Moment of Truth #7 - Your first meeting with your team

When you meet your direct reports for the first time, you don’t know if you are going to “see eye or eye” or “go head to head”.

If you don´t treat this first meeting as a moment of truth, you will have lost a once in a relationship opportunity to get information and insights, and to start building trust. Ironically this meeting is a bigger moment for them than it is for you: after all they only have one boss whilst you have multiple reports. And because neither side chooses the other, trust needs to be built. The old adage, ´treat others as you would like to be treated yourself´ applies.

Beyond the obvious personal, organisational and business questions, there is one really powerful question in this situation: “What would you do if you were me?” This answer will be revealing and give you great insights into the individual, (their competence, judgement, energy, focus and trust), and into the team dynamic (what level of trust exists within the team). To avoid bias, ask this in a consistent way to each of them individually, and then listen.

This is part of the evolution and growth you need to go through as a new leader… focusing on what you need to know, and how to get the answers, rather than coming with the answers.