The First Thing to Do as a New Leader

Congratulations! You just got promoted into a new leadership position.

What’s the first thing you should do?

Cut costs?
Allocate more dollars to a new project?
Call a meeting?
All of the above?
None of the above?

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
None of the above.

The first thing you should do is…

Paint a wall of your office

Or do something else that’s really insignificant but will definitely be noticed.

It makes a statement: “I’m the new person in charge here.”

More importantly…

It satisfies your need to “do something”

You have to change something, right? They hired you to make an impact.

So you have to charge in full throttle.

You may be disappointed with the results. How can you prescribe the cure when you have completed your diagnosis?

So go ahead. Paint a wall in your office.

It will satisfy your need to do something.

It keeps you from fixing the unbroken

Many novice leaders jump right in and start making changes.

Sometimes they get it right. More often they don’t.

You can’t afford to waste resources fixing what isn’t broken. Worse yet, you may break something that is working!

So go ahead. “Fix” something like the wall of your office. Give it a new coat of paint.

Step back and admire it. Now you’re ready to proceed.

It buys you time

Time to get to know your people.

Time to listen.

Time to reflect.

Time to discover.

Time to determine what is broken.

Time to design an effective strategic plan.

With a little time, you’ll be able to implement a plan that moves your team to BIGG success!

Image in this post from stock.xchng