First-Time Leader

First-time leaders get motivational and planning tools from top executive coaching firms

The First-Time Leader provides basic frameworks, processes, and tools to help first-time leaders and their teams deliver better results faster. Leading is about inspiring and enabling others to do their absolute best, together, to realize a meaningful and rewarding shared purpose. Authors George Bradt, Managing Director of PrimeGenesis, and Gillian Davis, Managing Director of AlanKey, show how to achieve these results through the BRAVE acronym: Behaviors, Relationships, Attitudes, Values, Environment. Learn the three stages of team development, and get advice for specific leadership situations including onboarding yourself, onboarding others, and crisis management.

• Offers a way of thinking about leadership and a structure for action to help first-time leaders lead at both overall conceptual and tactical levels
• Includes downloadable tools that are easily adaptable for each leader's specific context
• Contains illustrative examples and stories from a range of experienced leaders and experts to help guide first-time leaders through things they may not have experienced themselves

The First-Time Leader shows new leaders what to do next, later, never, why, and how. It's an indispensible guide for stepping up and inspiring others to come together for success.

Acknowledgments xi

Part I Getting Started 1

Chapter 1 Overview: Congratulations! It’s Great to Be a Leader. You’ve Earned It. And Your New Job Is Going to Be a Wild Ride 3

Part I: Getting Started 3

Part II: Build Your BRAVE Leadership from the Outside In 5

Part III: Leading Small, Medium, and Large Teams 7

Chapter 2 Take Charge of Your New Team 11

Moving into Your First Leadership Role from Outside 11

Tool 2.1: Onboarding Risk Assessment 13

Tool 2.2: BRAVE Onboarding 16

Getting Promoted to Your First Leadership Role from Within 26

Summary: Take Charge of Your New Team 34

Chapter 3 The BRAVE Leadership Success Framework: Behaviors, Relationships, Attitude, Values, Environment 35

Behaviors: How You Get Things Done through Other People 35

Relationships: The Heart of Leadership 36

Attitude: Make Crucial Choices around Your Team’s Strategy, Posture, and Culture 36

Values: Align Yourself and Your Team with the Organization’s Mission, Vision, and Values—More or Less 36

Environment: Get Clear on Your Mission and Fields of Action 36

Building up the BRAVE Leadership Framework from the Outside In 37

Part II Build Your BRAVE Leadership from the Outside In 39

Chapter 4 Environment: Get Clear on Your Mission and Fields of Action 41

Understand Context 42

Tool 4.1: 5Cs Situation Analysis Guidelines 44

Align around an Interpretation of the Situation Assessment 47

Tool 4.2: SWOT 49

Tool 4.3: Profi t Pools 50

Make Clear Choices around Where to Play and Where Not to Play 50

Tool 4.4: Where to Play Choices 56

Summary: Where to Play 56

Chapter 5 Values: Align Yourself and Your Team with the Organization’s Mission, Vision, and Values—More or Less 59

The Secret of Happiness 60

Link between Happiness and Purpose 61

Mission 61

Tool 5.1: Mission 62

Vision 63

Tool 5.2: Vision 64

Values 64

Tool 5.3: Values 66

Coherence 66

Summary: What Matters 67

Chapter 6 Attitude: Make Crucial Choices around Your Team’s Strategy, Posture, and Culture 69

