Tips for starting a new job brilliantly

Tips for starting a new job brilliantly

Starting a new job is exciting for many reasons, a new team, more responsibility and money perhaps, fresh pastures.

It is also an excellent opportunity to reset some workplace behaviours that might have gone awry in previous roles. You might have been somewhere a long time and become a little comfortable or cynical, you might have felt cowed under a domineering line manager and been disinclined to air your views, or you might have put everyone else’s needs before your own and subsequently over worked.

Whatever it is, before joining the new organisation, take time to reflect on the behaviours that could be dialed up or dialed down. How do you wish to be perceived in the new role? This lays the groundwork for success.

In is novel Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh famously wrote: “You'll find you spend half your second year shaking off the undesirable friends you made in your first". During the first months in a new job, be circumspect about who you meet and what they tell you. Be friendly to everyone, hold back a little of yourself and use your critical powers to weigh up the newness of situations.

It can take at least three months to fully find your feet in a new role – we don’t have First 90 days coaching for nothing! Understand what is expected of you from your line manager and avoid over-promising in a bid to make a great impression as this might take away from your main role and leave you exposed.   

 Listening is an underrated workplace skill so be sure to don a set of large ears to absorb what is going on around you. Try and remove yourself from the listening process and focus solely on the speaker, without judgement, and you will hear and learn so much more.

Have humility, but equally remember you were chosen as the best candidate for the role. Celebrate the achievement.