Partner will have the influence to ensure they can, and will, support that decision when those doors open up.

5. Great HR Partners don’t wait to be asked.  A great partner in any capacity is going to support those they support with every skill they have available to them.  In HR we have people skills – so when those who we support have issues, we offer up our ideas on what we can do to help the team.  Great HR Partners don’t stop at HR advice!  In a time of brainstorming and problem solving the idea that goes unshared, is the worst kind of idea.  I might not know operations, and I will say that up front, but I’m going to put myself out there and tell my partners that eliminating the rubber grommets on bottom of the widget is a bad idea, because while it saves us $.13 per unit, it also makes our product slide around and that ultimately will piss off the customer.

Being an ‘HR Partner’ has very little to do with HR.  Those you support expect you have the HR expertise – what they don’t expect is how great of a ‘partner’ you can be.  Great HR Partners focus on the partnership, not on the HR.

The Project Mail Bag

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One of the great by products of writing an HR blog is I get people contacting me who now believe I know what I’m talking about, when it comes to HR topics.  Before I started writing – I was an idiot in HR who didn’t know anything. After you write for a while I’ve become a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ – so people ask me stuff.  It’s funny how that works!  Its like going to work for a really cool company – everyone wants to hear you speak.  A year ago I was at ABC Dog Food Co. and now conference in America would accept me to speak.  Now I have a job at Google – and people are calling me begging me to speak and offering to pay me!  Same person, same knowledge – now with new branding!?

The questions coming from readers are cool – because I feel the pain from the HR and Talent Pros who pose them.  I’ve been there – I have a least one or two things they can try – many times we end up going back and forth and coming up with something neither one of us thought of!  I wanted to share some of those questions and interactions – because quite frankly most are better than anything I could write to begin with.

Question:

From Mary – HR Pro in Eastern Pennsylvania, at a mid-sized Manufacturing company –

“Dear Tim (starts off like a Casey Kasem long distance dedication doesn’t it!) –

I can’t stand the people I work with in HR.  We have a small team – 5 people – who have all been here for at least 3 years – and they don’t want to change anything.  I just graduated with my degree in HR and couldn’t wait to get started – and now I feel like I’ve made the wrong career choice. How can I get the HR team to try new things!?”

My response:

“Dear Mary (she started it!) –

Quit.  Send your resume to Google – I hear great things about their HR program, apparently, they do HR way different than everyone else.  Kidding – don’t quit!

People only change when they are forced to (which you don’t have authority) or they see ‘major’ benefit in it for themselves.  So you have to find one of these two ways to entice your team to want to try new things.  First way (assuming one road block is your actual leader in HR) – make friends outside of HR and find their pain points, things they need better or changed.  In most organizations – those outside of HR have more influence – getting them pushing for change, will force HR to react.  Since you’ll be shaping that from outside of HR – you can start to drive the change you want to see inside of HR.   Your HR peers will see you trying to talk with those outside your HR Departments locked doors – be vigilant – don’t let them stop you – make friends outside of HR!  Second way – come up with ideas that make your HR peers look really smart, helpful and at the same time they get to do less work.  This is harder!  But if you are willing to give credit to them, for your ideas, you might trick them into changing some stuff.  Be sneaky good.

You are not going to change the culture within your HR team.  Culture always wins.  You are new.  Within 6 months – you’ll think the exact same way they do, unless you do stuff really different – without embarrassing them, or pissing them off.  Manage up to your HR leader.  Stay positive and helpful.  Keep a constant pressure on moving your ideas forward in ways that doesn’t cost your team to do more work, or cost more resources.

If that fails – join Google.

T.”

 

Tweeting on the Job

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For those who don’t know one of the greatest times of the year has started – the NBA Playoffs! – and being a starting member of the 8 Man Rotation – it’s my duty to post something about the NBA playoffs and tie it back to HR.  It’s what we do.  It’s what we are ‘famous’ for.  It helps us profile our audience.  So, the playoffs get started this week without one of the greatest NBA players of all time, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, who was injured this season and will be out the entire playoffs.  Kobe is the Laker’s leader and because he just had surgery can’t attend the games in-person, but he did the next best thing – he live Tweeted his feedback on his teammates during the game!  As you can imagine this went over like doing a live performance review of your CEO at the annual company picnic!

