Building your team

In the early days of starting a new role, leaders can spend a lot of time looking at the wider organisation and not so much at getting their own team in order.

Yet one of the biggest decisions you will need to make in your first 100 days is about the people you'll want to have around to make your vision a reality.

You need to understand:

• if they're up to do the job (with or without development)

• whether they'll bring the right energy

• how they connect with people and take them with them

• are they going to represent you.

This isn't about creating a lot more uncertainty and disruption at the top of the organisation, but nor is it about sacrificing the strategy for stability. You will have to align your team alongside the organisational developments in order to succeed.

As ever, you need to find a balance.

By the end of your first 100 days you should have clarity around the team you need in place for the next stage of your journey.

That means having a plan at the beginning for how you will fairly explore and assess what you have inherited.

That means blocking time out to get to know your immediate team and involving them in your launch plan.

That means treating them with the same open and non-judgemental approach as you will the rest of the business.

Failing to invest the time and energy at the beginning will only create problems for you later down the line.