How New Managers Can Get Their Newly Inherited Team to Buy In
Getting buy-in from direct reports is critical to the success of a team
Grace Tripathy
, Wed 27 July 2022
Congratulations, you’re in charge of your team now! The dynamic at work is changing, but don’t worry, you got this!
If you want your direct reports to respect you, it’s important that you first show them the respect that they deserve.
Actively treating all of your workers fairly, demonstrating your value for them through your words and actions, listening to their concerns, and addressing them as best you can will set you apart as a leader that they can trust and respect.
Remember, you are in charge of your direct reports! The respect that you receive from them must be earned, and it begins with your ability to be confident in your actions and malleable to your new work environment.
At Ambition in Motion, we understand the struggle of inheriting a new team of individuals who have already been working together, whether they previously knew you or not.
How to ensure that your inherited team is successful
Inheriting a team can be very successful if you focus on the right ways to channel its energy.
The first step when inheriting a team is to thoroughly assess it by holding a mix of one-on-one and team meetings, supplementing with input from key stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and colleagues outside the team.
You’ll also look at team members’ individual track records and performance evaluations. After you’ve interviewed everyone, discuss your findings with the team to ensure that you are all on the same page in regards to overall performance and your shared goals, individually and as a team.
Winning over a team is hard. Any time employees have to adapt to a new manager, they may take time to open up and be vulnerable.
No matter how sensitive you try to be, and how much you try to avoid new manager mistakes, just being there might send shock waves through the team.
Don’t take it personally: It’s just part of how teams work. The introduction of any new person, including a leader, requires the group to do a collective reset. With that said, you can control how your employees get to know you as their manager (and you should).
Here are five tactics that help you win them over:
1. Go First
Don’t hang back waiting for the people on your team to come meet you: Seek them out.
Remember, one of people's top desires is to be seen and acknowledged (by their boss, but also, generally). When you start, do some managing by walking around. Introduce yourself, and ask questions.
It may be awkward at first, but introducing yourself and meeting people on their own turf is a great first step to build trust and credibility with your employees. Sometimes meeting people on their own “turf” in a virtual setting can be meeting with them at times that are convenient for them.
2. Understand the Team Culture
Culture; the beliefs, assumptions, and unwritten rules that guide and inform people’s behavior; is a sensitive thing. Seek to understand before being understood.
No one likes being told their culture is wrong or broken (even if it is). For example, maybe people have a habit of chatting across their desks all day long, and you think it’d be an instantly more productive environment if these conversations were moved online or set times on the calendar.
While your goal is to help everyone work more efficiently, they’ll view you as someone who’s instantly upending their workflow.
A smart move is to wait and talk to team members about how you think this shift will be helpful. Instead of rushing to make cultural changes, take the time to make everyone feel like they’re a part of them.
3. Roll Up Your Sleeves (and Get to Work)
First impressions really do count, and people like to know their boss cares. Don’t be afraid to roll up your sleeves and help out when the group’s under pressure to deliver and you can help.
In other words, be the leader who sits with the rest of the team for a bit and stuffs envelopes on the day of a major mailing, or help carry event materials from the service elevator along with everyone else. This is what AIM Insights calls organizational citizenship or work that needs to get done but isn’t expressly assigned to you.
Taking part in that “no-fun but highly necessary” team activity shows you don’t believe you’re too good to do the hard, mundane tasks. It’ll make talk about being a team player that much more believable because you’ve already demonstrated you mean it.
4. Create a Team Goal List
A goal list is a descriptive and compelling statement of the beliefs and values that guide the team’s actions. Over time, you’ll want to take what you learn about the team and their work to form a goal list, and invite them to help you create it!
A goal list is best when followed by a mission statement that motivates the team each day, and helps them feel more like a unit.
5. Celebrate the Team’s Accomplishments
School yourself on the history of the team by asking each person what he or she’s most proud of to date.
Ask about successes (and failures) and how those events have impacted people. As you learn about those things that make the team strong, celebrate them. For example, are there any traditions to acknowledge top performers or hit new milestones?
If everyone enjoys team lunch after something major is wrapped or getting a shout-out in a department-wide email, don’t feel like you have to establish new ways to mark success.
Not just that, but people will remember what you do first. If you begin by acknowledging what’s working, as opposed to leading with criticism, people will be more excited to work with you.
So how can you stay organized in effectively getting your newly inherited team to buy in?
There’s no better way to ensure that you are the utmost prepared to lead at your workplace than the AIM Insights People Leader Certification.
Taking the time to become AIM Insights People Leader Certified will evaluate how your leadership is impacting the quantitative output of your team paired with the qualitative sentiment of working for you as a leader, and overall it will show prospective employers why you are a great leader of people.
After all, managers and leaders provide direction to staff and ensure they are performing at or above expectations. They need to have the ability to assess problems, manage situations, and provide sensible solutions.
Supplement your own managerial abilities with compelling employee coaching and counseling skills, and watch the incredible results.
This team-building seminar will teach you step-by-step, how to produce a manager's "game plan" to ensure you'll reach your goals and objectives. Plus, find out how to maximize every employee's best abilities and uncover strengths and talents you never knew existed!
Many managers fear that they won’t have time to complete a Leader Certification during their work-life routine.
However, the AIM Insights People Leader Certification acts as an active learning program that goes along with your day-to-day management tasks and provides you with a leader certification that will boost your career benefits.
In a lot of ways, the program saves you time because you can move around to different modules of the learning program as they fit into your schedule at work; instead of having to prepare for 1:1’s with your direct reports, you can use the AIM Insights People Leader Certification program to help you prepare.
Click here to learn more about the flexibility and benefits of receiving an AIM Insights People Leader Certification: https://ambition-in-motion.com/blog/how-to-get-a-leadership-certification-at-your-own-pace
AIM Insights Challenges Experienced Leaders to Do Better
At Ambition in Motion, we don’t control the execution of one’s work but we can have an impact on how people interact with each other at work.
The AIM Insights People Leader Certification is designed to teach you powerful employee coaching methods to open up a multitude of opportunities and solutions for any situation your career takes you to and monitor the impact of your leadership.
This is what makes the AIM Insights People Leader Certification the only management certification that both teaches and evaluates a leader’s ability to impact their team over time.
Winning over a new team, especially a well-established one, takes humility, patience, and restraint.
And remember, even if you’re the most experienced leader, it never hurts to brush up on your skills by seeking out advice and taking the AIM Insights People Leader Management program to advance your career with an official certification in your management skills.
Most important of all, give the team time to get to know you and accelerate the process by being curious and appreciative.