I was wondering what a live tweet stream would like if your team was live tweeting during your monthly town hall all-employee meetings.  I’m guessing something like this:

ButtKisser @ButtKisser
Sitting in the front row at Town Hall – can’t wait to hear what our CEO has planned for us this month!
BrownNoser @BrownNoser
@ButtKisser running CEOs dog over to the groomer, keep me updated on what she says! Instagram a photo! #BrownNoserProbs
ZombieEE @ZombieEE
@ButtKisser sign me in at the meeting I’m with @BrownNoser taking the dog
BrownNoser @BrownNoser
@ButtKisser don’t listen to @ZombieEE he is not with me!!!!  #SlackerLoser
RunnerGurlEE @RunnerGurlEE
So upset, dumb Town Hall meeting getting in the way of my lunch 5K! YOLO – looks like 10K tonight! #RunnerLife
ButtKisser @ButtKisser
Oh, CEO is looking sharp in Nautical Navy JCrew Blazer!  #GetItStarted
BrownNoser @BrownNoser
PIC! PIC! PIC!
TheCorpHRLady @TheCorpHRLady
All EE’s – Town Hall is starting in the West Atrium – Mandatory Attendance! #Cookies!
CorpCommunications @CorpCommunications
CEO expects the month to last all month and be another month. #ThisStatementReleasedToAllStakeholdersAtSameTime
CorpLegal @CorpLegal
@CorpCommunications please delete last tweet, we can not guarantee the month will last all month.
ButtKisser @ButtKisser
CEO said we should all continue to forth great effort and good things will happen. No layoffs planned!
CorpLifer @CorpLifer
Layoffs!?  We are having layoffs!  #WTH
ZombieEE @ZombieEE
Layoffs!  This sucks…
RunnerGurlEE @RunnerGurlEE
Layoff! Timing couldn’t be better! Have 26.2 coming up – need the time! #TrainingLife
CorpCommunications @CorpCommunications
The CEO said “No Layoffs”!!!
CorpLegal @CorpLegal
@CorpCommunication please delete your last tweet we can’t guarantee we won’t have layoffs.
BrownNoser @BrownNoser
I know some folks who need to be laid off! #Zombies
ButtKisser @ButtKisser
@BrownNoser LOL! #Zombies
TheCorpHRLady @TheCorpHRLady
There are still Oatmeal Raisin cookies left! #ChocChipAllGone
Am I close?  Do you think it might go something like that.  Probably closer than we want to admit!

3 Stupid Questions To Ask In An Interview

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I’m sure at this point you saw the news from this weekend – Reese Witherspoon’s husband got arrested for DUI and she did what any drunk celebrity wife should do – threatened a police officer with the best question ever asked by celebrities – “Do you know who I am!?”   Yep – Mrs. Legally Blonde herself asked the one question celebrities are trained to never ask, under any circumstances.  She broke Rule #1 of being celebrity – and it was glorious!

This got me to thinking, from a candidate perspective, what are the questions who could ask that would ensure your interview went from Fab to Drab in about 3 seconds!?  My Catfish Friend, Kathy Rapp, over at Fistful of Talent had a great post this past week – 3 Questions Freakin’ Awesome Candidates Ask – which gave candidates three absolute home-run questions to ask at the end of the interview to show you’re a Rock Star candidate.  My list does the opposite!

The cool part of my list – is that each of these questions are from actual candidates asked during interviews that I’ve been apart of:

1.  Do you drug test?   Nope!  But we do now!  I’m pretty sure the person who asks this question has already made up their mind they don’t want to work for your company and they use this to ensure you won’t hire them.  Believe me there are plenty of people who interview, to get their parents, spouse, etc. off their back, but they don’t really want to work – so they sabotage themselves.  Asking dumb questions at the end is one of the best ways to sabotage an interview! Other question on this path – Do you do background checks? Do you do credit checks? Do you hire felons?

