New to a team? Do these three things!
On-boarding to a new team can be challenging. Some people ramp up in a couple months, while others take 6–9 months. I have worked in three distinctly different roles at Microsoft and have experienced different on-boarding styles and times for myself. I was once given advice to create a 30, 60 and 90-day plan for on-boarding, which I never found useful. I would like to leave you with three things that have worked for me. This comes from my own experience of ramping up in new teams, and my formal and informal mentoring of new hires and interns.
1. Face Time
Nothing is more important than face time with your co-workers. When you are new there is so much new information. You are either bored because you don’t know where to start, or overwhelmed because you have so much reading and learning to do. I have seen some new hires decline happy hours with colleagues, or not be present for “all-hands” company meetings, because they have too much catching up to do. While it is important to dive deep into the functional aspects of the new job, it is equally important for people to know who you are, and for you to know the people around you.
My recommendation is to go and meet people and show your face. Instead of emailing people, swing by their office. The conversations you have help you to understand the attitude of the team, get extra context or background information which may be too much to type in an email, and learn who you gel with at work. I have worked with people in different functions from engineering, sales, marketing, to design and legal — and all my face to face conversations have been more rewarding than initial email communications. If you are meeting people online, don’t be afraid to turn on your video.
2. Identify a mentor and ask for help
When you meet people in-person and in meetings, you will be able to identify the people who you gel with and those who inspires you. Take a step back to reflect on these people you meet and try to identify a mentor to whom you would like to go to for help. Usually in teams, managers assign a peer mentor, but I have always found my informal mentors, who I have found through organic interactions and meetings, to be more helpful.
I usually identify a couple people with whom I would feel comfortable being vulnerable and at the same time learn from. When I set up time with them, I clearly state that I would like their help in either reviewing a presentation or brainstorm on a project that I am working on. If my mentors have worked with my team or stakeholders, I often ask them on how to approach a person. Once, I asked a colleague if I could shadow her while she presented to a group of CXOs. Remember you can have many mentors. You do not have to go to the same person every time for brainstorming or advice.
3. Pick one thing to show impact
Any role or job function has tons of responsibilities. And in due time you will get to all of them and become super-efficient juggling 10 priorities as well (or better able to prioritize your responsibilities). But for the first few weeks, it really helps if you can have an honest conversation with your manager and agree on the one thing that will be your top priority. One priority allows you to devote your time to one project where you can show impact through dedicated work. This quick win is a tremendous confidence booster, and gives promise to the hiring manager that you are a good hire.
It allows you to quickly become an expert in that little area and become the go to person for that area of responsibility. With one responsibility under your belt, it allows you to now focus on other priorities.
The tactics mentioned above have worked well for me while on-boarding and I re-use tactics from #1 and #2 even after ramping up. If you have your own way of on-boarding that has worked, I would love to hear from you.
