We are back to share with you the final installment of our very best onboarding tips. Let’s begin by discussing how to consider the alliances you build as you onboard to your new role.
Onboarding Tip: Consider the Alliances You Build
In order to achieve your dreams and meet your goals, you need to surround yourself with influential allies. Even if your position comes with authority, there will still be some people over whom you have no sufficient influence. There will come a time when you need their support. So a part of your onboarding plan should be dedicated to identifying key allies who are likely to support your initiatives. Put simply, to realize your goals, you have to venture out and cultivate relationships.
To get started, figure out why you need other people’s support. Once you’re clear on what you’re trying to accomplish, you can then pinpoint the people whose support you’ll need to make it happen. Also, an onboarding tip is to pay attention during meetings to see whose opinions almost always hold weight on important issues. Whose advice and insight do people tend to seek? Who do people direct their attention to when crucial issues are raised? As you learn more, you will start to understand the power dynamics of the organization.
Knowing how the main shot callers coalesce to pursue certain goals will help you figure out their agendas and structure your plans in line with them. This can give you tremendous power and support within the organization.
At this point, you could ask your boss if he can make introductions to these key people you’ve identified, so you can set up meetings with them.
Managing Yourself
During your onboarding, you are likely to face personal and professional tumult. You may have great reasons for starting this new job but this change will come with some challenges. This is why an important aspect of onboarding has to do with maintaining your own balance. Another onboarding tip is making sure you work hard in order to preserve your ability to make good judgments. To do this you have to be able to manage yourself.
Here are some common mistakes that can throw people off track at the beginning of a new job:
- Staying in isolation
- Not focusing
- Avoiding important tasks that aren’t in your zone of genius
- Failing to establish solid boundaries
- Shying away from making tough decisions, leading to procrastination
- Being rigid and/or getting defensive after making wrong judgment calls
If you find yourself exhibiting any of the dysfunctional behaviors listed above, an important onboarding tip is to work on eliminating them as soon as possible. Develop personal discipline by creating regular routines in line with your goals and enforcing them. Even if you aren’t the most routinized person, find some key times in your day and week, a morning routine perhaps, to put these new habits in place. Routines are a way to get into a series of finishing things quickly because you’ve put a system in place.
Onboarding Tip: Start Planning
Devote time to planning your week out beforehand. This could look like spending an hour on Sunday evenings looking over your schedule for the week and preparing and adjusting. Then take at least 10 minutes at the end of every day to evaluate how well you met your goals for the day and then plan for the next day.
Before you even start your first day, begin to consider the boundaries between your work life and personal life. What do you want that to look like? How will you set the boundaries necessary to have this in place? This can include planning when you will work out or exercise, how you will have the healthy food you need as your schedule ramps up, and when or if you will jump back on to email in the evenings or on the weekends. The more structure you put into place, the more your whole system will be put at ease, knowing that the important things that keep you in balance are still in place.
Onboarding is a very significant time in your career journey. You want to have a plan in place to make the very most of this beginning. We hope these Ignite Onboarding tips will give you the support you need as you map out your onboarding strategy. You can also schedule a complimentary 30-minute phone call with one of our coaches for additional support.