SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from over 240,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our newsletter.
What’s your approach to onboarding new managers?
- We have a rigorous, comprehensive onboarding program: 15%
- We provide some initial onboarding then leave it up to that manager: 42%
- We provide bare-bones onboarding: 23%
- We throw them in the deep end and let them fend for themselves: 20%
Setting them up for failure. It’s distressing to see 43% of your organizations do little to no onboarding of your managers and expect them to succeed in their roles. If your front line associates get more training than managers and executives you’re bringing on, that’s a major problem. You’re not setting these people up to succeed if you don’t get them acclimated to the culture, set expectations, and teach them critical things they need to know. While you might say “I’m too busy for that and they’re smart enough to figure it out on their own,” ask yourself how much busier you’ll be when they quit or get fired and you have to hire a replacement and pick up the slack in the interim. Make the time to get your people properly onboarded. They’ll be happier and more successful when you do.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS. Before launching his own company, he worked at McKinsey & Co., Capital One and Scotts Miracle-Gro. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He’s the author of three leadership books: “One Piece of Paper,” “Lead Inside the Box” and “The Elegant Pitch.”