2. How long before I get to use sick time?  Never!  Because you wont’ be working here!  Again, the person who asks this question asks it for a reason – that reason is they ‘plan’ on being sick.  Quick HR Pro Rule of Thumb – if someone plans on being sick – you aren’t going to be happy with that hire.  Other questions on this same path:  When would I get a raise? How soon can I use my health insurance?  What happens if I’m late to work?

3. Can you date co-workers here?  To be honest – my immediate follow up question to this, without answering his question, was – “Are you dating one of the employees here?”  To which he said “No” – but that he ran into this at another employer and didn’t want to ‘have any problems’ again.  So, you’re assuming we have folks here who are just not going to be able to hold themselves back and must date you!?  Is what I’m hearing!  Again, I’ll come clean on my next response – I told him “You’re allowed to date employees here, you just can’t sleep with them.” (That wasn’t actually our policy – but it was fun to say!) At which he had no response and I ended the interview.  Other questions on this same path: Can you drink alcohol on the job here?  Can you smoke pot in the work bathrooms?  Can you steal office supplies?

What has been the dumbest question you have ever heard during an interview you were apart of?

It’s Tuesday! Have A Great Day, or…

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I know a guy who always answers “Outstanding!” when you ask him how he is doing.  I always wondered what it would feel like to have an “Outstanding” day, each and every day.   Just once I wanted to say “Really? Outstanding? Again?  That’s like 34 out of 34 days in row now – do you ever have just a “Great Day”?”   My guess is Mr. Outstanding probably wouldn’t have gotten the sarcasm of my inquiry…

Watched The Odd Life of Timothy Green this weekend with my wife and 9 year old.  This scene sums up how I think most people feel –

Have the day you have!

 

Launch and Learn

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I love HR Pros! I really do.

There is one common trait that many of the best HR Pros have – we love to have things perfect before we launch or go public with them!  BTW – this is specific to HR – Operations, Sales, Marketing, etc. are all willing to ‘try’ stuff – to throw it out there and see what happens.  In HR this is taboo!

Why is that?

For me this idea is the one thing that truly holds HR back from being innovative.  Think about these words from Mark Suster at the Both Sides of the Table blog:

“I’m sure you’ve all heard saying derived from Voltaire, “don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good” which in a way is encapsulated in the lean startup movement and the ideology of shipping a “minimum viable product” (MVP) and then learning from your customer base.

I think about this topic of perfection being the enemy of the good often. Because I live in startup land where everybody is a perfectionist. I think this is particularly true because every startup entrepreneur is trying to catch lightning in a bottle.

I hear about it in every first product release. You can see it in the founders’ eyes. They want the perfect feature set, the PR company lined up to do the perfect press release, they want maximum coverage, rave reviews, viral adoption and they want to sit back and then wait for the signups to come roaring in.

Life doesn’t work like that. And gearing yourself up for a lighting-in-a-bottle moment leads to bad company decisions.”

If those types of decisions lead to ‘bad company decisions’, inevitably those same types of behaviors will lead to bad HR decisions.

I hear what’s going around in your head right now, HR Pros!  I’m an HR Pro myself – that voice is hard to quiet.  “How can making sure something is perfect – a project, a program, a new process – be bad for HR and our organization!?”  Making something perfect isn’t bad.  Failure to launch is bad.  Also, taking too long or using too many resources to ensure perfection can be a huge negative to how HR, and you, are viewed.  In HR we aren’t trying to save lives or solve the world economic crisis – we have some room to ‘test’ and do some ‘trial and error’ – as long as communicate that is what you’re doing.

I’ll give you a little secret I’ve used for years in HR.  Like most of us in HR I’ve designed my fair share of new programs and processes, and I’ve tried to make them perfect.  To ensure I didn’t have something blow up on me – I always have done ‘soft’ launches.  I’ll launch with a single department or I’ll communicate out that this is a ‘test’ and we need feedback.  99.9% of the time my ‘test’ goes off without any issues and the ‘test’ becomes the program.  That .01% of the time that something goes wrong or there are errors – we chalk it up to why we ‘doing the test first’!  Everyone wins.  Employees and hiring managers get to tell you where you messed up without feeling like they’re stepping on toes.  You get to correct your errors without feeling like an idiot. The company moves forward – faster.

