Alice: “Would you tell me which way I ought to go from here?”
Cheshire Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to!”
Alice: “I don’t much care where….”
Cheshire Cat “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

     – From Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Unmeasured Hire Practices:
Competition for talent in key positions is fierce, even in these difficult economic times.  In the past, many organizations preferred the flexibility and informality of unmeasured hiring practices.  This approach was satisfactory provided the practices were executed effectively and administered with consistency.  Experience has proven that in many cases unmeasured hiring processes perpetuate themselves and result in misunderstanding, inefficiency, and hiring the wrong people.

Measured Hiring Practices:
Using effective selection measures can greatly enhance the quality and productivity of an organization’s workforce.  Measures such as cost per hire, inter-rater reliability, measures for testing , validity, and many more can tell the real story of how a selection process performs. This can allow you to test different hire methods and find the most efficient and cost effective means for interviewing and hiring.

But They Really Effective?
Unfortunately, many human resource professionals have misconceptions about the value of selection measures and, if used, are confused as to which measurement tools are right for their situation.  They believe an unstructured interview yields better results than structured assessments.  Others think the existence of selection measurement programs are too abstract and attributable to the many consulting companies trying to make a buck.

The reality is that well-placed measurement tools are very reliable and in these days of ever-tightening budgets are increasingly finding an audience. Having the right measurement tools in place allow you see more clearly how well the hiring practices are being performed.  This may reveal that the human resource staff are doing a great job.  It may also reveal some ways that the hiring practices can be improved.  This can save your staff time and improve results.

See The Truth:
Facts are our friends.  Knowing the facts about a process allow us to make better decisions and improve processes.  Human resource professionals must take positive steps to measure the effectiveness of their hiring processes, and be ready to hold themselves accountable for the results.

“If you don’t measure it, people will know you’re not serious about delivering it.”
      – James Belasco in “Teaching the Elephant to Dance.”

Understanding The Players:
Influential players must perceive it to be in their own best interest to help you realize your goals.  Begin to identify those individuals and groups and start to gain their support during the transition period.  Doing so lays the groundwork for building coalitions to drive key initiatives.

Recruit:
Understanding the players also enables you to decide who you can count on; who you need to invest time in winning over, and who you need to confront.  Typically, a relatively small percentage of others will be either very supportive or very opposed at the outset.  Most will be between these extremes.  Neither strong supporters nor staunch opponents, they will be undecided and therefore persuadable.  Seek out the support of those influential players that can benefit your goals.  Even if you don’t need something from them right away, having them on board will help down the road.

Make Tangible Progress:
As you are identifying and gaining the support of key players, it is important to demonstrate that you are progressing to keep support and create momentum.  To create momentum in your new assignment, you must make some quick successes.  By the end of the first six months at most, you must have made substantial progress in addressing your job’s most pressing priorities.  Invariably the priorities with the greatest impact are those meeting at least one of three criteria:

1. Immediate and tangible financial benefit to the organization.
2. Issues are addressed that employees understand to be important.
3. Measurable positive non-economic results.

Quick Successes Are Key:
New managers secure early successes by identifying problems that can be tackled in a reasonable period of time and whose solutions result in tangible improvements in performance.   These are not necessarily the most important projects, but rather projects that can yield results quickly.  This creates a sense of accomplishment with your team and motivates them to press on with new projects.  Such initiatives should focus attention on the few key issues that you believe to be central.  In doing this, seek to get results, set the right tone, and energize people.  Be action-oriented during this time and you will reap rewards later.

Lack Of Communication Undermines Effectiveness
If not done well, the new manager will create a vacuum of understanding and a distant connection with people which in turn will undermine their effectiveness.  Why?  Because no one associated with the organization views the transition of a new manager with indifference.  Everyone is judging their actions and words closely and critically, hunting for signals of direction, purpose, motives, and, especially, for the answer to “who is this person?”

Leaders begin down the path to failure when they do not gain control of communication.  People will fill in the blanks themselves, and often in ways that are not correct, supportive or productive.  New managers effective at communicating get their messages across, shape morale, and gain the confidence of people reporting to them.

Vision
One of the most important things that you will communicate as a manager is a vision.  The term “vision” as it relates to organizations has become a haggard cliché to many people.  It can mean everything or nothing.  It is often used to describe the high-level objectives leaders want to achieve, and other times, is actually used interchangeably with “mission statement.” Often these are but slogans or lists of desired objectives or “values” that are put up on the wall and left on tables in the lobby, but do not impact behaviors and attitudes.  A new manager at any organizational level must create and communicate a vision to their direct reports. 

