New Leader Assessment

Many organizations bring new leaders in and expect miracles to begin happening almost immediately. In fact, if miracles don't begin to happen, a leader's effectiveness is often questioned. But hiring someone and plopping them into a department without a proper introduction can doom a leader to failure.

The responsibility to assimilate a new leader is partly owned by the leader and partly owned by the team. It's best to have this dialogue early on - I wouldn't let more than 2 weeks from the leader's original start date to pass. The best way to have this discussion is to set up a ½ day facilitated session with the new leader. If there's no one available to facilitate the session then have one of the team members act as the facilitator.

Read on for some questions to discuss during your session. This will enable everyone to benefit from properly set expectations up front to ensure everyone's success. Begin the session with Part I. The facilitator should send the new leader these questions ahead of time and ask that the leader bring answers to the questions below to the session. The facilitator should "interview" the leader during the session using the questions below and give team members the opportunity to ask questions or clarify responses.

Part I: Information the team wants to know about or from the new leader

What do you hope to accomplish in the next 30 days, 60 days and 90 days? New leadership is often synonymous with change. It's important that the leader help the team understand what they can expect to see in the first 1-3 months.

How do you define empowerment and how empowered should we be? This can be a tricky question. While most leaders will tell you that you are empowered, they certainly won't tell you the level at which you are empowered. This is a question the team should ask the leader but I would encourage you during your one-on-one sessions to further explore this by sharing specific scenarios with your new leader and asking them how they believe you should have responded to gauge their definition of empowerment.

What are your expectations of how we work together as a team? The response I hear most often from this question is "I expect you to depend upon and rely upon each other." That sounds terrific in theory but to be effective, your team needs more information. Does the new leader expect democratic decision making in everything you do? Does the leader expect you to spend time together outside of work? Think about what you expect of your team in how they work together and use that information to form specific questions that will really define the leader's expectations.

What do you perceive as conflict and how do you handle it? This is really a key question and will clue you in to your new leader's state of mind. I once worked with someone that had a state of mind such that everything that happened was an "issue," "crisis," or a "conflict." Instead of collecting information and making informed decisions, everything became instantly intensified and immediately escalated. Listen carefully to your new leader's response to this question. If one of the steps in their conflict resolution path is not "collect information from all parties," beware. Also be wary of leaders who expect not to get involved in conflict. While there should be a certain expectation that people act maturely and resolve issues on their own, there are times when leader involvement is warranted and necessary. Leaders that abstain from conflict rarely succeed in the long run.

When the pressure is on, how do you react and where do you need the most assistance from your team? One of the individuals I worked for once said that when the pressure was on that they tried to "take control" of the situation. If your new leader responds in this manner, be advised that you have some work to do as a team. I've learned the hard way that leadership is about team-work and delegation, especially when the pressure is on. Ask your new leader for specific examples of how they have reacted in real-life high-pressure situations.

What do you consider to be your biggest strengths and opportunities? This is a question with a lot of opportunity for each of the team members. Strengths are something on which to capitalize. Figure out how your new leader can help the team be successful through their strengths. When they talk about their opportunities, it is a great time for the team to talk about how their individual strengths can compensate for the areas where the leader isn't as strong. This is a conversation that can quickly build trust and give the new leader an insight into what each individual brings to the table.

What information can you share about your personal style or leadership style that would help us to work with you more effectively? Look here for clues to specific personality traits or characteristics. Listen carefully for the adjectives the new leader uses to describe their style. "Demanding" can be translated as "expect to work hard to earn my respect." "Easy going" can be translated as "I am a relationship builder." The adjectives the individual uses will give you insight into how you can expect this person will interact with the team and the individuals on the team.

What information can you share about your communication style that will clue us in to things that are important, upsetting or concerning? Communication style can often equate to "reactionary style." Again, ask for specific examples of situations that can illustrate your new leader's style. I once worked for an individual that would come into my office, shut the door and scream for about 5 minutes until he felt better. Another individual I worked for would send nasty e-mails in all caps which insinuated that he was screaming on e-mail. How someone communicates in these types of situations will tell you a lot about their maturity, ability to handle pressure and feeling of duty to address issues directly.

How will you communicate with the team when our priorities change? The key to this question lies in whether or not the leader says they communicate changes to the team or to the individual. If they communicate priority changes to the team, it's likely that they have more of a team-based, democratic focus. If they communicate priority changes to the individual, it's likely that they will have different agendas for each individual on the team. This could be problematic and will need to be monitored. One of the leaders I reported to once would communicate priority changes in "one-off" conversations and then later use those conversations to her advantage (and sometimes my or others' disadvantage).

