It’s the first day of the new semester. You and your classmates, who have grown close over the last several months, are comfortable in the dynamic you’ve built. You are a group of peers within a shared culture. 

Then, the door swings open. Your new teacher walks in. You trust that your teacher has the skills to do their job. But there’s also that sense of fear and anticipation. What if this new teacher doesn’t understand your culture? Or worse, what if they do understand but want to change it? 

This hesitancy is often how teams feel when a new manager comes on board. But with the right onboarding approach, a new manager can uphold the existing culture while identifying opportunities for shared growth. 

Lead With Trust (From Both Sides) 

Openness, honesty and trust are the foundations of a strong team culture. This trust is a two-way street and needs to come, genuinely, from both the new manager and longstanding team members. 

New managers don’t appear out of nowhere. External candidates are selected because their skills, experience and talents align with the needs of the team. Internal candidates are promoted because they’ve proven they can nurture their talents of service of greater team goals. By centering talent in the selection process, your organization can reassure teams that their new leaders have the innate strengths scientifically proven to uplift and improve their culture. (Just like students need to trust their schools to select teachers with the expertise to nurture their learning and development). 

A common pitfall for new managers is that they attempt to express their expertise by saying how the way they did things in their last role was the right way. While past examples of success are useful during the selection process, they can quickly erode trust during onboarding. Team members may interpret this as the manager saying their current approach—this culture they’ve built over years and years—is wrong. Instead, successful managers need to center curiosity and a learning mindset. 

A great way to build this shared trust is with relationship building activities that engage all members of the team. Free tools like Focus on You^®️ invite new managers to learn from the team about their successes, goals and interests. Similarly, team members get to see their new manager as a full person with their own aspirations and contributions to the culture. 

Examine Team Strengths (As Well As the Gaps) 

As stated above, managers selected through a talent lens come with proven strengths that complement their team. Early on in their tenure, conduct a talent assessment to help new managers learn about their talent themes. Research shows that nearly 80% of a leader’s strengths come through their top five talent themes. A traditional 30-60-90 onboarding plan will also allow the manager to see their talents in the greater context of the organization’s mission and vision. 

But success comes from more than just a talented manager. Teams of talented individuals are just as important to leaders as leaders are to teams. In addition to developing trusting relationships with each team member, new managers should review where talents and strengths currently lie across the team. A Talent Grid can help them identify and recognize the unique talents of each team member in one combined, holistic view. With this knowledge, a manager can better connect to their new team members and recognize their strengths. 

A benefit of including a Talent Grid in manager onboarding is that it also identifies gaps in the team. These gaps should be seen as opportunities to improve under the leadership of a new manager. By first establishing shared trust, the team will be less hesitant to explore these gaps together. 

Once a team feels comfortable, TeamView^SM can put these strengths and gaps in the context of team culture, allowing the team to best determine initiatives to improve not just their talent strengths, but also their culture as a whole. 

Strengthen Engagement (And See Results) 

Talented managers are shown to have 36% higher engagement than employees with less talented managers. High employee engagement is linked to increased retention, stronger performance, and higher customer satisfaction. When paired with talented leaders, talented individuals and teams are 20% less likely to quit. 

Following a 30-60-90 onboarding plan, the new manager will complete a performance review after 90 days on their team. The review focuses on their opportunities for development and goals for the future. To improve team engagement, a manager’s goals for their first year should support the initiatives identified during the TeamView^SM assessment. 

The 90-day mark also provides a chance for a manager to support individual team member’s development. Development opportunities are critical for employee engagement and retention. Selecting and developing top talent can decrease turnover by 30%. Because the manager took time during the onboarding period to nurture a relationship with team members, these development conversations will feel grounded. Managers can review individual Talent Cards to celebrate a team member’s strength and, together, identify where they want to grow next. 

You won’t see large spikes in engagement during the early onboarding days of a new manager. Good things take time. However, with a talent-first approach built on trust, teams can start planting the seeds today for stronger engagement tomorrow. 

Get Ready with Executive Coaching 

Executive Coaching meets new managers where they are and provides ongoing, strengths-based feedback on how to develop talents as an effective leader. Just as managers engage their new teams by listening, so do Talent Plus executive coaches. Through this trusted relationship, coaches explore unique talents, leverage strengths, mitigate weaknesses and help managers achieve their goals. 

When talent is nurtured, leaders lead better. And there is no better time to start than now.