Leading when you are the new person
An important lesson I’ve learnt is when you enter a new ecosystem one must watch, learn and listen. The overall goal is to understand the rules of engagement at any level of the organization. Key questions to solve for immediately: Who are the decision makers, what are their core contributions to the company, and who has the ultimate veto power.

I have also adopted the approach to start contributing 30 days into a new job and aim for my rate of contributions to grow each 30 days after.
In a fast paced and intense role it can be challenging to listen, learn while adding value to the senior leadership team and your organization. Yet I still believe doing both is important.
One of my go-to sayings is “only managing up gets you nowhere BUT peer to peer relationships are where success happens.” As the saying goes team work make the dream work.
I often think leaders do not realize that individual effectiveness can significantly increase with mastering influencing without authority. Connecting with other leaders with a shared vision increases your resource pool and promote harmony in horizontal organizations.
Some key lessons on building relationships through influencing:
• Communicating business problems in a shared manner to gain partnerships
• Holding people accountability while rallying behind the solution to solve business problems
It is mandatory to build an organization around talent and expertise; yet a premium must exist for recruit emerging leaders that can establish relationships, pool resources and execute shared visions.
I call these leaders builders.
Builders of future leaders. Builders of business solutions. Builders of matrix management.
Building outweighs being right and egos.

I went through a phase where my strongest desire was to be right. Then a wise man gave me feedback that my pattern of wanting to be right and defending my position presented a perspective that I was leader who lacked objectivity. I was building an environment where I was right not an environment that cared about doing right for the company.
I took a decision to course correct my style immediately. I have always had a strong desire to ensure my interactions with others that resulted in their growth. My desire to be right was a disservice to the teams. Remembering that to lead is to serve helped me with my transition to always build up people, solutions and peer to peer relationships from a neutral position.
Objectivity in leadership is an approach that uses facts, statistics and research to understand the fact pattern to draw sound conclusions. Mature and seasoned leaders hear all sides of a situation, weight advantages and disadvantages, then articulate the desired outcomes while incorporating input from experts on the best path to achieve them.
As I look back on how I manage new jobs, new relationships and new teams I’ve tried many styles to get a jump start on meeting business objectives and developing people. Subjectivity or personal feelings can steer an organization and relationships off the focus areas. I’ve learnt that approaching and managing day to day interactions from a data driven and neutral position will garner you respect, build trust and of course deliver the best business outcomes.
I have not mastered all these concepts, yet I am learning to master what matters.
Sharing a few lessons, I’ve learnt along the way!
Courtney Stoner
#courtsbigdreams
