The first thing you ought to do if youâre the new person in charge is nothing,â says Schacht. âI have learned this over and over again. Resist the temptation to âhit the ground running.â It is absolutely almost certain to be wrong.â He stresses this is even true in a crisis situation.
Related Quotes
You shouldnât expect to walk into a new leadership job with an established strategic plan. Rather, you should walk in prepared to lead a strategic processâ - Dave Petersschmidt
His advice to leaders coming into new positions from the inside: âI would take the opportunity to make yourself an outsider. Having an outside facilitator can help with this - he or she can bring in a third-party perspective and independent facts or research that might be different from what you have at the top of your mind or readily at hand.
Eckert adds, âAs the new guy, I realized that every first encounter with a Mattel employee had the potential to be fraught with tension, and I felt it was my responsibility to do everything possible to reduce it. Surprisingly, I found that in each situation, recognizing my own lack of knowledge about the companyâs people and culture - in effect, allowing the employees to be the âbossâ in certain situations - actually helped me lead.
Schachtâs advice is especially pertinent during a crisis. In troubled times you need to have as many brains as possible working on the issues, but those brains have to agree on what they are doing and why. âYou have to have agreement on definition of duties,â he says. âYouâve got to have roles and responsibilities and none of that is easily apparent, particularly in a crisis and particularly when you have to make changes.â Listening and talking to people takes time, a precious commodity when everyone is breathing down your neck and demanding answers, direction, and a strategy for salvation. Nonetheless, Schacht declares, âThis is not a luxury, itâs critically important. Itâs the most important thing you can do.
Lucentâs Schacht offers sound advice for the new CEO in a crisis:
âIf I were a new CEO coming into a new company at a tough time. Iâd have a deal with the board. I would tell them, âIâm going to keep you informed every step of the way. But youâre not my most important problem right now. Youâre asked me to come in and youâve given me a good briefing and I thank you; now please give me a little room. Iâll be back with a status report in two or three weeks, and if something else comes up, weâll be on the phone together. But right now my most important constituent is the internal folks and our customers.