Trying too hard to prove yourself in a new job can backfire if you don't first build relationships with key players.
There is a lot of advice around about how to get promoted, but not much about now to be successful once you get that new job.
Causes of Failure in a New Job
Stressing good interpersonal skills is too vague without knowing the specific pitfalls to avoid. Here are the most common reasons for failure in a new managerial job:
- Trying too hard too quickly to prove yourself. You are a foreign substance injected into someone’s body. To avoid rejection, you need to get accepted before trying to change the world. If you show up your colleagues too quickly, they might gang up on you. If you are too quick to suggest changes to people reporting to you, they could rebel as they won’t feel that you have earned the right to start throwing your weight around so soon. You will then see them as resistant to change and perhaps get rid of them even though they may be excellent employees.
- Failing to clarify expectations with your boss and other internal customers. You feel that you got the job because you are an expert in your field. This mindset might lead you to be too self-reliant, to assume that you know what needs to be done. You also might feel that it would look weak if you were to ask people for advice. As a result, you could make some poor decisions or focus on the wrong priorities.
- Failing to engage your team in deciding what needs to be done. You want to prove yourself to your new team, so you lay it all out for them to impress them with your insight. But this tactic could backfire, especially if some of your great ideas turn out to be wrong. It only takes one hole in your pitch to give your skeptical team the ammunition they need to reject everything you are proposing.
- Failing to build a support group. Getting promoted is like getting elected. When you move to a higher level or a new employer, you must build relationships with your new peers. You might also get some attention from the level above your peers, executives who you would have had limited access to previously. When you make mistakes in the early days, you need people to defend you other than your boss.
The first and third reasons for failure can be discussed together. The first thing you need to do with your new team is to position yourself as a catalyst, coach and facilitator, downplaying your role as expert, authority or decision maker. Start by acknowledging that your new team members have valuable experience too. Showing that you value others is the quickest way to get accepted by them. By positioning yourself as a catalyst, facilitator and coach, you are not saying that you don’t know anything. You are simply saying that your role is to be the go-between, the person who integrates their efforts with those of the broader organization. You are also saying that, to make full use of their potential, you need to involve them in making key decisions. This will be a development experience as well as a way of motivating them. As you draw ideas for new directions out of your team, you can slip in ideas of your own. This is a better way of impressing them than presenting a completely new plan that you have developed in isolation.
The second and fourth reasons for failure can also be discussed together. The last thing you want to do in a new job is appear to lack confidence. This feeling leads too many new managers to avoid asking questions of their boss or colleagues. They would rather bluff their way through than appear lacking in any knowledge. The solution to this dilemma is to position yourself as a service provider to a group of internal customers. It is then legitimate to ask your customers lots of questions regularly about their needs, what’s important to them, how they see the business evolving and what are their latest concerns and aspirations. This approach allows you to focus on their needs, rather than give the impression that you don’t know how to do your job. Showing an interest in your key internal customers kills two birds with one stone. You get a sharper focus on what your priorities should be and you build relationships with people whose support you will need to be successful.
