Changing leadership is an adjustment process. It’s a period of excitement, growing pains and hope. While earning the trust and loyalty of an entire organization is a challenge, there are five things an incoming leader can do right away to hit the ground running and earn support:
Get to know all levels of staff.
In some situations, new leadership can mean staff changes across the board. But, in most cases, tenured staff are still in place. The new head coach of a sports team can be great, but he has to start with the players the team already has. Focus on earning their trust and respect.
United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz is a great example of a new leader who came in and got to know people at all levels. He said that “there was a high level of distrust and disengagement with employees” when he came in. That’s not unusual. When new leadership takes over, some people may be skeptics at first.
Munoz revamped company morale in a grassroots way. He spent time in the maintenance hangar with the mechanics and he stood out on the tarmac with the baggage handlers; he showed he genuinely cared about the people working towards achieving the company vision — authenticity gets people re-engaged. And, oftentimes, the best and most innovative ideas are going to be the ones that come from the people with their ear to the ground every day.
Inspire camaraderie.
Even though Marissa Mayer’s time at Yahoo! has been panned, what she attempted to do made strategic sense. She came under fire…