Establishing Individual and Team Leadership Expectations

Taking over a new organization as a leader can be a challenging time. You are going to be judged by everything you do in your first 100 days – by your leadership team, by your subordinates, shareholders, and by your board or other compliance and oversight groups. First impressions matter, and you need to be able to show you are listening, learning and leading early. You also need to show that you can bring positive change.

Starting off Right as a New Leader

A key technique for new leaders is to set your expectations of your team through a clear statement of your vision, goals and objectives. It is also important to tell the team what kind of leader you are – what matters to you and what you look for from them. Once your intent is known, your team will take on ownership of that intent and reinforce your vision to achieve organizational success.

Five Expectations to Set As a New Leader

Below are five highly effective examples that new leaders can utilize when setting expectations for their team:

1. Praise the team and acknowledge their past success and future productivity:

“This company is a winning team that just exceeded market expectations last quarter by X percent. I expect everyone to do their best IAW our company standards. I will do mine. Together we will accomplish our company mission to the highest standard while taking care of our employees and their families.”

2. The importance of communications:

“Continuous internal communications is key to our success. I will let you know what external market and demand pressures we are facing so we ensure we are anticipating and responding in our product development. I look to you to keep me posted on the challenges and opportunities you see in your departments.”

3. Promote innovation:

“I support innovation and initiative. Show me a better way to execute training, to create more business development, to create a better product or service, or to take better care of the leader development of our personnel. If it makes sense we will do it. I reward the sharing of good ideas across the company.”

4. Keep the boss informed:

“Keep me informed about critical information requirements ASAP. What are the key developments in your area of responsibility that affect the success of the entire company? Bad news does not get better with age. Bring me key information quickly so we can respond/report/adjust/adapt right away.”

5. Listening Leadership:

“Good leaders are good listeners. I want to hear what you think, not what you think I want to hear. (1) Active listening is a hallmark of informed and caring leadership. Knowing what goes on in your organization at all levels is central to your capacity to make appropriate change.”

Leadership Exercise from David H. Huntoon, Jr.

Given the five examples above, which one best applies to your new leadership situation?

Consider using re-enforcement tools to help convey and support your message to your leadership team. Image if the following were in place, and, how much more effective the impact of your message would be?

1. Send out a debrief email/agenda following every team meeting that also includes an open invitation for new ideas on how to support the overall company vision.

2. During each meeting one of the leadership team members is asked to demonstrate one of the five examples above, debriefing the rest of the team on how the example has impacted their role, team, or department.

Bringing sustainable leadership change to any organization is a difficult task. The truly great organizations are able to utilize their personnel interchangeably while a single unified vision remains.

How do envision your organization evolving to fit this type of leadership dynamic? Contact me and we can accomplish this together.

(1) Credit to John G. Meyer in Taking Company Command, Amazon, 1990.

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