5 Strategies for Effective Meet and Greets

No one in any of the organizations that we talk to would disagree with the importance of building relationships as part of a new leader's onboarding process. They nod their heads and add that in their organizations it is not only important, but critical, for a new vice president to get to know and build real relationships with the people (sometimes called stakeholders) who can make or break his/her success.


But what is the plan to create those relationships? How does the new person know who the important players are and how they affect their function's objectives? What does the organization do to support these budding relationships? If your organization is like most, there is little formal support and the new leader is often left to "figure it out" on his own. After all, you pay them alot of money to know these things, right?


The Research

In a March 2007 study by RHR International, they found that the biggest challenges for onboarding new leaders are--

Adapting to the culture 45%

Building relationships 29%

Role clarity 19%


One out of three new leaders said that meeting the right people and building the relationships that help them achieve their objectives is their biggest challenge.


The Typical Stuff
A pretty common way that organizations handle the "relationship-building" part of a new leader's onboarding is by making a list of several (or a lot!) of people with whom the person needs to meet in his/her first few weeks or months. Unfortunately, this list is not always reviewed strategically and the participants are not chosen with purpose. The other mistake that is made is that there is little or no structure given to these conversations; there is poor communication about the meeting's purpose and usually no follow-up actions are required. This is a recipe for failure and both the new leader and his or her stakeholders are frustrated and off to a rocky start.

Missed Opportunity
The impact of these weak "meet and greet" meetings is really missed opportunity. Missed opportunity for the new leader to experience the organization's culture through its people. Missed opportunity for stakeholders to get to know the new person and his or her thoughts and observations about the organization and how they could work together. Losing that window of a new leader's first few weeks can make it extra difficult for both the new leader, his or her team and the other stakeholders to form solid working relationships.

5 Strategies for Effective Meet and Greets
Here are five strategies that you can implement in your organization to avoid the pitfalls of ineffective or non-existent "meet and greet" meetings:

1. Gather information from the hiring manager.
-Why was this person hired?
-Whom should they get to know and why?
-Consider their own team, internal and external stakeholders.

2. Create a strategic list of stakeholders.
-Shrink the list to the critical few.
-Determine action items and follow-up strategies for each.

3. Schedule the right meeting at the right time.
-Ensure that the meeting is timely with the business cycle.
-Calendarize the meetings so that the new leader has context.
-Too much too soon, can be too much too soon.

4. Consider the audience.
-Who are the key people in each area?
-What influence do they have over the new leader's success?
-What demographic do they represent?

5. Develop and implement a communication strategy.
-Tell participants what is expected and when.
-Send separate anouncements with suggested agendas to participants.
-Encourage that meetings be kept as scheduled by holding participants accountable.

With the implementation of these 5 simple strategies, you will see your new leaders and their key stakeholders benefitting almost immediately. Although this process is largely intuative, most organizations do not take the time to implement a formal strategy.

The numbers don't lie. Relationships are critical, and developed the right way, lead to not only individual success for the new leader, but the organization.



For more information on how to put together a comprehensive leadership onboarding process, email us at info@connectthedotsconsulting.com