 

PeopleCompanies

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I’ll give inspiration for this post to awesome HR Pro Trish McFarlane. Trish posted a small little vent on Facebook this week about all these HR companies who use “People” as part of their corporate name – and none of us really know what the hell they do.  So, I’m going to help you out and tell you what I think they do based on their company Name!  Here we go:

PeopleClues – I’m going to assume they are finding out ‘clues’ about people – probably people we want to hire into our companies.  The problem is I don’t want ‘clues’ – I want ‘Facts’!  Please change your name to ‘PeopleFacts’ – and then I will work with you. Truth be told – I have no clue.

PeopleScout – Seems like a never easy one – a company who is going to go out and ‘scout’ people for you.  Not Boy or Girl scout. Scout as in find.  As in pilgrim days when you went to go ‘scout’ out a site to build your cabin.  Solid.  I hope that’s what they actually do!

PeopleFluent – Um, I’ve got nothing.  But that never stopped me before!  When I think ‘fluent’ I think language – “Why Yes, I’m fluent in Spanglish!” So, this clearly is a company who will help out your company when you have interpreting issues, language barriers and such.   I don’t have that issue, but it’s good to know such a niche company exists.

PeopleTalent – I’m guessing staffing firm – only a staffing firm would think “You know what the world needs – they need people and they need talent – PeopleTalent”

PeopleCorp – No idea.  A corporation that is run by people and not machines, but it’s really run by machines – but they want you to think it’s run by people.

PeopleMatch – This screams assessments – but it could also be staffing.  Either way I’m betting on a catchy slogan like – “We Match People!”

PeopleSoft – This is clearly an American company.  We are people.  We are soft.  Thanks for point out we are fat and miserable.

PeopleAnswers – I’m hoping this is a company that you can call and they will have answers for you about your employees that you don’t get. “Why does Tim have tuna fish on Tuesdays each week?”

PeopleClick – Probably started in late 90’s, early 2000’s – the computer mouse goes ‘click’ – we’re techy and in the HR space – People + Click = PeopleClick.  Potential million dollar ad campaign – “We’ll find you Talent in the Click of a button”

PeopleReport – Sounds like a company started by a bunch of ex-principals.  What’s better than HR and the ability to report what everyone is doing wrong!?  Absolutely nothing!

PeopleMatter – No they don’t.

PeopleNet – This is probably a late 80’s, early 90’s – even before ‘click’ – we had ‘The Net’ – another tech savvy HR company who wanted a techy sounding HRish name.  No idea what they do – could be a sourcing company – ‘We throw a wide ‘net’ around talent’  (I really should have gone into used car sales marketing)

PeopleQuest – True story – on my son’s baby name list – ‘Quest’ – was an actual option!  Can you imagine growing up with a name like – Quest!  The world would be your oyster. You would be unstoppable – Watch the F out -here comes Quest!  In terms of this company – I’m guessing staffing again – you’re on a quest to find talent or some lame thing.

People-Results – First off let me tell you this company almost didn’t make the list because of the Hyphen in the name!  What People-Results are you too good to eliminate the hyphen, or do you feel people are too stupid to understand it’s two words and not one?  Performance Management all the way – People and Results – it’s all we ever wanted!

PeopleVerified – Background checking.  We need to know is this is a verified person or not.  Apparently is takes 48 hours to find this out from a background check company – or you can Google – it takes 48 seconds!

I honestly didn’t look at any of these companies before I gave my assessment!  How close did I come?  To be fair – I actually knew PeopleSoft and PeopleReport – I’ve worked with both. All the others?  No idea!  Really. How’s that feel marketing pros?

 

 

 

 

How Do You Really Get A Job You LOVE?

