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Submitted by solutionary on
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Dear Mike and Mark

A new direct joins us in four weeks and I have just listened to the podcast "New Direct - First Day Meeting (500th Cast)", which is perfect for the first day. In the cast you mention several other 1 hour follow-up meetings but only hint at the content and I cannot find any related podcasts. Please can you point me in the right direction or provide a list of topics to be covered during the subsequent meetings?

I would just like to say several thank yous.

I am a new manager who thoroughly enjoys listening to your podcasts during my hour or so commute to work. In fact, your podcasts gave me the confidence to actively progress my careeer into management... thank you!

I have recently started rolling out the Trinity and all is working brilliantly. I thank you for relaying your concepts in a simple to follow structured manner. It's early days yet but I am getting positive comments from my directs, relationships are strengthening and delegating work is much easier.

I have also used your interview creation tool and podcasts to sucessfully employ a new direct (as per my question). Having never taken on the role of interviewer before you helped settle my nerves and focus on the role's requirements. Excellent and thank you.

Best regards

John

 

solutionary's picture
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Dear All

Since posting this question, I have done some thinking...  I am guessing that discussing the Trinity, setting a task to listen to the 'starter' podcasts would be one area to explore in further meetings. Maybe DISC should feature highly, ask the report to take the test, share my profile, compare and discuss and set task to listen to some podcasts and discuss in a further meeting.

Does anyone have any more ideas to include in those first important meetings outside of the regular O3s?

Many thanks

 

 

dmb41carter36's picture

I'm in the same boat with you.. a new direct (my first) in a couple weeks. I would be interested in learning from others what to do (or not do!) in the first week or even two. I am a high I and am very worried that I can simply overwhelm my new direct with information.

One thing I can add is that I am planning on having two 1/2 hour sessions per week for the first few weeks of question & answers. This is aside from the O3. I am trying this because when I started I had the issue where I didn't want to interrupt my boss every half hour with random questions. He eventually gave me a half hour every Wed. for the first few weeks to simply ask anything I wanted. In a company that loves acronyms more than money, it was well worth the time.

solutionary's picture
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After some great additional guidance from Mark, I managed to schedule an hour with my new direct before handing him over to HR.

I followed the podcast's advice and added
> Keep Your Eyes Open. 
In the beginning, they will see things differently.  Let us know what doesn't make sense.  Do it politely
> Ask questions now
No matter how stupid the questions may seem, better to ask now than pretend you know it all and be caught in a lie in 6 months time.

What a great introduction!

Last week, the second one hour meeting, and after completing a DISC profile, we discussed the three rules of customer service:
1. The customer is always right (even when they are wrong)
2. Be nice... no matter what
3. Over-communicate (from the podcast "3rd Rule of Customer Service – Over-Communicate")
Linked communication to DISC, shared my other direct's profiles and reiterated that customer results need relationships and relationships are built on communication... All good so far.

Next week we will be discussing the following topics suggested by Mark:
> Be on Time. 
Time is a precious resource. When it's gone, a billion dollars won't get it back.  Work fast.  Some mistakes are okay.  Fix them fast.  Waiting to get things perfect is a chimera.
> Family First.  Go home. 
> Work hard during the day.  HARD.  Then go.
> We start our first O3 this week
> Coaching model - our company has a focused drive on personal development and the coaching model will be a great help here.

Thank you once again Mark, your invaluable advice has helped me to convey "how we do things around here" in a structured fashion.

Best regards

dmb41carter36's picture

 I used the 2x per week  question and answer meetings in just that form. Meaning the direct asks, and I answer. I keep them 100% open with no pre-set agenda. They are for the direct to ask the random questions they gather. I tell them, Please ask me anything you want for the next couple of weeks. I mean everything. And it works really well. I get questions back-to-back one about the corporate strategy and the next one about the safety shoe policy on the production floor.

It's hard enough for your seasoned directs to determine when to interrupt you and when to save their questions for later. Imagine that feeling x100 and that's how your new direct feels. If I tell them up front that these meetings are for all your questions, it really helps to ease their stress. No set agenda since there's plenty of ways to elaborate based on the questions they ask.

I also did explain the disc profile as well. After that, you get a whole other series of questions. Since I deal with a lot of interns, I always seem to have to tell them to write things down and take a pen and paper everywhere you go. Perhaps it's just the demographic of people I deal with, but it's oddly common.

Also, through the on-boarding, I always ask "What are your questions?" instead of "Got any questions?". While it seems like semantics, I find it works much better. For someone reason, people are conditioned to answer "No" to "Got any questions?". Perhaps it is because they feel "dumb" asking questions.