5 Tips for starting a new job successfully
The new year means lots of people starting new jobs. In coaching and mentoring dozens of people that have been through a similar experience, largely in the UK charity sector, here are a few things that i’ve noticed the most successful do.
1 Write down why you wanted to move in the first place
Sometimes we fall into a new job. It can also be a strategic move to have a new set of experience. Often, it’s to get away from a manager who you don’t align with. Almost always it’s to make more money.
Whatever the reason, the period between ending your old role and starting your new one is a fertile ground for self reflection.
Creating a list of reasons for your move — and what you hope to get out of the new role is invaluable. It can only be done before you are swept up in the culture of the new place and your external perspective becomes changed by your experiences.
Jot these down and keep them in a drawer for future reference at monthly or annual reviews.
2 Get ready for the suck
Almost everyone I know who has started a job, finds it extremely difficult 3–6 months in. The honeymoon is over — the easy wins have all been won. Now you’re starting to see all of the difficulty that the organisation has to offer and why your grand plans will be harder to achieve than expected.
You’re moving from a position of unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence. You now know all the things you don’t know and can see how tricky it will be to learn or address them. This is uncomfortable, demoralising and rubbish.
Added to this, you’ve lost the support network from your last role and haven’t yet made a fully functioning one in your new organisation. In the remote first world this can potentially be even more difficult.
So what can be done about it?
- Revisit the list you made at the start of the role, to remind yourself of all the opportunities. These still exist. It’s just now you know how you’re actually going to have to realise them (and the difficulty that entails)
- Lean on your existing support network. Get in touch with people you know from other roles or your friends and talk to them about the difficulty. This needs a bit of humility — it will only have been a few weeks ago you were telling them how wonderful everything is. But it’s well worth the effort.
- Take care of yourself. This is hard for everyone. Take time to concentrate on activities that sustain you. Go for a walk, go for a run, read a book, listen to music, look at some art. Do whatever you need to make sure you fulfill your responsibilities to yourself and your new team.
3 Map influencers to build your understanding
There are those people in any organisation that seem to be at the heart of every decision. They’re always ‘in the room’ and more often than not ‘get their own way’. Sometimes this is down to unseen privileges — but it’s also usually because they have spent time building their influence across the organisation.
Like almost any skill — anyone that is good at influencing makes it look easy. However similar to something like public speaking, those that are real masters spend a lot of time and effort practicing and planning.
When you start a new role, map out who the key decision makers are, what their goals are and who they listen to. Like any user mapping activity the benefit is as much in the process as the end result.
4 Spend time understanding people, so you can empathise, respect and trust them
Your first few months of a job are a unique opportunity to bring an external perspective to the internal elements of an organisation. Before long you’ll have gained all kinds of knowledge and biases which will serve you well — but can never be forgotten.
So set up sessions with all and everyone — looking to build your understanding about them as a person. Yes, talk about their role but also ask what they like about the culture, what they think could be improved and why they joined in the first place.
From here you’ll be able to empathise with their perspective, respect decisions even if you disagree and eventually trust that you can both be in difficult positions, counting on them to help you.
Don’t just be stuck with people that you’ll work with day to day. Go find someone in Finance, HR, Facilities, Reception or the Executive Assistants — whatever you do they’ll have valuable insight.
5 Work out ‘what’s ok to assume’
Edgar Schein defines culture as ‘what is ok to assume’. So all things being equal, how will people act or make decisions. The sooner you can understand this, the more effective you will be in your role.
This doesn’t mean you have to dogmatically follow an existing set of cultural principles. However if you can understand them and where they come from, working with, around or against them will become much easier.
Document them, share them with people you trust and get their perspectives. Before long you will be having some interesting conversations that will help build your understanding, your support network and peoples’ of you.
If you’re looking for a new mentor and think I could help, then i’d love to speak to you. Drop me a line on james@williamjoseph.co.uk. You can find out more about my experience here — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesgadsbypeet/
