Case Study #13: Joining a New Team as a Leader
Make it less awkward and more fun.
“Hi, I am ZZ. I am your new manager.” Smiley face.
How to make the introduction less awkward? And no, don’t do team meeting rounds of ‘Tell me one fun fact about yourself’. Gosh, someone still does it?
Andrea wondered how to get to know her new team. She joined a new company as a manager, and wanted to make it smooth and natural.
Being new, she expected people would not trust her. Why would they? They did not know her. She was thinking how to let them get to know her. Yet, she could not come up with a good idea.
Being vulnerable? Telling them what was important for her? Direct them first before giving them freedome? She was puzzled.
How do you get to know others and start building trust with your team when you are new?
Team games that everyone dreads
Here is my personal list of annoying team activities that are supposed to help your team get to know each other:
Introduce yourself during team meetings (“I am a project manager in the company X years, blah blah.)
Say one fun fact about you (“I eat a bar of chocolate after lunch, haha.” Weird no?)
Say three things about you. One is false, and two are correct. Let others guess. (“I ran a marathon, I don’t drink coffee, I have a turtle.” Exciting, isn’t it?)
Say one fun about the person next to you.
Let’s build a spaghetti/marshmallow tower (so 2000s)
PowerPoint slides (Showing pictures of you on top of the mountain, your kids, etc.)
Andrea has done many similar activities like these before. Did they help to build a team? A bit, maybe. But mostly, they annoy people when your team suffers from fluctuation. It can be repetitive and annoying to do it again and again.
Introduction tips for new managers
Andrea asked around how the best introduce herself to the team. The advice she got was:
Dress well.
Be positive and smile a lot.
Avoid any impolite greeting.
Keep your body language open.
Bring breakfast/take them out for lunch.
Sit with the team.
Share your story.
Ask questions.
Yet, there is one thing that every team will be interested in when they hear a new person/leader is joining.
They look for your “vision”.
Where do you take them? Why? In which timeline? What your focus areas are? Quality, communication, operations, goals, fairness, teamwork, expertise, etc.
It is nice to know the new manager is married and has a cottage in the Midlands. However, if there is no clarity on expectations, it will take it longer for the team to settle and work things out.
The game plan
Andrea knew it would take time to gain trust, learn about the skills the team had, and build relationships. The team needed to ‘get used to working together.’
So, she came up with the following game plan:
She ‘sat’ down with the team right away. No hiding in meeting rooms, sitting with other managers, or switching her camera off. No. She wanted her face to be out there.
She scheduled a team meeting. She introduced herself formally. She told me a little about her relevant background and what her main goals were (both short-term and long-term). But she made sure to open the arena for questions and showed interest in what the team thought.
Andrea wanted to build her image not as a dictator and orchestrator but as a collaborator and team supporter. Which is why she mentioned that she believed in open communication, honesty, and idea exchange.
She shared her plan to schedule regular 1-1 meetings and run a few workshops to learn about the work and come up with tangible and realistic goals.
When you are a new manager, people don’t know what to expect from you. They could be higher than what you are used to. So, uncovering your intention is crucial when you build a team.
People like predictable work and collaboration. Be transparent what is going to happen and why.
Team building without team building
You don’t always have a budget to go out and do some fun team-building activities. Yet, there are things you can do during your daily work to build a team.
Have a team project. Get everyone on board and work together. It could be a new communication system, branding, reporting, automation, etc. Something that catches attention and people will benefit from.
Run a workshop. Like Andrea, you can get creative with workshops. Involving people in discussions will show you how they interact with each other and what ideas they have. You can do, for instance:
Values workshop - What is essential for your team? (e.g., quality, fairness, communication)
Feedback workshop - Get everyone on the same page and teach them to give and get feedback.
Team roles - Challenge your team with personality and team tests. You may discover new things about each other. (Someone is an analyst, the other one is a specialist). Nothing sparks discussion more than talking about each other.
Improvement workshop - Use brainstorming techniques to identify what could work better and make your team accountable for making it happen.
Vision workshop - Don’t work with your assumption. Seek ideas from your people, too. New markets? New product innovation? New processes? Explore!
Build team habits. Think about one or two things that your team can do together. Maybe bi-weekly knowledge-sharing sessions, quarter team breakfasts, Thursday happy-hour drinks after work, or online training always prepared by different members. Habits positively influence team culture. As they give a sense of belonging.
Helping their careers. When you know what your team members want, it is much easier to support them and help them develop in areas they wish to. Nothing builds a team better than your genuine support of others. Help them grow, and they stay in your team longer.
Everyday respect
Every good leader knows that team building takes time and that they need to earn their respect every day. Andrea was no exception. She paid attention to her communication, facilitated productivity, and encouraged a good culture.
The key to a successful team is collaboration and focus on the right things at the right time. As a leader, Andrea had not only a decision power but also an influence on how well people felt at work.
She did these subtle things to gain respect and motivate others:
She was present in conversations. Asking opinions, questions, and clarifications. She switched off notifications and left her phone off the table during 1-1 meetings.
She appreciated the people around her.
When delivering feedback, she always made it a 2-way conversation.
She delegated and supported tasks to show she trusted others but also was not afraid of making her hands dirty.
She admitted when she was wrong and apologized for her mistakes.
Respect is earned. Match your words and your actions and become a trusted leader.
How it went with the team
Now, you may wonder if Andrea’s team was a dream. Everything worked, and all went smoothly. It didn’t.
She experienced some hiccups on the way and had to overcome disrespect, a toxic coworker, and disagreements on the vision.
Yet, remember everything can be solved with communication, shared goals, and confidence in your decisions.
Andrea’s team got there. How about your team? Where is it, and where do you want it to be?
What can you learn from this?
Leading a team always needs these if you are just joining it or you are a leader for a while:
Be with your team.
Know your team (what skills and aspirations they have)
Clarity on shared goals and your expectations.
Team communication and values (e.g., feedback culture, channels, idea exchange, etc.)
Last but not least, respect. Give them your respect and appreciation.
That’s a wrap!
I absolutely needed to see this. I am just out of training at a new organization and will be getting assigned a team soon and was wondering how to best approach it. This kinda of plans it in my head. Thank you Ivona this is very valuable 😍😍😍