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How
to Win Support By JOANN S.
LUBLIN New job. New employer. And new headaches when staffers resist your new
approaches. More Americans will soon confront this challenge as the job
market rebounds. How can you champion enough change
to justify your hiring -- without rocking the boat so much that you endanger
your latest gig? Failure to strike the right balance often derails newcomers. "They push too hard, too fast and do it in a nondiplomatic way," says Ben Dattner,
a It's up to you to manage your early days well, navigate a
different business culture and win support for your game plan. For starters, make sure you understand what kind of
workplace you joined. A troubled enterprise is more
likely to welcome radical fixes than a successful one. Gordon Bethune fired several lieutenants weeks after ailing
Continental Airlines brought him aboard to be president in early 1994. He took more sweeping steps -- such as a company-wide
smoking ban, repainting every plane and staff bonuses for punctual flights --
once he became its tenth CEO in 10 years that fall. Workers
"were looking for change and not the same old deal from the same old
deck," explains Mr. Bethune, now the longest-serving chief executive of
a major airline. Freshly hired executives increasingly turn to an outside
"onboarding" coach. Such
services can be costly. The coaching division of
recruiters Korn/Ferry International typically
charges a company about $10,000 to counsel a newcomer for six weeks. Make a pitch during the courtship for your potential employer
to cover some assimilation coaching. Describe it as
evidence of your commitment to get up and running fast, recommends Marti Smye, the division's president. Alternatively, pay for the advice yourself. Judi
Glova coughed up $500 for four assimilation
sessions with executive coach Paula Robb during her first month last summer
as a public-affairs director of Roche Pharmaceuticals in Nutley, N.J.
"It gave me the confidence to feel I at least had the first steps"
needed for acceptance, the 36-year-old manager remembers. Ms. Glova learned to identify
players with the power to block her ideas, for example. She
spent extra time getting acquainted with them before their meetings and
deliberately sat beside them during lunch. Today,
those colleagues help with her requests. Ms. Robb also urges assimilation clients to build ties with
co-workers passed over for the posts. "If you
make friends," the So can in-house mentors, from your initial networking contact
to your supervisor. Seek their guidance on how to
avoid corporate sacred cows and sell proposals outside your department. It's equally important to frequently renew your boss's
endorsement of your planned changes and timetable. Dan
Levy learned that lesson the hard way when he became a About six months later, the CFO berated Mr. Levy for measuring
operating results differently and upsetting a longtime subordinate. "If you don't want me to do things, I'll go look
for another job,'' Mr. Levy retorted. He soon quit. The 55-year-old executive currently is finance chief of nash_elmo Industries, a maker of engineered vacuum
systems. Once you grasp the office politics at your new workplace,
consider tactics to enhance support for your agenda. Engage
in respectful "active listening." Look for
easy wins. Perform additional duties that associates
will appreciate. A multipronged strategy worked for
Jennifer McHan, a 33-year-old senior systems
analyst. Hired by a major Sensitive about being the new kid, Ms. McHan
says she deliberately avoided telling teammates, "Things are bad and I'm
going to make them better." Instead, she
acknowledged their frustrations and invited suggestions about ways to serve internal
clients better. Role-playing exercises dramatized
the various alternatives' shortcomings. At the same time, Ms. McHan got her
supervisor's approval to tackle an unpopular task: handling the team's
toughest customers. She placated enough unhappy clients to impress upper
management. And without upstaging anyone, she adds,
"my peers were able to see that the approach worked." |
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