If we disagree with a decision you've made or want to offer input on an important topic, how would you like to be advised of that? Leaders that don't accept public debate over ideas or decisions are usually very hierarchical and political. If a leader wants conversations like this to occur behind closed doors, be prepared to have to learn the ins and outs of their political decision-making and positioning.

Describe your decision-making style and how it impacts the team. What you want to know here is whether or not the team can expect to be consulted or informed about decisions. Chances are it will be a little of both; however, a real indication of how decisions will be made is whether or not the new leader uses the word "I" or "we" as they're describing their style.

What is your preferred form of communication and how much detail do you want to see? One of my leaders loved Instant Messenger. Because she attended a lot of conference calls and wasn't always available to answer her phone, she felt it was a quick way to connect and get questions, FYI's or concerns addressed quickly. One of my other former leaders loathed IM. He wanted an immediate phone call regardless of the time of day and would accept nothing else. The point is everyone has personal preferences. Catering to your new leader's personal preference is a way to begin building trust.

When should we escalate issues to you and how would you like them communicated? I love the answer, "If someone else is going to call me about it, I want to make sure you've told me about it first." It put the accountability in my hands and allowed me to make decisions and demonstrate my good judgment.

How do you define high performance from a team perspective and how do you measure it? This question is especially important. I would advise having this conversation at length during your one-on-ones; however, as a team, you'll want to know when the leader believes they are working with a high performing team.

Please describe what you feel to be your responsibilities and our responsibilities. With every new leader comes a completely new perspective on the job they are filling. Make sure you understand how they see their job. Likewise, make sure you have a handle on what they feel to be the team's responsibilities.

For Part II, it is critical that the team get together and discuss these questions prior to the session so you can come to consensus on your answers and be ready to present them during the facilitated discussion.

Part II: Information the team wants to know about the new leader

What do you already know about your new leader and their background? Is there anything else you'd like to know? Understanding a leader's background or other facts about them personally will help you understand where the person is coming from and from what experience they are drawing conclusions. If you have a leader that is not technically savvy, then you'll know that spending a lot of time going through the nits and nats of your problems with the disk array during your one-on-one will not yield positive results. Your goal in finding out this information is to be able to frame things up in a context that is familiar for the leader until their comfort with their new department has increased.

What does the new leader need to know about us as a team? This is your time to shine. Talk about your individual strengths and strengths as a team. What have you accomplished in your time together?

What are the key issues and challenges we feel the new leader needs to address within the next 1-3 months and what recommendations do we have for dealing with them? This question gives team members the opportunity to discuss the things that didn't go so well under the former leader's watch. Keep in mind that this discussion is about key issues and challenges not about a person so it is not acceptable to discuss the former leader's weaknesses; instead, as team, you need to focus on the outcome certain decisions and behaviors have produced and how you feel they can be mitigated.

What do we perceive the new leader's role to be and what do we perceive our role to be? It will be important that you have an answer to this prior to asking the leader what their perception is in part I of the exercise. If there are gaps, when this question comes up, those gaps can be discussed.

What information or actions do we expect from our new leader? This gives you the opportunity to talk about the team's expectations of your new leader. Frame this up by thinking about what expectations your team has of you and see if any apply.

If you could change one thing in the organization what would it be? Think carefully about this and consider that most leaders would want this question answered strategically instead of tactically. I'll never forget being in a session where this question was asked and someone answered that they wished there were garbage cans by the bathroom doors.

If there were no limits, what would you like to see done in the organization? Come up with 3-5 key things that would really change the face of the organization for the better. Again, don't get bogged down in tactical items and stay with more strategic items that would benefit the entire organization.

What advice would we offer the new leader? I probably don't have to say it but advice like, "Don't eat the meatloaf in the café" is hardly worth their time. Advice like "Employees want to see you - a lot. We advise that you reserve 1-2 hours on your calendar per week so you can walk around to talk directly with people." is definitely worth giving.

Bringing in a new leader can be an exciting but nerve-racking time as you learn how to interact effectively with this person. Establishing rapport and beginning conversations to set guidelines and expectations early is a great way to ensure a successful team relationship for a long time to come.

^{*Adapted from New Leader Assimilation from ADP University}