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My single most read blog post ever is – How Do You Really Get An Entry Level Job?  It’s about a woman who reached out to me and asked me for advice – so I gave her 5 tips on how I would go about getting a job if I had her skill sets and resume.   One major difference between getting an ‘entry level’ job and getting a job you ‘love’ is that when you’re just trying to get your first job – my advice is to take anything!  I mean anything!  I’ll take out the trash, I’ll answer phones, I’ll wash your car – just let me get in the door – my talent will take over from there and eventually I’ll move up the chain.  Most folks don’t think of taking out the garbage when they think of getting a job they ‘LOVE’.

So, how do you get a job that you ‘Love’ – I mean one of those jobs that doesn’t seem like work because you ‘Love’ it so much?  One of those jobs where you would be willing to take less money to be able to do it.  That’s the key.  You see I get asked frequently what my ‘dream’ job would be – I have had the same answer for at least 20 years – Head Coach, Los Angles Lakers.  That’s my ‘dream’ job – for a couple of reasons – I love basketball, love the Lakers and that I would be getting huge BANK!   I don’t know if I would ‘Love’ the job – but I sure would give it a lot of hugs and kisses.  Now, if someone said, “Tim, we are going to offer you the head coaching position for the Lakers, but it only pays $75,000.”  I would decline – because I wouldn’t ‘Love’ that job for $75,000.  I would ‘Love’ that job for about $1M per season – which would be a bargain for my skill set – Mr. Buss!

That word ‘Love’ is real tricky.  Many people say the ‘Love’ their job – but you ask them to take a 10% pay cut and they don’t ‘Love’ it anymore.  Here’s how you get a job you Really Love:

1. Know what it is you ‘Love’ – Too many folks want a job they love – but they don’t even know what it is they love to do.   “Well, Tim, I love to sit on the couch and watch movies.”  That’s a very easy job to get! Congratulations – have fun with that – plus you might want to find someone willing to support you in your new chosen profession.  I don’t say that in jest – that really isn’t that hard!  I know quite of few ladies who have chosen to do Yoga each day and have lunch with the ladies – they ‘Love’ their jobs!  They’ve found ways to get supported in doing their jobs.  Guys – don’t be haters – I know guys who have found ‘sponsors’ that let them stay home and fish and golf – face it – they must be really good at something – or they’re better at finding suckers than you!

2. Understand that something you ‘Love’ at 20, might be different at 30, and 40, and... – I wanted to be a teacher from age 12 to about age 23 – even today I love interacting with children – I’ve done youth sports coaching for the past 20 years.  I got my undergrad degree in Elementary Education.  I was 100% positive -teaching was a job I would ‘Love’.  I found out that it wasn’t.  I fell out of ‘Love’ with teaching.  I see so many folks who ‘Love’ something, do it for a while, then realize they don’t really love it anymore – but they have this idea that you can’t stop loving something and move on to the next thing.  It’s alright to stop loving a job you once loved.   Want a job you ‘love’?  Sometimes that means leaving a job you once loved.

3. Realize, falling in ‘Love’ is sometimes the greatest part of finding a job you ‘Love’ – Too many people get set on finding a job they are instantly in love with.  Most times, loving a job doesn’t work like that.  Many times you fall in love with a job you initially didn’t like very much.  I’m fairly certain the first time I met my wife she wasn’t instantly in love with me!  But I wore her down.  Jobs can be like that!  They seem kind of average, then over time you begin to realize you really are in love with it.  Don’t get caught up in the notion you need to instantly be ‘in love’ with a job to eventually ‘love’ your job.

Do you love your job?

The Ultimate Guide to Mobile Recruiting

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867-5309 (Ok, if you under 35 years old you might not get this reference – but Kris Dunn is 43ish – and he wrote this content – so forgive the GenX reference – but here’s the link to the Tommy Tutone video back when MTV had videos!)

Jenny, Jenny, we’ve got your number…. But in the dynamic landscape of mobile recruiting, those seven digits aren’t always enough to get the job done. So what’s an HR or recruiting pro to do?

Sure you could leave your card plastered on a bathroom stall for all willing and able talent to see, or you could register for the April installment of the FOT webinar and start laying down the foundation for your mobile recruiting strategy.

