Chief Question Asker at 7:47 & Author of "Gratitude and Pasta: The Secret Sauce for Human Connection"

Chris Schembra

Psychotherapist, Teacher and Leadership Consultant

Glenn D. Rolfson

Founder, Lead Coach & Leadership Development Consultant

Gabriella Alziari

Team morale is low

Senior Consultant at BuzzFeed, book author

Caroline Moss

Contributing Editor to Inc. and Author of "The Motivation Myth"

Jeff Haden

TED Speaker "Why good leaders make you feel safe", Author of "Leaders Eat Last" and Host of "Bit of Optimism" Podcast

Simon Sinek

We struggle to reach our goals

Itamar Goldminz

TED Speaker and Author of "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance"

Angela Duckworth

TED Speaker "Dealing with Difficult People" and Leadership Development Trainer

Jay Johnson

Scared of a difficult conversation

Engineering Leader | Ex-Google, Trello, Fog Creek

Rich Armstrong

COO at Lambda School, and scaled teams from 2-100 people at Facebook and Google

Molly Graham

Sharon Koifman

My team often lacks alignment

CEO of Verus Global, a four-time book author, executive coach

Craig Ross

Executive Leadership Coach to CTOs and Technical Founders, Writer & Startup Advisor

Mathias Meyer

Former Airbnb and Google GM turned executive coach

James McClure

Struggle to get buy-in from my team

How to focus on gathering information when taking on a new role.

Matt Cain

When Your New Team Expects You to Know It All

6 Crucial Things to Do in Your First 100 Days in a New Leadership Role

When Your New Team Expects You to Know it All

#A new beginning

Taking a leadership role on a new team is exciting, but incredibly challenging. If things are unclear and morale is shaky, you’ll probably feel the pressure to have all the answers straight away.

Alex Weber, the CGO at N26, says it’s natural to want to know everything, but it’s actually better to focus on gathering information first. Here's how:

#✋ Push back on the need for action

As a new lead, people will ask for your opinion right and left. The truth is, you haven’t had much time to form one. 

Tell your stakeholders and team upfront that you’re gathering input before taking action to avoid re-work later on.

#👯 Make 1:1s a priority

Meet 1-on-1 with all functional leads and key team members as soon as possible and ask:
• What’s working well?
• What’s not working?
• If you were in my role, what would you focus on or change? 

This will help you gain a broad understanding of how the team and business is run, where there’s room for improvement, and what people care about most.

#📄 Collect all documentation

In your first few weeks, ask for any and all documentation that exists. Take the time to review it in detail. Ask yourself:
• What processes, systems and approaches work well?
• What gaps still exist? 


#💥 Make your knowledge explicit 

After gathering this information, clearly state what you know and don’t know. Make a list for each. Here are some examples:

**I Know:**
The team is afraid of jumping on opportunities

**I Don’t Know:**
How the team currently prioritizes new initiatives and campaigns

This helps to separate your concrete knowledge from knowledge you’re developing. 

#🖊️ Create a plan to address the unknowns

Prioritize areas to focus on and what information you need to gather. Jot down:
• What you need more information on 
• What 3 areas you’ll focus on 

Map out ideas and action steps you can commit to. For example, if the team is struggling with alignment, you can initiate a weekly meeting to discuss priorities, progress, and problems together.

#🐢 Slow down

It's natural to feel pressure to take action, especially when you’re in a new role and want to show decisiveness. But having the humility to slow down and admit what you don’t know will help you build trust in the long-term.

You’ll be able to see the bigger picture and make more thoughtful decisions that you (and your team) can stand behind.

TED Speaker and Author of "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success"

Carol Dweck

Believes that hard work and perseverance lead to real improvement

Mark Zuckerberg

Director of the American Negotiation Institute

Kwame Christian

Organizational Development Expert and Researcher at PositivePsychology.com

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When Your New Team Expects You to Know it AllScan the code to see it on your iPhone 🍎

PRODUCTS

For Business:

COMPANY

CONTENT & COMMUNITY

When Your New Team Expects You to Know it All

Scan the code to see it on your iPhone 🍎