Tag Archives: Rapport

What’s The Best Way to On-Board a New Manager? Four Guidelines

Situation: A CEO has identified a good candidate for a critical management role. Once this individual is hired, what are best practices for on-boarding a new member of the team? What’s the best way to on-board a new manager?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Provide a fair salary: Review local salary surveys and pay a salary that reflects competitive realities. Consider the impression that the offer makes on the spouse. If the spouse is unhappy, there won’t be peace at home and the employee may continue looking even after accepting your offer. Consider a 90 day evaluation period. Increase chances for success by paying a fair salary from the beginning. If the individual doesn’t meet your needs, let them go.
  • Provide clear, concise direction from the start. Provide an orientation to positively introduce the manager to the others in the company. One-on-one meetings between the new manager and key employees plus anyone who will report to the manager to establish initial rapport and establish shared expectations. Consider a lunch to introduce the new manager.
  • Set SMART performance objectives: S – Specific, M – Measurable, A – Achievable; R – Realistic, T – Time-bound. Meet weekly with the new manager. Teach them what you’ve learned about the company, employees, and how things work. Avoid shifting early objectives. This is distracting and diminishes the chances of success. Sudden or frequent changes in priorities make it difficult to generate momentum – particularly for a new employee.
  • Expectations – don’t expect instantaneous results.

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How Do You Shift a Key Employee to Manager? – Pt 2 Three Points

Situation: A CEO wants to promote a key employee from rainmaker to manager. This will not involve a change in expectations or metrics for either the new manager or the employees who will report to her. However, there needs to be more forcefulness and clarity on what needs to be accomplished, both for the new manager and her team. How do you shift a key employee from rainmaker to manager?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Don’t just measure calls. Measure the outcome from calls. Develop an objective and a metric or set of metrics that they can run to. Link their activity to business results. They will respond because they will be able to impact the firm as well as their careers.
    • Tie individuals’ metrics to the business culture that the management team is creating and create win-win links.
  • What is involved in changing the business focus to new markets?
    • Build a replicable system for servicing a particular channel. Use the lessons from this exercise to build systems for new channels. As the team moves into new channels, tweak the replicable system so that it responds to the specific demands of that channel.
    • For new channels, identify the most important needs of the new customer – from their perspective – and develop a client service model to meet this need. For example, if the goal is to develop an investment service for foundations and endowments, the key variables may be acceptable return with a high degree of safety. Tailor an investment portfolio, as well as a client service strategy to meet the most important needs of this sector.
  • What is involved in creating a smooth hand-off within client relationships?
    • Start bringing in others to whom will be handed off the relationship as early in the client relationship development process as possible. Allow rapport and trust to develop, and prep the client for the expectation that a smooth hand-off is part of the ongoing client relationship.

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