93: First 30 Days with Natalie Ruhl

Charlotte Ward: 0:13

Hello and welcome to episode 93 of the Customer Support Leaders Podcast. I'm Charlotte Ward. The theme for this week is the first 30 days in your new role. So stay tuned for five leaders talking about that very topic. I'd like to welcome back to the podcast today, Natalie Rule. Natalie, it's lovely to have you back again. The topic for this week is the first 30 days in your new role.

Natalie Ruhl: 0:42

Well, hi Charlotte, thanks for having me again. I think, you know, in hindsight, like my first month at SoundCloud was quite turbulent. There was a lot going on. It was right at a time when the company was going through massive restructuring. It was probably different than your usual first 30 days. But in hindsight, and also something that like I tell people that start with me, you know, when they go through their onboarding, is just absorb and listen. You know, there's so much information, onboarding sessions with HR, with other teams. Just try and be, you know, as active as a listener as you can be. Absorb, let stuff settle. I remember my first two weeks. I got home in the evening and I was just staring at a wall and was just like, oh God, like I don't know how how I'm going to absorb all the information. I probably won't remember anything the next day. But it was, you know, nonetheless very interesting to just give in to the vibe of the new place, get to know some people, and just listen to what they have to say, um, where they came from, what their uh role was, how they approach um certain things. It was just very interesting. And and to this day, like there's um, I think two people still at the company that started with me. We were a pretty small starter group. And that whole like immersive therapy, so to speak, is to like really immersing yourself into this new situation without really needing to fix anything right away, without having that like responsibility of like, I have to come in, I have to do something right away, and I have to like show that I'm like worth my place here. I I think you know it was just much easier and and much less stressful for me than it could have been.

Charlotte Ward: 2:26

It is overwhelming, you're right, isn't it? I I think I'm I'm on day 60 of my new role, give or take a few days now. Um, and it is overwhelming the first 30 days. The amount of notes that I took, I forgot what it was like to onboard into a new role where you know nothing about the product or the people uh beyond what you what's got you through an interview process to this point, right? I've pages and pages and pages of notes from those early onboarding sessions. And I could I think it's fair to say that at the end of most of those evenings, I I retained very little consciously. And I think what I came to realise was that over time, over the first month, by virtue of listening and taking all of those notes and eventually joining pieces together, you you do suddenly come to a point of understanding, and I think it's quite a surprise when suddenly you realize you you know some stuff about the situation you're in.

Natalie Ruhl: 3:27

Absolutely. Uh, and I think it these like first notes that you take, like coming to that point where they click into place or where you join some dots by meeting someone from another team that just fills the gaps. That that's a super great feeling. You know, take all the notes, scribble it down. A lot of them probably won't make sense as well, you know. Like I remember that I took notes of a few abbreviations on the like KPI slide that I'd seen. And I was just like, what are they tracking? What is that? I don't understand. Um, and it took me for a couple of them, it took me quite a while because obviously you kind of don't want to be the person that you know asked the obvious question. And there's someone in support, like I often find, you know, working with people that are way more on the business side or way more on the finance side, you don't want to be that person that kind of shows that you might not know something. And so I then become very active and started to like Google these abbreviations and and found like nothing that made any sense, only to figure out that they are very internal ways of of measuring um some of our like key KPIs. And I had to ask the question. There was there was just no way I would otherwise find out. If there's also anything that I I maybe can say to like, you know, help people ease into that, ask the questions, it's totally fine. Like, yes, you might feel hesitant about it, but just ask. You're new, you have every right, just do it. Um, and even if it's something obvious, you know, whatever. It's not obvious to you. Everybody comes at a role with a different background, a different history, just ask.

Charlotte Ward: 5:08

I think you're absolutely right. I think that there are a few things there that I want to just pull together. One is that if people are annoyed with you for asking questions, I would question whether you're in the right place or not. Yeah, which is probab the first 30 days is probably a good time to do that. Absolutely. Um, but yeah, the second thing is that yeah, everyone brings their own understanding. You've been hired for your understanding and perspective on the work and on the role. Um, and it's okay to build the context that you need to complete that picture within the organization, isn't it? And and you only get there by asking questions. And as I often tell my children, the only stupid question is the one you know the answer to.

Natalie Ruhl: 5:51

Yeah. And there's a good saying in German, wenn nicht fragt bleibt dumm. The one that doesn't ask, stay stupid. You know, like it's it's like how how are you gonna find out if you if you don't ask the question? Um, and as you just said, like maybe it's not the right place for you if if you really feel out of place when you do. Um but it's also you know something that happens quite naturally to people that have maybe done this onboarding session 20 odd times that they they might might not have like been aware of, like, oh yeah, actually we use quite a lot of internal language, but we don't explain it. So it's also always an opportunity to give feedback.

Charlotte Ward: 6:34

Yeah, and improve it for the next person, definitely. That's it for today. Go to customersupportleaders.com forward slash 93 for the show notes, and I'll see you next time.