Onboarding

“There is no second chance to make a first impression” – there is no second chance to make a first impression. This is the main guiding principle for this chapter, which presents various onboarding scenarios and provides concrete recommendations for action that have proven successful over a very long period of leadership practice. These four scenarios range from an initial team leader role to taking over an organization with leaders. The recommended actions refer to a preparation phase including a decision process whether an offered leadership position fits and they precisely detail the activities on the first day up to the first 90 days in leadership. The team mission statement mentioned in Chap. 3 as an important element of onboarding is presented in concrete terms with all its elements and, above all, the detailed process of creating it. For each of the four scenarios, concrete checklists are provided to help in a very pragmatic way to ensure that all important aspects are covered so that perfect onboarding takes place. The scenario in which the new manager takes over an area in which there are managers who will report to him or her is given a very special status, because their leadership behavior is crucial to their own effectiveness. Since the new leader is very likely to discover a lot of potential for change in the first 90 days, the topic of shaping change with its most important success factors is given the necessary space in this chapter. One of the most important success factors of change is when the leader succeeds in involving the employees. This is precisely where many change projects fail, and thus also where leaders fail even in the largest companies. Another recommendation is to involve the works council in the discussion in good time and thus win it as an ally.