First-Time Leader's Guide to Leading a Team

So you are the leader now. Maybe you got promoted. Maybe the old boss left and someone pointed at you. Maybe you raised your hand at a meeting to ask a question and walked out as the committee chair.

However it happened, here is the short answer to "what do I do first?" Listen before you change anything, meet with each person one on one, run one simple team meeting, and make one small promise that you actually keep. Then keep doing those things every week. That is most of the first month. The rest of this page shows you how, with a checklist at the end.

Why the first month feels so hard

If you feel a little lost, you are in good company. Harvard professor Linda Hill wrote that the first time you are asked to manage others is the earliest test of leadership. She also wrote that most new managers fail that test at first, because of common ideas about what being in charge means.

Here is the big one. You were probably picked because you were good at the work, but now your job is not to do the work. Your job is to help other people do it well, and that takes a different set of skills. That is a different job, even if the desk did not move.

It also matters more than most people think. Gallup has estimated that managers account for at least 70% of the difference in how engaged people feel at work, across business units. Google studied its own managers for years in a project called Project Oxygen. It found that teams with highly effective managers were more likely to get better results, be happier, and stay longer. So the way you lead is not a small thing. The good news is that most of it is learnable.

What changes the day you become the leader

A few things shift right away, whether anyone says so or not.

• People watch what you do more than what you say. If you show up late, the meeting starts late from now on.
• Your friends at work are now your team. You can still be friendly. But you cannot have favorites, and you cannot complain about the team to the team.
• You stop getting credit for doing. You start getting credit for what the group gets done.
• Quiet people get quieter. Some people will not tell the new boss bad news unless you make it safe.

None of this means you have to become a different person. It means you lead yourself first. If you have not read it yet, Lead Yourself First is a good place to start.

Week one: listen before you fix

You will see things you want to change on day one. Write them down, but do not change them yet unless something is unsafe.

Here is why. The thing that looks silly to you might exist for a reason nobody told you about. People trust a new leader who asks before acting, and they brace against one who arrives with a list.

Also meet with your own boss in week one. Ask two questions: "What does a good first three months look like to you?" and "What should I not change yet?" Write the answers down.

The first one-on-ones

Meet with each person on your team, one at a time. Fifteen to thirty minutes is plenty. Tell them it is not a review. Then ask these questions and mostly listen:

1. What do you like about working here that I should protect?
2. What gets in your way most often?
3. What is one thing the last leader did that helped you?
4. How do you like to get feedback: right away, or saved for our next talk?
5. What should I know about you that would help me lead you well?

Take notes as you go, and at the end, say: "Thank you. I will come back to you on at least one thing you told me." Then do it. That one promise, kept, is worth more than any speech you could give.

Plan to keep these talks going, every week or every other week. They are where most of the real leading happens.

When someone needs help with a problem

In a one-on-one, the urge is to fix the problem for them, because you probably know how. Try coaching instead. Google's re:Work site teaches a simple model called GROW. You ask four questions:

• Goal: What do you want?
• Reality: What is happening now?
• Options: What could you do?
• Will: What will you do?

You will be tempted to answer the third question yourself. Bite your tongue, gently. Their answer sticks better than yours.

The first team meeting: Keep, Fix, Try

After your one-on-ones, hold one short team meeting. Here is a simple plan.

Purpose. Show the team you listened, and agree on one small change together.

Time. 30 minutes.

Group size. 3 to 15 people. With more, split into small groups of four or five.

Materials. A whiteboard or a big sheet of paper, sticky notes, and markers. For an online team, a shared document works.

Setup. Draw three columns on the board: Keep, Fix, Try.

Instructions.

1. Open with this: "I met with each of you. Here is what I heard." Share three themes without naming who said what.
2. Give everyone five minutes. Each person writes one sticky note for each column. Keep is something that works. Fix is something that gets in the way. Try is one small idea.
3. Put the notes up and group the ones that match.
4. Pick one item from Fix or Try that the team can do in the next two weeks. Small is good. "We start the Monday meeting on time" counts.
5. Name who owns it and when you will check on it.

Discussion questions.

• What on the Keep list surprised you?
• Which Fix item costs us the most time?
• What would make it easier to speak up when something is not working?

A way in for everyone. Some people do not like to speak in a group or write in front of others. Let them hand you their notes before the meeting, or send them in a message. Read them out with the rest, with no names.

The following week. Start the next meeting with the one item you picked. Ask, "Did we do it? What helped? What got in the way?" If it worked, say thank you out loud. If it did not, adjust it. Do not drop it quietly.

For short exercises to use at later meetings, see 10-Minute Communication Exercises for Small Teams.

An illustration: the new shift lead

This is an illustration, not a real person.

Dana was the best mechanic on the morning shift, so the plant manager made her the shift lead. In week one, she wanted to change the way tools were signed out, because it looked slow. Instead she wrote it down and held her one-on-ones. Two people told her the slow sign-out started after tools went missing last year. One person said the real problem was that the morning report came out late.

At her first team meeting, the late report landed in the Fix column four times. The team picked it. Dana owned it. Two weeks later the report came out on time, and people started telling her other things too. The tool sign-out stayed exactly the same, because it turned out it was there for a good reason.

Common mistakes in the first month

• Changing things to prove you are in charge. You already are. Prove you are listening.
• Doing the work yourself because it is faster. It is faster today. It is slower every day after.
• Saving all feedback for later. Small, kind, and soon beats big and late.
• Promising too much. One promise kept beats five promises made.
• Leading everyone the same way. People are different. A tool like DISC can help you see how each person likes to work.

Your first-month checklist

Print this, or copy it into your notes.

Week 1

• Meet with your own boss. Ask what a good first three months looks like.
• Write down what you want to change. Change nothing yet unless it is unsafe.
• Book a one-on-one with every person on the team.

Week 2

• Hold your one-on-ones. Ask the five questions. Take notes.
• Tell each person one thing you will follow up on.

Week 3

• Follow up on at least one thing with each person.
• Run the Keep, Fix, Try meeting. Pick one small change with an owner and a date.

Week 4

• Check on the one change at your team meeting.
• Set up regular one-on-ones going forward.
• Ask your boss and one team member: "What is one thing I could do better?"
• Look back at your week one list. Cross off what turned out to have a good reason.

If you do only these things, your team will notice. Not because you were perfect, but because you listened, and then did what you said you would do. That is how trust starts.

Sources

• Linda A. Hill, Becoming the Boss, Harvard Business Review, January 2007. The point that the first assignment to manage others is the earliest test of leadership.
• Randall Beck and Jim Harter, Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement, Gallup, April 2015.
• Google re:Work, Following the data: The research behind great managers. Project Oxygen and what it found.
• Google re:Work, Coach using the GROW model. The four GROW questions.

The five one-on-one questions, the Keep, Fix, Try meeting, the illustration, and the first-month checklist are our own.

About the author. Jay Olivo is an author, keynote speaker, coach, and transformational leader, who by profession is certified by Maxwell Leadership and a Certified Professional Maintenance Manager (CPMM). More about Jay.