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After reading the first two parts of “5 Things To Avoid Doing At Your New Job”, you know that thinking your hardest work is behind you and focusing on the technical side of your job are both things you want to avoid at your new job. To read the first two parts in this series, click on the links below -

In today’s post, we talk about the third thing you want to avoid doing at your new job.

3. Prescribing “THE” solution too quickly

Your new job is a welcome challenge. You’re over the moon that you were hired to solve the problems your employer faces. This is going to be awesome!

You’re eager to start delivering immense amounts of value on day one and because of this, it’s easy to want to jump in with “THE” solution to all of the challenges you see the business facing.

Whoa - slow down a minute!

Resist the urge of jumping to conclusions too quickly.

This can spell disaster for you, your boss, and your team.

Avoid this type of thinking and behavior at all costs because it usually leads to failure and your credibility can take a huge hit - one that’s more difficult to recover from because everything at work is brand, spanking new for you.

Instead, approach your first 90 days on the job from a learning stance.

Think of yourself as a doctor or a lawyer.

Before a doctor prescribes a treatment, he’ll do a physical examination to ensure he understands the symptoms and possible root causes of a patient’s health challenges.

Similarly, any lawyer worth their salt is going to spend time combing over the details of her client’s case before deciding on a courtroom strategy.

You want to take the very same strategy.

Focus on understanding the unique problems that your organization faces before you prescribe Nyquil to cure organizational pneumonia. You want to be sure that your solution actually solves the problem.

Okay James, I’m convinced that this is the strategy that I want to take and I understand that I need to understand the unique challenges that I face at work, but where do I start?

I’m glad you asked!

First, take a moment to assess the overall organizational contexts you find yourself in using the STARS framework.

Why do you want to do this?

Because each stage of organizational growth and development presents its own set of challenges and opportunities and you want to ensure that you are matching your strategy to meet the situation you face.

What are the five contexts organizations find themselves in?

Now that you’ve identified which business context you find yourself in -

Second, compare and contrast corporate and departmental contexts.

Reflect on the portfolio of products or services your business has and identify which of the five different contexts each of its products or services are in.

In other words, let’s say for example that the company you joined is in Sustaining Success mode. And perhaps you are a part of the company’s product development team which is in the process of launching several products in the next 12 - 18 months - in Start-Up mode.

What this means for you is that you’re likely going to experience the rub between the overarching business context and the one that you face in your department.

This is very good information that you can leverage to your advantage.

It can help you and your team anticipate the unique challenges you’ll face when communicating interdepartmentally and to the C-suite and develop strategies that enable you to clear those hurdles with ease, building your credibility and ultimately your career success!

Third, conduct strategic interviews.

The colleagues at your new job have the experience and information that is key to your understanding of the unique challenges the business faces. You want to tap into their expertise.

How do you do this? Interview them.

In fact, if you want to be exceptionally savvy in your first 90 days on the job, it’s a good idea to interview a cross-section of people when you first join the company.

Interviewing executives, vice presidents, directors, managers, and your direct reports enables you to gain an understanding of the shared and divergent views in your organization and can give you unique insight into the problems that exist.

Here are some questions you can use during this interview phase, divided into three categories:

THE PAST:

How do you think this company has performed in the past? What makes you think that?
How were corporate goals set in the past? Were they right on point, overly optimistic, or not ambitious enough?
How were goals measured in the past? How did these measurements impact employee performance for the better or worse?

THE PRESENT:

What is the organization’s current vision? What is the strategy to achieve that vision?
How in line with the vision and strategy are the current products and projects?
Who makes key business decisions? Who are the important stakeholders?
What are the key processes and methodologies?
What do I need to be aware of politically to avoid making missteps or damaging my credibility?

THE FUTURE:

In the next 12 months, what are the biggest challenges that this company faces?
What are the biggest business opportunities you see on the horizon?
What elements of the organizational culture are getting in the way of its progress?
What else do I need to know?

If you’ve found this information helpful, please leave a comment below and share this post with just one person you think would benefit from it.

Look for the fourth part of “5 Things To Avoid Doing At Your New Job” coming in early December.

Several weeks ago we talked about how important it is for you to get traction at your new job in The First 90 Days. You worked hard to land this job. Don’t stop now. The POTUS has 100 days. You have 90. Every minute counts. In case you missed it, check out the first post in this series here. This week, we’ll talk about the second thing you’ll want to avoid doing at your new job.

2. Focusing on the technical side of your job

In his bestselling book, Marshall Goldsmith discusses the truth that “What got you here, won’t get you there.” In other words, if you were a great mechanic, and now you’ve been promoted to managing a team of mechanics, you have to change what you focus on.

No longer can you simply focus on the technical aspects of your job. You’re a manager. Your attention needs to be elsewhere.

In fact, more than ever before, it matters less that you’re a skilled mechanic and more that you’re a skilled manager of mechanics.

For example, in your management role, it’s much more important that you can train other mechanics to be skilled mechanics - just like you! This makes your ability to communicate and teach dramatically more important than ever before.

As a mechanic, you could grunt at the spark plugs or get angry at leaky brake lines. Now, as a manager, your ability to patiently train others and allow them to make minor mistakes is much more important. You’ll want to keep that temper in check!

In addition to training the mechanics, now it’s more important that you can manage conflicts between people at work, requiring you to possess diplomacy skills.

People act out in logical and psychological ways.

Meaning to say, when one of your mechanic’s behavior doesn’t make sense to you, they’re probably feeling threatened for some reason. If you’re interested in some common threats that trigger people’s “crazy” mode, you can read more here. Additionally, you’ll want to avoid triggering your team members to maximize productivity!

Finally, as the mechanic manager, you may be tasked with ensuring that a steady stream of clients are coming in the door. This may require you to possess superior organizational skills to manage work schedules, marketing strategies, etc.

Again, don’t focus solely on the technical skills.

If, on your first day of work as a mechanic manager, you focused solely on fixing the cars that came in the door, eventually this type of behavior would not serve your organization well.

Here’s how it might play out -

The other mechanics wouldn’t learn and grow. Conflicts would break out among them reducing your team’s productivity and company profits. And employees wouldn’t have enough work to keep them busy, forcing you to eat into profits to pay them or lay employees off - both are very costly!

Any way you slice it - you lose!

While every job change is a little bit different, to succeed at your new job, focus on a combination of the technical, political, and cultural parts of your new role. It’ll save your bacon and ensure that you can keep bringing it home.

What are some ways that you’ve successfully integrated into your new job?