I’ve heard this from many of my clients lately, “I got a new boss, again, what should I do?” It’s just one sign of the rapid pace of internal change that we’re seeing in the post-COVID business world. Watch this week’s “Your Best Next Move” video for my tip for how to respond if and when this happens to you. (Hint: I don’t recommend just sitting back and doing nothing!)
TRANSCRIPT OF “I GOT A NEW BOSS, AGAIN!”
Hi, everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly tips for “Your Best Next Move,” where I help you have more agency in your work, acknowledge your capacity to act, and see what you can do right now.
So this week I want to talk about something that I’m seeing more and more with my clients, and that’s when they say, “Hey, I have a new boss, AGAIN, what should I do?”
Getting a new boss may not have happened to you lately, but there’s a good chance it will. Given all the movement that’s going on in the post-COVID job market, there’s no question that internal change is happening at a more frequent pace than ever before. And even though we all know and we’ve all experienced it, we never quite seem ready for it, do we?
In research that we did pre-COVID with nearly 200 technology leaders, the #1 confidence killer they cited in doing their jobs was getting a new boss. And why is that?
Well, we know our bosses play a major role in our success from the opportunities they give us to the active support they provide, to how they push us to get better. And after all the blood, sweat and tears we put into building this very important relationship, when we have to start all over again as the revolving door of leadership changes keeps turning, it really can be a curveball.
So what can you do when you get a new boss AGAIN?
Well, you can do nothing, or delay making any moves. I appreciate that you may not have the energy to deal with yet another change and all it represents. You feel like you have to start all over again, so you can take a defensive position and wait to see what your new boss does first and take your cue from them.
OR, you can take the offense and make the first move. You can see this as an opportunity to share the value of you and your team and how you can help your new boss be successful right out of the box. Every situation is different; I appreciate that. But in an environment of continuous change and uncertainty and with the velocity of change in your support networks accelerating, you can’t afford to do nothing and hope that everything will be fine.
So here’s my tip:
See this change, and the others like it that at some point I’m sure to follow, from a possibilities perspective. So in other words, create engagement right from the start. You should be the first person to reach out. Be prepared to show how your team contributes to the organization and how you can amplify that contribution in the future.
Your new boss’s success is your success, so find out how you can best help them get off to a fast start. Be confident and assured, know your value, and keep in mind that anyone who’s worth their salt is jockeying for positions. So don’t be left behind while you are in mourning.
You need to act.
I want 2021 to be a year momentum for you…one of possibility thinking, where you take advantage of the agency we sometimes forget we have. So I hope that you don’t get a new boss this week. But if you do, I’d love to hear how you handle it. And in the meantime, that’s my tip for the week. Have a good one.
Take care of yourself. And I’ll see you next Monday.