Team Leaders Must Communicate Expectations

Team leaders, heed this warning: good upfront communication is critically important to successfully integrating a new employee into your team.

If you do not make your expectations known, and you do not provide the new team member with the information he needs to do his job well, then you cannot complain when he falls short.

They Don’t Know What They Don’t Know

New team members “don’t know what they don’t know.”  It is your responsibility as the leader to share protocols on your team and in your organization, how business is conducted with co-workers and clients, and best practices for delivering work product.   Never assume that unspoken rules should be understood by the new team member, especially if he is young or inexperienced in your type of company.  If it doubt, spell it out.

Don’t Fire Your Way Out of the Problem

Since most employers are at will, this means that if you have hiring and firing responsibilities and a new team member royally screws something up, you can let her go if you want.  In all honesty, you probably aren’t going to get sued, and it probably won’t negatively impact your career.  But if you fire someone for doing something that’s a direct result of your failure to communicate, then you should feel ashamed.

Mistakes Are Learning Opportunities for Both of You

The screw up should actually be a valuable lesson to both of you.  The team member should be provided with the opportunity to do things differently next time, and you should examine why you didn’t instruct her properly in the first place and hopefully adhere to a higher standard with your next new team member.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

Comments

[Karen F.]

It's always tough working with a new team but it is really important to find a moment to bond and become united in the execution of tasks...how else are you going to get things done?

Tell people what you need from them and let them tell you what they do well, what they don't do well, what they don't know and what they need to learn...and try not to be surprised when they tell you their limitations. After all...you have you own (or else you'd be doing the project yourself!)

Karen, The Resume Chick (on Google or Twitter for questions, comments or violent reactions)

[PC]

I love your articles, very helpful!

[Alexis]

Hi there, my name is Alexis and I am a writer for onlinedegrees.org. I am currently compiling a list of the Top 100 career-advice blogs and I would like to include your blog on the list.
I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions so I could include more info about you and yourself on the list. It would have the same format as this list, which I wrote last month (http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-100-technology-blogs-for-teachers/)
If you could please send me an e-mail (and provide the title of your blog) so I could ask you the questions I would really appreciate it.
Thanks ahead of time for your help, if you have any other questions about me or our blog let me know and I will be happy to answer them

[Alexandra Levit]

@Alexis: Yes, please e-mail the questions to arl@alexandralevit.com

@PC: So glad to hear it, thanks!

@Karen: Good advice, although I think with a new team member it's more important to communicate expectations than to tell him what he's not doing well right off the bat. That conversation can happen after he fails to meet an expectation.