Hi, friend! If you’re a manager who’s leaving a role, there are several great writers already covering how to prepare your team for your departure and I’d love to point you to those resources rather than add clutter. If these resources are applicable for you, let’s meet back here once you’ve bookmarked them. I’ll wait.
Simone D’Amico’s How to ensure your team thrives in your absence is practical and focused on the actual human beings on your team. There are great strategies for delegating gradually and letting your team decide what they want to share with their next leader.
Kyle Seneker’s The EM’s Playbook for Changing Ships walks through leaving a team well, from documenting where things stand in a thorough and thoughtful way to preparing your successor to actually be successful and not reliant on you.
🔖 Bookmarked? Great.
Now we’ll focus on a different flavor of management handoff: what to do when a manager is arriving as a new direct report to you.
Whether you’re a:
Leader of leaders welcoming someone new to your broader management team, a
Senior manager bringing on a first-line leader, or even a
Manager onboarding a new technical lead on your team
the resources below are applicable for you and based on my experience doing all three of these things at some point in my career, multiple times.
1️⃣ Start your 1:1s as early as possible
If you can, start your 1:1s before the onboarding manager’s first day.
Get to know each other, talk about communication styles and preferences, and talk about what you both expect from the first month or so.
This isn’t always possible (especially with external hires). If it isn’t, start on day one and talk daily, or at least every other day, for the first week while they settle in.
In those early conversations I focus on getting to know the manager as a human before we get anywhere near the work:
What does your support system outside of work look like? Family, community, whatever that means for you.
What do you like to do when you’re not at work? How do you recharge?
What are you curious about or learning more about right now, at work or in your free time?
What qualities of your own leadership style are you proud of, and what are you still working on?
A quick note on that first one: treat it as an invitation, not an intake form. Let them decide how much they want to share. Some people will tell you about their kids, their running club, and their grandmother’s kofta recipe. Some will say “I’ve got some good buddies” and move on. Both are acceptable answers, especially in the early stages of getting to know someone.
It’s important to get into communication styles. In What it actually takes to feel appreciated and visible as a manager, I wrote about learning your manager’s communication style and it’s equally applicable here: some people want the bottom line first, some need to think out loud, some want written context before a conversation and others want to talk first and document later.
What it actually takes to feel appreciated and visible as a manager
Years before I became a manager, I had to make a shift in how I thought about the visibility of my achievements and who was paying attention.
Make sure the communication style question is answered in both directions. Ask them, “Is there a way you prefer to get updates from me?” and then answer the same question for yourself. Don’t make them guess what you need. They have enough to figure out as they’re onboarding.
2️⃣ Offer to be an advocate for the team
Most onboarding advice covers the onboarding manager, but the team is about to get a new leader and they are likely feeling some anxiety, some hope, and have a list of things they’ve been waiting to ask.
What does effective advocacy from their ‘skip level’ manager actually look like for a team?