What is a Vision
An effective vision is a vibrant mental image depicting your view of the desired future state of the organization in an inspiring way.  It is not a statement of mission, a set of objectives, or a list of values.  It is a word picture of what will be seen, heard, and felt when the organization fulfills its mission, and achieves results.  It is about the culture, environment, and values.  If not inspiring, then is not a vision.

Vision Casting is Not a One Time Event
Once you have communicated your vision, the next obvious communication is the tasks and objectives that need to be done in order to achieve the vision.  But don’t neglect the vision.  Vision leaks.  You may fill your team with the vision for the company or department, but a few months, or even weeks, later you’ll find that your team isn’t quite as inspired and may have started loose focus of the vision.  You need to continue to inspire and continue to remind people of the vision.  Do you best to connect every task and goal to the vision.  This will help remind your team of the vision and help them see that goal or task’s place in the greater vision and understand its importance.

Keep Communicating
Communication never stops.  It’s a two way street and traffic should be flowing down that street all the time.  If communication breaks down, so will the project, the team, and the vision.  Good communication is key an effective team and to realizing a vision.

If your assessments are negative, confront the dilemma of either staying with people who are less than what you need or making the necessary changes early in your tenure.  The decision to remove a well-known formal or informal leader is among the most serious and complicated that any manager makes.  But among the most common regrets managers have is not replacing key people once it becomes clear they are not the right fit.  Do not let it happen to you.

Actions Have Consequences
Remember, however, that replacing people on your senior team is not as simple as letting someone go or reassigning them.  If they have been with company for a long time, they will most likely have friends on the staff as well as subordinates who respect them.  They may also have insights on aspects of the business that you are not aware of, especially if you are new to the company.  So, consider the effects of replacing or reassigning staff on the rest of your staff.

Address The Issues Directly
You may find that you are able to address the issues with the person directly and either correct the issues or find out that the person may prefer to be reassigned.  Done properly, this can demonstrate both a willingness to work with people and that issues are not allowed to linger.  This can affect the attitudes of the other staff.

One Bad Apple Spoils The Bunch
If you are unable to correct the issues and have to remove them from the senior team, you may have the option to either let them go or reassign them.  Consider how each choice will affect the company and the staff as well as how the person may interact with the other staff if they remain in the company.  If their actions have indicated that they would still be a negative influence if they are reassigned, it may be better to remove them from the company altogether.

No Regrets
For you to function well as a manager and for your team to prosper, it is important that everyone within your team is able to work well within the team and that they have the skills needed to perform their job. Don’t ignore issues.  Don’t become one of the many managers who regret not replacing key people who are not a good fit.

Gather A Support Network
You don’t know everything, no one does.  That’s ok.  New managers need to not be afraid to ask questions.  You must build a network for seeking advice and counsel.  No leader is an island.  Even the president has numerous advisors.  New managers cannot succeed alone in overcoming the complicated challenge of taking over a department, function or entire organization.  Even managers that have been around a while should still be seeking advice and trying to grow as a leader.  Learning and growing as a leader should never end.  Read books and surround yourself with other leaders.

Use Your Team
Invariably, you will inherit problems and mistakes left over from predecessors.  While some may seem to be rather obvious, things often are not what they first appear to be.  If the team that you are leading has been with the company for a while, then they can give you insight into what the problems may be and how things had been done previously.  Additionally, it’s important for your team to feel ownership in their tasks and goals.  By giving them the opportunity to give their input, you facilitate that ownership and can get good ideas and solutions.

Decisions and Leadership
While it is good to be knowledgeable and you should spend plenty of time familiarizing yourself with the products/services and policies of your company, management is primarily about leadership and decision making.  Ask for advise, gather information, but in the end, the manager has to make the decisions.  Seeking advice and having counsel and mentors doesn’t mean that a manger should not take responsibility to make decisions themselves.  You should not decide anything because someone told you to make that decision (except possibly your boss), you need to make the decision because you understand the situation and believe it is the best course of action.  Then lead your team in that decision.  Inspire them, help them to take ownership of the decision, and give them the support they need to carry out their work.

It is essential that you help your team find ways to accelerate learning about markets, products, technologies, organizational capabilities, and culture.  Identifying and leveraging the best advisors — internally and externally — is the most effective way to do this.