Imagine you are appointed to head a well-settled team. It has forged a close bond over the years of working together, but the organization brings you over as the new team leader. It could be either as the CEO, at a Director position, or mid-level manager. How would you manage that situation?
Very often, organizations go out to seek somebody from the outside to lead at the top or mid-level. There are a number of drivers. The organization might be slackening with a feeling that it needs new blood. There could also be a sense that it lacks the required talent and an outside manager is the solution. Sometimes, it is also internal politics that drive organizations to seek outsiders when they fail to agree on one person from within.
Yet, how this plays out is another thing. You might come in, and everyone, of course, extends their hand, but inward, they are steaming. “Let’s wait and see.” They are waiting to see you fail, after all, you took a coveted position which someone felt they had a right to. In such scenarios, even former enemies can suddenly become close business associates, with you now as the adversary.
United and with a new focus, the team can coalesce and easily play you. They can quietly plot to mislead you or fail to warn you of certain gaps—which they would later bring up as an accusation of failing to adhere to policy just to shame you. More so, the team can network with higher powers with which they have a closer relation than you, the intruder in their turf.
Caught in such a situation, there are a few tips. First, scan the environment and identify the power centers. Not everyone will have the same power and influence, and it helps to know who are most likely to cause you issues. Having identified them, develop strategies to disarm them, bring them closer to you, or learn how to avoid their booby traps.
Then never sign off on any decision without the full agreement of all important stakeholders on the team. The defiant team would wish to get you into trouble, and one way is to let you make a decision which they all seem to agree with. But once you start implementing it, they break away, creating a scenario where you are left alone. So it pays to have their firm consensus on any major decision.
Outside managers are often brought into organizations to change them. Yet, once they start, there is a tendency to resist. The outside manager should be careful. There is an old saying that some people do not know what they want. You are recruited as a change agent but the moment you start changing things, then all discover no wanted change afterall. And you the outsider are no longer the solution, but the problem.
So in any position as a new outsider manager tread with care!