Senior Leaders Might Be Being Onboarded Incorrectly; Here’s How To Not Stifle Them

The onboarding process when organizations orientate new employees to the existing workers, set rules, culture, and processes that they will need to be familiar with in order to be successful in their new role.

Senior leaders are responsible for consistently improving their company. New senior people can and should bring fresh perspectives that challenge the existing norms of their workplace.

“Unfortunately, many senior onboarding processes discourage incoming leaders from accomplishing these goals, however unintentionally, because of the focus they place on fitting in. It’s already an uphill battle for new leaders to question the status quo,” according to the Harvard Business Review.

Here’s how organizations can onboard new senior leaders that doesn’t value integration above all else:

Set a short-term results challenge for them. This will help them get oriented while achieving something of real value.

Customize around a question. Ask the new leader to explain the most important things they want to learn about the organization and mold their onboarding around this.

Ask for critical observations. Have the new person keep a notebook of observations from each meeting/day, then set up a time for them to explain what they’ve learned, what did or did not make sense, etc.