Scar from the Lion King could not be more prophetic.  If you want to be successful in life, you need to make sure you are prepared.  However, even he did not follow his own advice and underestimated the ease of leading a team.

As a new leader, you need to learn the balance between being prepared versus being obsessive.  This is particularly hard if you are promoted through the ranks.  You know everyone’s roles and responsibilities as well as their work habits since you were “one of them”.  You assume that you need to know every part of everyone’s job, know your competition, your clients, and your potential clients, know what your colleagues’ jobs, etc.

But in reality, you only need to know how to access all of that information.  As a brand manager, I had to know every item number in the company in order to talk with manufacturing, shipping, purchasing, etc.  It was part of the expectation.  However, when I transitioned into a management role, my knowledge base needed to change.  I needed to know more about overriding goals, how marketing fit into the scheme of making the company go, how to better support my team, and other “more pressing” issues.  Suddenly knowing every component of every item did not seem as important.

As you grow into your role, you will find that knowing who the depositories of information are and how to access their knowledge is more important than memorizing information.  You will learn how to disseminate this information and then turn it into actionable forms for your team to use.  You will empower your team to know everything they need to know about their job and that you will trust that what they are telling you is complete and correct.

Then, once you do all of those things, will you truly be prepared to do battle.  You will also realize how much better you are at your job, how much more in sync your team has become and how your internal reputation has grown.

One of the hardest things to do is accept a new team member- whether they are a new hire, a veteran of the company moved to your team, or a third party vendor/consultant. Most people’s natural reaction is to be cordial but guarded. The new person’s reaction is to try to impress. This leaves for some awkward conversations or worse silences as people are trying to feel out their turf.

As a leader, this puts you in a tough situation. You need to work to integrate a new team member, get their work up to speed, put your new team at ease, and start the trust building. But how do you do this without causing noise in the system?

1. Temper the expectations of the new team member. While you are naturally excited to have a new person who brings new skills and perspectives to your team, do not make this person seem like “The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh”. Your current team will immediately resent that person.
2. Give your new member simple tasks that will build their credibility. Getting tasks done on time and correctly will show your current team that this person can be relied upon. Trust is simply the expectation of getting things done when they are supposed to.
3. Do not rehash the entire project for the benefit of the new person at each meeting. This wastes the time of your current team and may make them worry why you need to repeat the project to this person time and time again. Take the time to get the person up to speed in a small group. This way everyone’s time is maximized.
4. Assign the new team member a mentor. This person will be able to vouch for the new member’s value to the team. Personal recommendations go a long way in helping build team.
5. Do not compare your current team to the new person. “Why can’t you be more like …” is a sure way to get the team to hate them.

Getting your new team member integrated is an important role for a leader. Do not “just let it happen”. Be proactive and you will be surprised at how well it will go.