First Impressions in a New Role

There’s good reason why the saying ‘first impressions count’ is a truism. Part of the package of being human is that we make snap judgments – about other people and about our experiences. We do so to make sense of our experiences. We make sense by classifying our experiences into binary alternatives on a variation of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ (good service provider, good candidate, bad driver…). We make these judgments quickly on small bytes of information.

The fact we make snap judgments might not be our favourite part of human nature. But given that it is ingrained, the productive question is how do we make good use of this instinct?

One way we can use this human instinct is when we start in a new role. When we move into a new role people around us will instinctively classify what we are like in that role. They do so from the very first interaction. Subsequent interactions tend to build on that first experience, and once classified it takes a lot for people to change their opinion. So a lot rides on the first impression. It pays to be thoughtful about the impression we create.

Partway through my career, I had been reading and thinking a lot about human instincts. About this time, I moved companies to take up a role as HR Director. I decided to be deliberate in the first impression I created – what sort of HR Director would people in my new organisation decide they had got in my being appointed? Apart from the judgement my team would make of me as their leader, a key other group was the senior line managers.

Step 1 in my planning was to decide the likely binary alternatives line managers use when they classify or judge a senior HR person. Incumbents in a HR Director role tend to be classified as either a ‘police officer’ (‘bad’) or ‘adds value’ (‘good’). I truly saw myself as the type of HR person who adds value and who helps line managers do their jobs – I didn’t see myself as a rule-driven bureaucrat. ??

Step 2 was to decide my actions to create the desired impression that I was a value-add HR person. This step is about being explicit to give the best chance of the desired first impression being realised. On the first day, as well as spending time with my team, I made appointments with key leaders. Over the next two weeks I met individually with senior leaders and the second-level leaders. I had a structure to these meetings, asking each leader about the commercial drivers of revenue and profit in this business, the key challenges leaders face and what people-initiatives would make the biggest difference to them and their staff. At the end of the series of meetings I summarised the key findings and priorities for HR. The interviews were engaging and informative and the feedback was excellent – the leaders appreciated the interest, the structure to the conversations and the setting of priorities. Many mentioned that it was pleasing to have a HR person who would clearly add value. ???

The key point is that when we take on a new role – either appointed from outside or transferred from within – we have this small window of opportunity to create the first impression when people are classifying us. It’s best not to leave that first impression to chance.