New Job Advice

[dazzler]

Hi All

I have been offered a new job as a team leader with an organisation that I havent worked for before.

From what I understand the team has low morale and is against change which I am essentially being brought in to drive. The team is happy working the way they have for years but management are branching into new areas. It will take me a few weeks to get up to speed with the day to day running of the section so I cant afford to make life too difficult until I am full bottle.

Any tips on how best to manage the transition into the workplace?

cheers

[rsser]

Congrats; hope it works well.

Your question doesn't have a simple answer.

My fave in this field is R. Heifetz Leadership without Easy Answers

It outlines the leader's role in creating the conditions for change to occur.

[dazzler]

Congrats; hope it works well.



My fave in this field is R. Heifetz Leadership without Easy Answers



Thanks Ern

is there a;

'leadership WITH easy answers' :p

cheers

[joe greiner]

Thanks Ern

is there a;

'leadership WITH easy answers' :p

cheers
Only in wartime.

Cheers,
Joe

[chrisb691]

You don't make change for the sake of change, there must always be a good reason.

You cannot make valid changes, until you absolutely know what needs changing. This means you need time to understand the current processes/procedures.

Once you understand the current processes, you will identify what can be improved by change. You will also identified things that are good in the current processes, and these need to be be re-inforced (pats on backs?).

You will probably come under pressure, to make changes that are someone else's perceptions of what is required. Be sure to understand the ramifications of these, and agree with them, before actioning them. If you don't agree, or are not yet convinced, defer them until you have had the time to give them proper consideration.

Hope the new position goes well.

[Lignin]

My son, a PO in the RAN has the "Motto"
"The floggings will continue until morale improves"
His team love him!!!!:o:o

[masoth]

Much will depend on 'what' the team provides for the organisation, and the low morale is possibly because there is no leader - no buffer between the team and management.
The earlier suggestions are good, and I will add that what changes you plan to introduce should be discussed to some extent with the supervisors of any other section within the org and then when finalized talked through thoroughly with your team. Involve them in the "ownership" of any new service as this is is always a good start for a new broom.
Take your time! Everybody effected by your changes must know where your team service is heading, and developing regular measures (statistics) of team performance is a good idea too to lift morale.

soth

[Steve Fryar]

Supervising can be thankless but it can be rewarding too when change is implemented successfully.Involve your staff in the changes you need to make to the point of letting them do it.But remember this your rock show so you have the final say.Staff respond well to change when they think they are in charge.This way ideas will come forward that you may not have thought of.Keep an open mind to these suggestions.Manipulate them a little to suit your needs if you have to but reward positive thinking and results.A simple pat on the back with a "well done" goes a long way with staff.Share results with your staff too.Low morale can come from being left in the dark too long as well.
I have more if you like.All from the "Baker Hughes Cornerstone for Supervisors" blurb.:U

[Keith_W]

Hi Dazzer,
If you are taking on this new job I would get in writing from management a clear understanding of what they want, the time frame in which it is to be implemented and what resources are available to you to get the job done.
Any information on what has been tried before and worked and didn’t work also would be helpful to you in taking your course of action.
You need to look at the dynamics of the team and I suggest you have a HBDI (Herrman Brain Dominance Instrument) Profile done on each of the members of the team. This Profiling tells you how people will react to circumstances, there strengths etc. With this information you can better arrange the tasks that the team have to complete and when you make the changes that Management want how the team members will react to them.
As others have said in your post get buyin from the team members as this is better than forced change which could cause resentment and make your job a lot harder.
Good luck with the job if you take it and it would be nice to hear how it went.

Regards
Keith.

[rsser]

Thanks Ern

is there a;

'leadership WITH easy answers' :p

cheers

LOL. Nope.

Distinguish leadership from management from direction from supervision etc.

You can't direct people to change. They will resist, subvert, comply on the surface only etc etc. Workgroups are powerful.

You have to ask yourself 'what would encourage these people to change long-established practices?' and 'what is my role in creating the conditions for them to do so?'.

There are some summaries of Heifetz out there in webland if you want a taste of his 'protocol' for leading adaptive change.

(I worked for ten years in leadership and change support roles in universities and read a lot about how to do it. Have the grey hair to show for my scant success).

[masoth]

Dazzler, are you at liberty to say what the job is?
I ask only because other members may have worked in the same industry and/or position; eg I worked 24 years in the regular army and 20 years in local government records and archives, and two other insignificant jobs, after leaving school, with no responsibilities other than to turn up each day.

soth

[toolbagsPLUS]

Hey Dazzler, Having once been placed in a similar situation, the environment was a Gaol, from experience I would suggest you aim to gain their respect instead of Friendship. People do far more for someone they respect than they would for someone they like. Any other ex-military out there than would like to attest to that??

