Video: Step 5 Day One Checklist
To begin Step 5, please watch the video above.
At the start of a new role, everything is magnified. Thus it is critical to be particularly thoughtful about everything you do and say and don’t do and don’t say- and what order you do or say them in. As you craft your entry plan for your own Day One, here are a couple things to keep in mind: Order counts. Messages matter. Location counts. Signs and symbols count. Timing counts. It is personal- people will try very hard to figure out how you and your potential impact as soon as they can.
Instructional Guidelines
Utilize New Job Prep Worksheet #5 in your work packet.
The knowledge gathered from your due dilligence and your own self-study coupled with what you learn in your prestart conversations should enable you to begin to put things in context and help you figure out what you want to do on that first day, during that first week, and during your first 100 days on the job.
Reference the guidelines below to help you complete the worksheet.
Additional Option: Download and “play” this PowerPoint (hit “play from the start” in the “slide show” tab at the top of PowerPoint) to help you fill in Worksheet #5 on the day one checklist: Step5-DayOne.ppt
1. Official Day One
Write down your first day of employment.
o Being the day you go on the payroll.
2. Effective Day One
Write down your effective Day One.
o This is the day you take charge of your team.
o This could be a couple of days after your official day one if you’re going to be stuck in orientations or management meetings. It could be a few weeks down the road if you’re going on some sort of learning tour.
3. Initial Large Group Meeting
o Think in terms of some sort of informal meet and greet – perhaps over morning coffee – with NO speeches.
4. Initial Small Group Meeting
o Could be a team lunch or the like with your core team.
5. New Leader Assimilation Session
o Think about pulling your direct reports and their direct reports together for a facilitated session so they can all hear answers to their questions at the same time.
6. Other Internal Stakeholder Meetings
Write down others that you want to have one-on-ones with that you were not able to meet with before Day One.
o This could be a way to start living your message.
7. External Stakeholder Meetings
o If external stakeholders are a priority, you should meet with them on day one so you are visibly living your message.
8. External Stakeholder Phone Calls
Write down others you want to call on day one or early days.
Follow Up Actions
Action 1: Mark your official Day One on your calendar
Action 2: Mark your effective Day One on your calendar
Action 3: Mark initial large group meeting (e.g. breakfast greeting)
Action 4: Mark initial small group meeting (with core team)
Action 5: Mark your New Leader Assimilation session (as appropriate)
Action 6: Invite someone from HR or your team to facilitate the New Leader Assimilation session (as appropriate)
Action 7: Note other internal stakeholder meetings (as “To do” if not scheduled)
Action 8: Set external stakeholder meetings (or note as “To do” if not set)
Action 9: Prepared for external stakeholder phone calls
Additional Reading
- Read George’s New Leader’s Playbook Articles on Forbes.com. One particularly helpful article at this stage is Take Control Of Day One When Onboarding Into A New Job and also Meg Whitman’s itinerary for her Day One at Hewlett-Packard.
- See third chapter of The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan on Take Control of Day One.
Next Step Preview
In Step 6 you will map out key steps to set direction and build the team.