Marielena Satabier, Business Coach and director of Inspiring Potential provides her tips on how new joiners can make an impact from day one.
1. Be proactive – don’t wait for other people to set up introductory meetings for you when you first start a job, take the lead instead. Introduce yourself to your colleagues; meet with your team and your manager. You will settle in far more quickly and make a great impression by taking the initiative and showing your enthusiasm for the company and its people.
2. Be curious and ask questions – use your meetings to find out everything you can about your role and the company. Work out the remit of your role, your responsibilities and your objectives from the outset. Having a clear understanding of your role from day one the word will go a long way in helping you achieve your objectives.
3. Get to know your team – meet with your team early on and learn from them. Your team will know far more than you about the company, its culture and processes than you do. Use the meeting to get to know them and also find out what issues or challenges they face; involve them in coming up with workable solutions – this approach will be key to your success.
4. Set clear goals and objectives – for you and your team. Communicate your goals and what you want to achieve and ensure you get their ‘buy in’ early on.
5. Making changes are ok – you have been hired for your skills and experience so have confidence in yourself. If you feel that changes are needed then make them but ensure you carry them out them quickly and then refocus your staff on the future of the business
6. Be careful with how you communicate – particularly via email. If you have something negative to say to someone , then always do it in person – there is nothing worse than a group ‘telling off’ to make someone feel awful and make you unpopular. On the contrary, if one of your team has performed particularly well, then praise them and let everyone know!
7. Give credit where it is due – don’t be tempted to score a quick win and take credit for work that isn’t strictly your own, there is nothing more annoying
8. Avoid office gossip at all costs – don’t get drawn into any gossip or unnecessary politics and remember to be professional at all times.
9. Be courteous and respectful – to everyone in the office whatever their level in the organisation. Get to know people as individuals and remember everyone is a human being.
10. Be positive and happy –demonstrate you have a positive outlook and that you are someone who is enthusiastic about work and happy to be there. Remember that positivity is infectious, it rubs off. Happy people illicit positive responses from other people. Lastly, remember to smile – it doesn’t cost anything…
