How to Succeed Quickly in a New Role

As Finance Directors & CFOs, many of you are well-versed in M&A strategies, or IT implementations and the importance of correct, seamless integrations, and the problems that can arise from not doing things carefully or with a great deal of planning. But how many businesses put the same care and planning into integrating people?

A new role—whether a promotion,?a move?to a new organisation, or a fresh challenge in your existing job—can be a huge boost to your career and a chance for you to blossom and thrive. You know the drill heading in: Apply your experience and talents to the position, make sure you are accepted by the hierarchy (including your own direct reports), and clinch a few wins in the first couple of months to demonstrate what you can do.

But in today’s hyper-collaborative and dynamic workplaces, successful moves aren’t as easy as they once were, even for the most qualified and hardworking people. Too often, transitioning managers and employees don’t live up to their organisations’ expectations. They have the right skills and experience. They understand the company’s goals. They’ve been vetted for cultural fit. So why didn’t they quickly excel in their new roles?

One important point that is often overlooked as a prerequisite for transition success is the effective use of internal networks. The people who are the most productive, innovative, and engaged in new roles—the “fast movers”—are those who establish extremely broad, mutually beneficial, uplifting connections from the start. Specifically, they surge rapidly into a broad network; generate pull; identify how they add value, where they fall short, and who can fill the gaps; create scale; and shape their networks for maximum thriving.

In most cases, individual managers must do these things on their own, as often employers fail to recognise the importance of encouraging transitioners to build connections early or create networks to address skills gaps.

In this article we’ll explain why successful transitions are so important to both career and company success, describe how rising demands for collaboration have made networks increasingly critical, and give some advice on implementing each of the fast-mover practices.

Many Transitions + Poor Onboarding = Big Problems

In today’s organisations, transitions occur all the time and take many forms. Managers and employees change jobs far more often than previous generations ever did.

Internal moves are increasingly common too. Many businesses have recently undergone or are currently undergoing some form of deliberate culture change. To support such efforts, nearly half of those companies moved leaders at all levels around or out of the organisation.

There is an assumption that internal movers already understand the business, culture and roles so are less likely to have any support or official onboarding in their new roles.

The Hyper-Collaborative Environment

Just as important as the frequency and impact of transitions is what’s going on in day-to-day work. More and more companies have identified collaboration across disciplines and units as a way to meet the new business goal of ever-greater agility.

Most organisations will assert that their employees must work closely with colleagues to achieve their objectives.

This environment has changed companies’ thinking about what’s most valuable in their employees’ contributions. Many companies now view “network performance”—effectiveness at enhancing and capitalizing on others’ performance to improve one’s own—as equal in importance to the ability to handle tasks individually. But how many are assuming these are skills the staff already have or should have versus those who actually train their workers in this skillset?

The Fast-Mover Strategies

These are the people who become well-connected in a quarter to a third of the usual time, even if they started with few or no contacts, and were reaping the benefits: rapid productivity, innovation, higher engagement, and lower risk of departure. These fast movers showed that people making transitions today don’t have the luxury of allowing their network connections to form with no effort. To be successful, you (and those who onboard you) must be intentional. Here’s how.

a)????? Surge rapidly into a broad network.

Fast movers work to quickly discover the informal organisational chart of key leaders who are able and willing to help them get things done.

b)???? Generate pull.

Once you’ve identified the right internal connections, you can begin to attract like-minded colleagues and begin to benefit from each other in that network. Once you’ve put yourself out there, people will start to come to you, to offer advice, suggest new ideas, and bring you into new projects.

Fast movers understand their value add and then work to improve in the areas where they’re weak or find people whose knowledge and skills fill the gaps.

Of course, the fastest way to generate pull is through mutual wins that benefit new contacts as much as they do you. Fast movers engage with collaborators to co-create a joint narrative of success.

c)????? Identify how you add value, where you fall short, and who can fill the gaps.

Whether your main contribution is your knowledge of a key technology, your ability to inspire people, or other skills and intangibles, you can use traditional connections, such as bosses, direct reports, and internal clients, to help you pinpoint exactly what others are expecting you to bring to the table. Most of us either fail to see them or try to bluff our way through. But fast movers get clarity on their value add and then work to improve in the areas where they’re weak or find people whose knowledge and skills fill the gaps—which is often a faster and more effective way to come up to speed.

d)???? Create Scale???????

Fast movers can not only quickly integrate into their new roles but also get big things done by harnessing the power of those they know. They tap their networks for both?ideation?and?implementation—that is, they seek help from innovators across the organisation who can offer novel solutions to pressing problems and from influencers who can help execute on, spread, and sell those ideas.

Conclusion

If businesses want to ensure that everyone who transitions has a reasonable shot at integrating successfully, leaders must develop a networks-first mindset—an understanding of the prime importance of connections in today’s highly mobile workforce and how they really function. Many companies pay lip service to supporting networking for new hires and promoted employees. But then they simply provide social hours, urge involvement in external associations, or assume that the bigger your network, the better. Not so. Some of the most effective fast movers make a point of engaging more intentionally with smaller subsets of superhelpful people.

Organisations can further help transitioners by thoughtfully establishing norms for sharing expertise in meetings, pairing newcomers with veterans, and continuing onboarding programs well into the first year. They can develop leadership training that intentionally cuts across silos, conduct “connections audits” to help employees build their networks, and flag ineffective networking practices. And they can deploy coaches and mentors to spread best practices.

Networking for transition doesn’t have to be a do-it-yourself exercise. Employers can lead the way in showing people how to quickly build the connections that will help them thrive.