Put your team in place
Leadership isn’t a solo gig for Hallman, who immediately started creating a team to help him identify and solve problems at the 1,700-employee company. Because he’d been with InSight three years by the time he took the role as president and CEO — first as executive vice president and then as interim COO — he’d already evaluated the key people.
But don’t overlook this step. Get to know the company’s leaders as well as potential leaders who may be rising through the ranks.
“The first thing one ought to do is to really spend time getting to know who the team is and what their capabilities are,” Hallman says. “Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the team you have in place.”
Hallman wanted honest, truth-seeking team players. But these weren’t arbitrary traits he dreamed up. He conducted an employee survey asking people to describe the current and ideal culture at InSight. He culled the responses into five main themes that became the company’s core values — and a yardstick to measure his management team by.
Problems may also reveal the skills you need to solve them. Hallman says a new leader’s first and second tasks — creating a team and identifying goals — should be simultaneous. You can’t achieve anything without the right people beside you, but you may not know what needs to be achieved without people pointing the way.
So as you work with existing managers to identify goals, consider the skills you’ll need to achieve them. Constantly align your initiatives with the abilities of your current work force.
By looking at those indicators of what the company needs and wants, you’ll more likely choose leaders who will mesh.
“The culture is ultimately made up of people. The only way you can get the culture you want is if you have the people in place that are willing to live and breathe that culture,” Hallman says. “You have to be very careful that you have people who behave in the way that you’re speaking.”
Only one of Hallman’s original seven direct reports is still in the same role, but he’s quick to point out that the ones who were let go left on good terms. Still, dismissing previous leaders can cause a stir, whether you promote familiar faces or bring in outsiders. The key to sidestepping controversy during personnel changes is candor.
“You have to be able to articulate why you’re making the change, and you have to be confident it’s the right thing to do,” he says. “I didn’t want to try to be sneaky about it. I was just very upfront: ‘This is what I’m doing. Here’s why.’ If you do that, I think it takes a lot of the drama out of it.”
