If you’re just joining our MOOC with Me series: Power Onboarding, you’ll want to start here.
This week, it’s Week 1 - Part 2.
A lengthy reading list, a couple of videos and we get started with the planning template. More leadership development and career planning than transitions this week I'm afraid.
Here’s what stood out for me:
Reading List:
What I read/watched: everything except the last 2 articles.
What I recommend: Fear of feedback article. Everything else is better suited for leadership development or career planning. Only 50% of course participants found these readings useful.
Here's a few thoughts on this week's reading list:
Daniel Goleman/Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Videos & Article: Nothing specific to transitions here. EQ is a leadership development theory. Not my preferred approach - it’s too complicated, jargon-y. I’m certified to do EQ assessments, but don’t bother doing them anymore. Why make it harder than it needs to be?
But if you like EQ (and many do), you may want to learn more. There's a great MOOC to check out. Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence .
It’s taught by the guy who literally (co)wrote the book on EQ. I’ve taken it. It's a good course. Like all MOOC’s, I recommend you select the “Audit this course” option.
Fear of Feedback Article. : 50% of executives these authors have worked with never ask for feedback…........wait, what? How can you get better without feedback?
“The single best thing a new executive can do to avoid a brief tenure is to actively pursue feedback”
So…. get feedback.
Self- reflection: The main challenge is finding time. Schedule in your calendar. Better yet, work with a coach. It’s important.
Boss: this article complicates something simple. Just ask for pete’s sake.
Team: you might not think you’re intimidating, but it’s hard to tell the boss he’s wrong. Give your team permission.
Culture shift: It may be that you’re in an organization that sucks at feedback. There are plenty. Once you’re comfortable in your new role, you may want to tackle this. “....as an increasing number of executives in an organization learn to ask for feedback, they begin to transform a feedback-averse environment into a more honest and open one, in turn improving performance throughout the organization.” If that's important to you, pop it on your post-transition to-do list.
The how-to advice in this article is not good. But it does identify skills you’ll need. Feedback is king. This is worth your attention.
Videos:
Video 2.1: While the instructor says you need a documented plan, I haven’t seen any evidence of this. Have you? A better point would be that it could accelerate your transition, making life so much easier. And increase the odds of your success. After all, you’ve planned for interviews and developed skills for job search. A transition plan seems like the next logical step. And - good news. So few people even think about it, that even the most basic plan could set you apart from the crowd.
Video 2.2: Career planning, nothing for transitions.
Discussion & POP:
Again, skipping the Discussion prompts & forum. Nothing there for me. Anything useful for you?
The Personal Onboarding Plan (POP) has some bullets added this week. But they don’t have much to do with the course content. Because of that, I’m going to wait til the end of the course when template is complete. Then cherry pick the best points to include for my POP template.
How will you use the POP as we go through the course? Let me know in the comments below.
Conclusion
Other than the article on feedback - which wasn’t stellar, not much on transitions this week. We did get a look at the POP for the first time. Meh.
Not a lot for transitions. Fingers crossed for the weeks ahead.
That’s it for Week 1 - Part 2
Next week we’ll start Week 2.
See ya next Friday
