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I just listened to this cast and it was very timely. We're not being acquired, but, I will have a new boss in the next two weeks. The section on Briefing Your Business will certainly be helpful. I plan to follow the outline. Two questions came up.

1. How long of a meeting can I expect with my new boss?
2. How much of this info to I have prepared on paper to hand over, and, how much to we discuss?

[u]Background[/u]. I supervise 11 staff (rehabilitation service delivery in a retirement community, with a few outside contracts). Will now be reporting to an Executive Director that has been brought into the company form the outside. The company has been reorganized, so the previous ED did was not my supervisor, rahter, was a Director in a different part of the company.

ehyde111's picture

As a follow up, would anyone be willing to review and give feedback on the briefing document that is in progress? Presently, it is a four page Microsoft Word document. I would certainly leave out all of the supporting materials.

Thanks in advance.

wendii's picture
Admin Role Badge

ehyde,

is your new boss already part of your business? You could try asking him .. 'I know you havn't worked in this part of the business before and I have prepared for a meeting to brief you. I can cover the highlights in an hour - when would you be able to meet?' type thing. If they are in the business can you ask around a bit and find out what methods of communication he prefers? That might give you a clue as to what the balance should be.

If he's not already in the business, then I think you'll just have to use your best judgement (not a good answer - sorry!)

Wendii

jhack's picture

We were acquired a few months ago, and I prepared the briefing book for meetings with the new leadership.

BLUF: this is very very powerful stuff.

The more senior the person, the less predictable the meeting. I did not go through the briefing book specifically in either of the meetings I had. The book was critical though: one meeting was focused on projects, the other on people. I had all the data handy, I was prepared, and I had a copy to hand out (which was much appreciated by the SVP). I brought all the supporting materials (including resumes of team members, printout of Excel budgets, project status reports, etc).

In both meetings, the existence of the briefing book helped demonstrate that our team was well organized and productive.

Both meetings quickly moved from review to planning for the future. The meetings would not have gone as well as they did had I not prepared the briefing book.

As for time, it's going to be whatever the new leadership wants. Don't worry about it, they'll drive the meeting. Focus on the content, and the rest will follow.

Be prepared to discuss it all, and to hand over anything or everything.

John

ehyde111's picture

Thank you for both replies. They help me get on the right track.

Wendii, the boss is new to the business.