Sink or swim.
That’s the message that new leaders live by when they enter an organization. They are highly aware that they need to gain quick wins and make strides to achieve organizational goals. Otherwise, they face the risk of sinking.
Many organizations struggle with onboarding new hires so that they are set up for success from day one. We have all heard the horror stories of how onboarding new hires can go wrong.
For example, I can recall two organizations where I have worked at, and it took about a month for me to get access to a computer.
During this time, I tried as best as I could to add value to the organization, but it was hard. I didn’t have access to emails. I didn’t have access to any of the programs required to do my job. I couldn’t understand the structure of the organization and get familiar with the hierarchy. It resulted in wasted value to the organization overall even though we tried to make the best of the situation.
If organizations are aware of a new hire joining the organization, how and why does onboarding consistently go wrong?
How can an organization develop a solution to integrate new hires into the organizations successfully?
According to a global survey of 588 senior executives, more than 70% of Executives cited the following reasons as to why they were not successful when joining a new organization (Byford, Mark, et al, 2017):
- Poor grasp of how the organization works
- Misfit with the organizational culture
- Difficulty forging alliances
- Lack of understanding of the business model
- Ineffective decision making
- Disagreement over strategy
- Lack of skills
Embedding DiSC® assessment as part of the onboarding process early will help new leaders develop a tailored approach for their transition.
Enhancing a senior leader’s self-awareness about how they operate and the impact they have on others will help them assimilate to the organizational culture. Many senior leaders struggle to integrate into the corporate culture because it may be significantly different than what they have experience in their previous role.
Someone going from a large global role to a small national organization may struggle. The way these two companies operate may be significantly different. In the large global organizations the decision-making process goes through many layers and requires input from a committee, while in a smaller organization, the decision-making process is simplified and quicker.
As the senior executives adjust to the new role, their colleagues may find that they delay the decision-making process or are unresponsive to the needs of their employees. Therefore, it is critical for a new senior leader to understand what drives and motivates them. How have they had an impact on their previous role? How does the new culture operate? How can they adjust her approach to suit the new culture?
Next, the senior leader must consider relationships up, below and across the organizations to get work done. Forging alliances early in the integration into their new role will allow them to achieve quick wins. Senior leaders must develop trust in their team and identify employees that they can utilize to help them understand the organization, the teams’ workload, and critical needs. Identifying these key employees that are reliable will be essential for the senior leader to achieve their goals. Additionally, the senior leader must consider how to get the entire team to meet performance goals and identify anyone that is incapable of doing the work that is necessary. In doing so, the senior leader will build their desired team aligned to the organizational goals and business model.
Moreover, the senior leaders will need help understanding the organizational strategy, how they contribute to the corporate strategy, and how the business operates. The leader being integrated into the organization must spend time with his manager, and key partners across the function to understand the work to be done and the various integration points. Understanding the business strategy is critical in the senior leader ability to assess their team, the skills that are required to achieve the tasks ahead, and the resources needed to do so.
Our Everything DiSC® profiles allow senior leaders to understand their DiSC personality type, and the behaviors of others, thereby allowing them to work with others in a more effective way across functions, and various departments. Alignment with key stakeholders will be vital to achieving the new leaders business strategy.
Finally, organizations must ensure that they get onboarding right for the new senior leader. While there are tasks that the senior leader is accountable for, there are also key responsibilities that the organization must take care of to effectively onboard a new senior executive.
Many departments are engaged in the process of onboarding new hires. From the department manager to the technology team, the HR team, Administration, and Security Team. Many departments impact the effectiveness of the onboarding process.
To engage all these key stakeholders, individuals need a tool to communicate and engage across departments and functions effectively. DiSC® personality profiles are used as a tool in onboarding to help teams work across departments and functions by utilizing communication strategies that motivate and inspires the team to achieve project deliverables and successful outcome. Each stakeholder must understand the timeline that the group is working towards to onboard the new hire and discuss what can potentially impact the achievement of meeting the deliverables.
Once all parties work together to successfully onboard the new hire, the process does not end there. The new hire will need to learn about the organization's style of communication and cultural norms.
The DiSC® profile assessment is a way for the employees to understand themselves and learn how to engage effectively in the workforce with individuals with differing personality types. It can also be a way for employers to enhance the organizational culture and implement strategies for improvement. The personality styles are in-depth yet straightforward, supported by analytics, and scientific research. An employee that understands their DiSC personality type, and how their personality impacts their work and others, will have a tremendous impact in the workplace.
The DiSC profile assessments can contribute to the development of your workplace as a whole. The assessment can be used in many different ways, including in onboarding new hires into the organization, as a tool for development of your high potential pool of employees, in your management development program and so much more. An individual profile report can help facilitate one-on-one conversations between an employee and manager by highlighting the individual's motivators and stressors.
The information that is revealed in the DiSC® assessments will help the manager to: understand the employees underlying behavior, learn how to engage more effectively with this employee to achieve results and aid in the development of the employee allowing this individual to reach their full potential. Employees who have a greater self-awareness of their personality, and understand how they relate to others will have collaborative relationships and enhance their team effectiveness.
The DiSC® profile is in-depth and accurate. From employees to managers, it will help individuals gain greater self-awareness, and understand how they relate to others in the workplace. It will offer insight into your DiSC personality type, provide guidance on your motivators and stressors, and identify steps for improvement. Overall, it is a powerful system that can significantly improve onboarding and employee development within your company.