When New Leaders Can Start to Change Things
Dear ladies and gentlemen!
We would like to share our experience with you!
With this newsletter we are starting a series of interviews concerning leadership development. The following summary is based on an interview with Gunther Fürstberger, Managing Director of MDI.
When New Leaders Can Start to Change Things
The conditions under which a new manager starts his job have a great influence on his possibilities to change things during his first 90 to 100 days.
In case of external recruitment Gunther Fürstberger advices new managers to comply with the rules of the group. According to the idiosyncrasy credit model the ones who immediately change everything get full attention but will later be expelled from the group. Successful managers understand what is going on first and play by the company’s values and rules. They collect credit points which they later exchange for change measures. This is the moment when leadership starts.
The first two change measures need not necessarily be the most important ones. It is crucial that 90% of the team and top management consider them to be useful. By doing this, new managers may collect credit points and can subsequently address the really difficult topics.
If a new position is assigned to somebody within the company, the conditions for change are much more favorable. The new manager knows the staff, culture and organization very well. Thus, changes can be implemented faster.
Some changes have to be tackled straight away, especially those ones concerning your own behaviour. “What got you here won´t get you there. This is true for any change”, says Gunther Fürstberger and gives the following tips:
- Leadership starts with self leadership because you need to become aware of your new role first. What do I want to achieve?
- How do I organize my time now? So far, the focus was on expertise, but the new position requires time for management tasks. It is important to disengage expertise and not to be in the spotlight anymore. Let your employees shine now. Recognition doesn´t necessarily have to be gained by being the best in one’s specialist area anymore but by becoming the best manager. This is a substantial transformation for a new manager.
- Initial restraints to delegate pass by and delegation becomes normality. A download of our vodcast on successful delegation is available on http://www.mdi-training.com/service/media.html
- Your communication behavior has to be changed. You might ask yourself how near or distanced you may or have to be. Favoritism is definitely a no-go. A new manager can still have good relations with previous colleagues but must not complain about company policies anymore. But he can – and should – listen very well and act as a carrier of information if employees show signs of discontent. On the other hand, the new position implies acting as the voice of the top management levels, i.e. supporting and argumenting their decisions. Friendships with former colleagues who are now subordinates pose another challenge. Make sure not to favor these people.
Trainer Profile:
Gunther Fürstberger is Managing Director of MDI and an experienced management trainer. His core competencies are leadership, management, negotiation and strategy consulting. He was Head of HR at HALI Büromöbel as well as at McDonald’s Austria, CEE and Central Asia and has gained considerable leadership experience throughout his career. He is also part of the trainer team at the MDI Summer Adacemy 2013.
Our Next Open Programs:
Leadership und Performance Management – situative Führung
23.05. – 24.05.2013, Vienna
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Laterale Führung – Führen ohne Vorgesetztenfunktion
17.06. – 18.06.2013, Vienna
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MDI Summer Academy 2013
New Leaders Program
Learn the most important real-life leadership skills within 5 days
19.08. – 23.08.2013 at Falkensteiner Hotel & Spa Bad Waltersdorf****
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MDI Sommerakademie 2013
Kompetent als neue Führungskraft
Die wichtigsten Führungsinstrumente für die Praxis in 5 Tagen
26.08. – 30.08.2013 at Falkensteiner Hotel & Spa Bad Waltersdorf****
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Best regards,
Your MDI team