95: First 30 Days with Greg Skirving

Charlotte Ward: 0:13

Hello and welcome to episode 95 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, Greg Skirving. Greg, it's lovely to have you back. And this week we are talking about the first 30 days. So let's figure out what we need to do when we step into that new role.

Greg Skirving: 0:46

You bet. Thanks, Charlotte, and good to be back. Yeah, first 30 days, that's a critical point in one's tenure in a CS leadership role. You know, through one's research and in and multiple interview process, you know what a company does. You know what they're going to do, but you don't really know the intricacies of virtually everything in the uh in the organization. You won't know that until you actually get there. So what I like to do obviously is uh meet meet everybody that's significant. Uh I make a point of uh all the folks that I will deal with on a on a regular basis, uh meet with them, go have coffee with them, go have lunch with them. Uh I'm also big on uh one-on-ones, uh, you know, set a monthly one-on-one. That's recurring. Don't talk about work, just you know, talk about uh talk about personal things. Um obviously there's your people as well. This is where I really like to observe uh what uh what my folks do. Um I've got a little rule of 10. I mean six six outcomes that you want out of ten, people are gonna do normally, naturally. I mean, you don't have to tell them, you don't have to train them, you don't have to teach them. One, and this is integer mass, so it's not a full 10%, but one, you know, there'll be some issues, but I like to kind of focus on the three where there's inconsistent results and uh and uh look at what what people do. Really the only true way to do that is to observe without telling. Here's what uh here's uh what I need, here's how I need you to do things. I mean, you know, you obviously need to give guidance on what they uh what they need to do, but how, you know, I like uh I like creativity, I like people uh you know trying different things and and and being creative.

Charlotte Ward: 2:39

And it's it's pretty crucial, isn't it, in the early stages that you don't step in in that first month and just say, right, here's how I want things done from day one. You do actually have to spend some time understanding.

Greg Skirving: 2:54

So I I use the same technique when I'm onboarding people, but at least you need to say, here's the things that we need to do. Yeah, the first 30 days with a new team, you just get to observe that they know what to do, they've they've uh been doing the job for a while. Uh and again, when you observe, you get that default behavior. It's not, you know, uh, I mean, over time, over 30 days, you should be able to tell uh well what you have. So it's a great time to really sort of uh understand uh um your folks who who the who the true leaders are, who might need help, uh, and uh who might need some uh uh other types of coaching.

Charlotte Ward: 3:31

So are you aiming to do anything else other than understand in that first 30 days? Are you aiming to foster and forge particular relationships, do you think?

Greg Skirving: 3:42

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Um I'm big, big proponent of weekly, weekly one-on-ones, you know, uh uh bi weekly uh uh sorry, bi-weekly one-on-ones and weekly team meetings. Yeah, absolutely. Uh forging a relationship for relationship perspective, but in terms of uh of the performance of of the role, how people attack it, um, you know, how how diligently, how diligent they are, how how uh uh creative they are. That's that's that's where you observe, but yeah, absolutely always uh always trying to make a connection with uh with uh with my folks and peers, um, especially in different groups.

Charlotte Ward: 4:22

Actually, I think peers are equally as portent, and it's something we often forget, I think. I have a 3060-90 plan that I have used forever, and it's really generic because you can't you you can't know anything before you step into a role, really, beyond what the company does and the few bits you've gleaned from an interview interview process. But the 30 60 90 that I've used uh in my own roles and with clients and uh everything is it's really generic, but right up there is is forging relationships with peers as well as team. Because I think your peers hold the key to uh understanding the the context of your team actually in the organization in a way that your team probably can't tell you.

Greg Skirving: 5:10

Absolutely. You know, if each department is a black box, we have inputs and outputs, and we rely on on different uh different teams for different things, understanding the nuances of the existing uh systems and processes. Inevitably I end up finding some things where, you know, I'll ask somebody, well, why do we do it like this? And you'll get the answer, well, we've always done it that way. In many ways, that first 30 days serves to, you know, have a completely outside, unbiased uh view of how things go. Gives you a chance to sort of look at that, and that's where you can uh uh pull out of that some potential uh uh improvements uh and gain some efficiencies.

Charlotte Ward: 5:55

I've got one final question for you. What do you think at the end of that first month you should aim to have achieved?

Greg Skirving: 6:05

Yeah, uh, you know, in a nutshell, um uh uh understand uh understand your people for the the folks that report to you, number one, understand uh your peers, and again, forging those relationships is critical. Uh understanding um the current environment. Truly understand beyond what your research and uh what you glean from uh uh the interview process so that you can uh you know understand and make a positive impact to the business.

Charlotte Ward: 6:35

That's it for today. Go to customer supportleaders.com forward slash ninety-five for the show notes, and I'll see you next time.