Strategy 69

Tool 6.1: Strategic Planning 73

Tool 6.2: Business Plan Elements 74

Posture 75

Tool 6.3: Posture Mapping 77

Culture 77

Tool 6.4: Culture Assessment 81

Summary: How to Win 83

Chapter 7 Relationships: The Heart of Leadership 85

Communication Frameworks 85

Tool 7.1: Communication Planning 93

Tool 7.2: Writing Guidelines 98

Tool 7.3: BRAVE Meeting Management 100

Tool 7.4: Press Interview Management 104

How to Hire Great People 105

Tool 7.5: Recruitment Methods Analysis 111

Tool 7.6: Recruiting Brief 112

Tool 7.7: Job Requirement Checklist 113

Tool 7.8: Candidate Sourcing 116

Tool 7.9: Interview Guide 122

Tool 7.10: Interview Debrief Form 123

Tool 7.11: Reference Inquiry Authorization Form 124

Tool 7.12: Reference Inquiry 125

Bringing New Hires into the Team 127

Tool 7.13: Offer Closing Process 128

Tool 7.14: Announcement Cascade 129

Tool 7.15: Accommodation Checklist 131

Tool 7.16: Assimilation Checklist 132

Tool 7.17: Acceleration Checklist 133

Managing People Who Are Doing Well—and Not So Well 136

Tool 7.18: Career Planning 138

Tool 7.19: Development Plan 139

Tool 7.20: SMART Goals 141

Tool 7.21: Team Charter 142

Tool 7.22: People Management Tools 145

Tool 7.23: Managing Behavior 146

Tool 7.24: Performance Assessment 149

Tool 7.25: Succession Planning 151

Summary: How to Connect 153

Chapter 8 Behaviors: How You Get Things Done through Other People 155

Delegating, Innovating, and Negotiating 155

Tool 8.1: Innovation Guidelines 159

Tool 8.2: Negotiating 162

Sales and Marketing 163

Tool 8.3: Purchase Funnel 163

Tool 8.4: Strategic Selling 165

Tool 8.5: BRAVE Creative Brief 166

Operating Processes 168

Tool 8.6: Senior Management Trip Planning 169

Tool 8.7: Milestone Management 173

Tool 8.8: Quarterly Cadence 177

BRAVE Crisis Management 178

Tool 8.9: Crisis Management 100-Hour Action Plan 183

Summary: What Impact 186

Part III Leading Small, Medium, and Large Teams 187

Chapter 9 With Teams of Less Than 10 People, Adopt a Start-Up Mind-Set 189

Why the Way You Lead Today Is Going to Be Inadequate Tomorrow 189

Solve a Problem Shared by Many 191

Assemble a Team of Like-Minded Individuals with Diverse Strengths 192

Lock in Values 194

Summary: Start with Environment and Values 199

Chapter 10 Lead Teams of 10 to 20 Like an Extended Family 201

What Matters 201

How to Win 201

Managing the Evolution of Your Start-Up’s Corporate Culture 201

Why Culture Matters Today 202

The Building Blocks of the Vocus Culture 202

Sustaining and Building Culture 203

Team Expansion 203

People Management and Operating Practices 203

Feedback 204

Summary: Evolve Attitude 204

Chapter 11 If You’re Leading More Than 30 People, Hierarchy Is Your Friend 205

Work on the Organization 205

Enabling Practices 205

Embedding Operational Practices 206

Vision and Values 207

Summary: Team Evolution 208

Notes 209

References 213

About the Authors 215

Index 217

GEORGE BRADT has a unique perspective on transformational leadership based on his experience as an executive, consultant, and writer. After two decades in sales, marketing and general management around the world, now he is a Principal of CEO Connection, Managing Director of the executive onboarding group PrimeGenesis, author of a weekly column on Forbes.com and of five books on onboarding including The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan. George can be reached at gbradt@primegenesis.com.

GILLIAN DAVIS has a new generation’s view on leadership through her work in marketing, recruiting and coaching. After witnessing and experiencing dissatisfied employees leaving their jobs, not because of the role, but because of poor managers, she is now on a mission to help first-time leaders inspire and enable their teams. Gillian can be reached at @gilliandavis07 or Gillian@firsttimeleader.tv

Did you know that 40% of new leaders fail within their first 18 months? And, did you know that most leadership failures are completely avoidable? In fact, every new leader is perfectly capable of inspiring people to achieve successes and improve performance beyond what they thought possible. Best of all, leadership excellence is easy if you recognize a few key leadership truths. In First-Time Leader, transformational leadership experts George Bradt and Gillian Davis tell you what you need to know to ensure that your first time at the helm makes—rather than breaks—your career.

Drawing on the insights of proven leaders from around the world, as well as from their own experience as leaders and consultants, the authors of First-Time Leader have distilled the most essential lessons on leadership into a coherent approach that can be applied anywhere. With the BRAVE leadership framework (Behaviors, Relationships, Attitudes, Values, Environment), you’ll learn how to work your new role from every relevant angle, resulting in confident leadership that will inspire and enable your team.

Your first leadership role is a career-defining moment. Are you equipped to make the most of it? First-Time Leader gives you everything you need for success, including examples from real-world scenarios and detailed discussion of the basic concepts of onboarding, crisis management, and strategic planning. In addition, learning activities and a suite of fully adaptable downloadable tools are at your disposal and ready to use. With First-Time Leader, you will become the kind of leader you know you can be.

Praise for First-Time Leader

“Incredible insight essential to leaders at all levels. I will refer back to these often.”
—Jaime Mazza – Human Resource Manager

“This book will help first-time leaders be BRAVE and inspire others to be BRAVE through its worksheets, steps, acronyms, lists, insights, real life stories which really provide color commentary to the content, and even simple stuff like running meetings.”
—Kris Adler – Program Manager

“BRAVE is very useful to apply to many different leadership challenges from setting strategy to crafting effective communication plans. Loved the stories.”
—MaryBeth Schroeder – Director Talent Development and Internal Communication

“Combines crisp identification of critical leadership concepts with detailed and comprehensive resources to assist leaders (both new and experienced) of organizations of any size or function.”
—Seth Gardner – Executive Director

“Where was this book as I cruised up the corporate ladder at P&G, PepsiCo and Paramount? First-Time Leader is the quintessential book for new leaders - written with clarity, conviction and common sense, foundational to helping new leaders and their teams deliver better results faster. We found George and Gillian’s approach with B.R.A.V.E. and the three secrets of happiness as the new backbone for leadership and voted this book in our top 10 MUST read for this year! Make this book your North Star.”
—Rick Tocquigny – Host Life Lessons Radio – “America’s Favorite Lessons Show”