Join Microsoft’s Xbox’s own – Jason Pankow and Kris Dunn (not from Microsoft Xbox) as they lay down FOT’s Ultimate Guide to Mobile Recruiting, brought to you by the mobile sages at iMomentous.  Join your hosts April 24 at 1pm ET and they’ll hit you with the following:

  • A survey of the mobile recruiting landscape and the factors driving the need for HR and recruiting professionals to develop their mobile recruiting strategy.
  • Mobile site vs. Native App? FOT tackles the great debate, presenting scenarios of how each fit into your mobile recruiting strategy.
  • The five keys to enhancing your mobile recruiting strategy by capitalizing on features like quick apply, SMS, social media and QR codes.
  • The ultimate checklist for selecting your mobile recruiting vendor, including the top questions you need to ask when vetting potential vendors.
  • How to go beyond the optimized screen to attract top talent to your organization by incorporating video content and thought leadership into via your mobile recruiting strategy.

Hire Jenny.

Register for FOT’s Ultimate Guide to Mobile Recruiting webinar today! (It’s FREE because we make someone else foot the bill!)

How New Leaders Categorize You

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It’s a pretty common phenomenon for new leaders to turnover most, if not all, of their team when they take over.  It happens all the time!  It’s a primary reason while you’ll see senior leadership take way too long to change out an ineffective leader – the fallout sucks.  Let’s take a look at how most leaders take a position.  It usually happens one of two ways: Promotion or Termination- old leader gets promoted up or gets canned – organization finds new leader (internally or externally) to come in and takeover.   Either way, the team has a new leader.  Now, 99.9% of the time, this next thing happens: Change!  New leader comes in and feels pressure to make a difference, to do better – so they make change.  Then, this happens – Crappy Communication!  Most leaders are not equipped or trained at how to communicate as a new leader, and don’t negotiate with their team on how the team likes communication – so they fail at this part.

Change + Crappy Communication = Employees leaving and having bad attitudes about the new leader.

Here’s how a new leader categorizes employees of a new group they take over:

The Converts – These are the people who are going to forget about the old leader as soon as the person leaves the parking lot and fall into the ‘new’ line of thinking.  What’s funny about these folks is many times their thought process switches 180 degrees depending on what the new leader likes, thinks, prefers, etc.  These folks will be the ones who stay around and thrive – they are corporate survivors in the truest form – some will see 10+ leaders come and go in their careers.

The Zombies – These are your victims.  They only support themselves and how bad their life is because bad things only happen to them.  They are just waiting around for the next bad thing to happen to them.  These will be the first people get to get terminated – which perpetuates their Eeyore belief that everything in life is against them.

The Militia –  Are the employees who are going to fight blindly to keep the vision of their old leader alive.  These folks are passionate, so the new leader will try and convert them over to the new vision, because if you can get them on your side – they make great soldiers. But some will leave and/or get fired because they just refuse to give up the rebel flag!

The Double Agents – DA employees fall in the middle between converts and the militia – they really don’t want to be on one side or the other – they want to find another job, but don’t want the new leader to know.  They want to watch the new leader fail, but at the same time need that person to think highly of them to ensure their next position and possible recommendation down the road.  These folks are the ones who surprise the new leaders – they think they’re on board, then get a two week notice dropped on their desk.

The Insider – This is the most dangerous employee to a new leader. The Insider is an employee who has connections and influence and will funnel information on how the new leader is doing to higher level folks in the organization.  Successful new leaders find this person quickly, and convert them quickly – it’s key to survival!

How does a new leader stop a mass turnover of their team?  I like to see new leaders do three things:

1. Communicate the new reality quickly.  I like to see new leaders do this within the first week of taking on the new position.

2. Team transition meeting.  Third party facilitated, this meeting allows employees to share their fears of a new leader, share the history of the collective group and allows the team and new leader to negotiate how they will communicate with each other.

3. Individual meetings. New leaders should set up a meeting schedule to meet with all of their direct reports weekly in the first 90 days.  Making sure everyone is on the same page is critical.