Tag Archives: Spouse

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 Create a Family Charter? Four Guidelines

Situation: The spouse of a CEO works in the business but has conflicts with other employees. This creates personal tension for the CEO. The CEO wants to explore a different role for the spouse, and also wants to create more balance at home. The CEO believes that working with the spouse to create a simple family charter with common values, vision and mission will help the two of them to find common needs and goals both at work and at home. How do you create a family charter?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • As you build a family charter, consider both your individual and your common views. Once you have established common ground with your spouse, you can bring children into the process to reinforce values and share creation of the vision.
    • In preparation for this discussion, both you and your spouse should start by thinking about what you each want. Once you have done this, compare notes and look for commonalities where you agree on what is important. These commonalities will form the core of your shared values, vision and mission.
  • Have lunch with your spouse once a month, just the two of you. Why? Because you are telling your spouse that they take precedence over your second spouse – your job, and you are taking time and attention from work to spend time one-on-one with your spouse. Do this monthly, but not always on the same day – make it more spontaneous and special.
  • Reinforce your family charter with regular family or one-on-one meetings with your spouse and children.
  • When having a conversation, focus on listening and don’t try to “fix” things.

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