Cheers

Steve

[Pheonix]

Your last name isn't Turnbull by any chance?:q

[dazzler]

Hi

The role is managing a team of council compliance officers in a large council with a mix of urban and rural areas.

Historically they have dealt with dog control, fire risk, stock control, misuse of public lands - basic council ranger stuff. However management has decided to multiskill them into building and development compliance and parking enforcement among other duties. It is these last two that seem to be the stumbling block of change.

From the interview I gathered management is interested in benchmarking therefore I imagine they are not happy having to justify thier day. My last govt job had every minute of the day accounted for and attributed to a job number so I am used to that.

In the past I have always had the runs on the board with the team so to speak so could effect change with a minimum of grumbling. Coming in cold will be a different experience.

Talking about the army.....years ago I went to a Govt driver training conference and each member had to give a 10min presentation on "Motivating students to learn".

The army bloke gets up and says: "They are motivated to do it because I can yell louder than them and they will do as there told." Then sat down! :p

[dazzler]

Your last name isn't Turnbull by any chance?:q

Na, Peter from Melbourne, electorate of higgins :)

[rsser]

Yeah, well you could go in and say that management has decided on a work role expansion and appointed you to implement it. Talk about targets and timelines; strong hint of 'shape up or ship out', and deal with the fall-out when it comes. It may well be for some team members that moving on is the best option.

If you took this route I'd advise that you get the clear support of your boss and his/her willingness to back you up if things heat up.

[fenderbelly]

You don't need our advice, you just send them an email with your Kneel suckers signature on the bottom.

Only joking, my suggestion is,

(1) find your way round

(2) give them a week to come up with 5 suggestions as to how their job could be improved.

(3) have a think tank meeting all together, discuss the points raised.

(4) another meeting asking do you 2/3 think you can interchange with each other to spread workload--cover areas for each other and such like.

and you have already started to change things.

everyone likes input if they are being asked to change.Most times if they think they are being listened to they will accept change more readily.

IMO to go from dog control to building and development compliance is one mighty big
step without adaquate training in compliance laws.

Cheers Fred good luck in the new job.

[rsser]

Hmm, I reckon if you've been given a mission from snr management then don't expect a work group to guess it. They're already known to be resistant to change.

I agree it's best to get their commitment if you can but it's likely that only a minority will sign up for significant change without a compelling reason to do so. For the rest, Dazzler will have to provide that reason.

[fenderbelly]

just saw this on another forum.

Two men talking in the office...

"I introduced myself to the group as their operations manager and said: 'Look guys, I don't do hierarchies in my group, I operate an open door policy. Feel free to come and chat to me about anything. just run it by your line manager first.' "

Thank God he isn't my boss. I'd give him 2 out of 4 in the syllable rankings. Just leave the 'oxy' out of 'oxymoron'.

Cheers Fred

[Harry72]

Easy... tell them to do the job they are paid for or pay the price!
Hard economic times are here there is no place for slackers... its unAustralian to bludge on your workmates.

Its a hard line to take but it will get results, just dont let the lickass's use it for advantage against others.
Privileges can be used as tools too

[rsser]

But Dazzler will be asking them to expand their work role, to do something more/different, which as an earlier post indicated will involve training.

That will be a change to the implicit, or explicit, work contract. It's unAustralian, and likely will be ineffective, to force such a change on people.

They have to be given the option of buying in or opting out, and humanely, a route to opt out on.

[masoth]

Not wanting to tell you what you perhaps know, but other local government authorities have these responsibilities combined, so a start may be to identify them and perhaps visit them - this for your own education.
Some may be willing to provide a copy of any written procedures they have. This will save you 'reinventing the wheel' so to speak, and perhaps save you heaps of time. After understanding it/them offer to your team and ask for reactions/ideas. Your crew are likely to be rather nervous about the added responsibilities.

Good luck, soth

[astrid]

beware If management have to look for someone outside the team to inplement their changes, could be they're looking for a scapegoat.

Is the team unionised, are the new duties in conflict with how they see themselves.

crap managers will often recuit a patsy to save their own bacon.

[dazzler]

Hi

Well thanks for all the advice. Have settled in well. The crew are very set in thier ways but seem to accept change when its pointed out how much easier it makes doing thier jobs. Management have accepted training initiatives so we will see how that goes.

What is surprising is how personal people take things, probably forgot about office politics while Ive been away.

cheers

dazzler