To do or not to do: it isn't even a question

When people start a new job, there are 7Cs they need to focus on. The first C is compliance: you must know the rules regarding what you need to do and when.

Some practices and policies you need to comply with are formal and often documented; e.g., you need to wear high-visibility jackets in the plant, or you need to report sales figures by the 5th of every month. Others are less formal, but are established practices; e.g., fortnightly team meetings are a common occurrence across the business, or most people use a particular template for business plans.

I’ve seen new people fail to submit their credit card expenditure, and I’ve seen people put alcohol on their credit cards when it was against company practice to do so. I’ve known a manager who was appointed to a new role when his company merged with another, who refused to use the other company’s CRM. I’ve also known of new managers who have cancelled the practice of fortnightly 1:1 catch-ups, and new managers who missed the performance review deadlines for their team.

When new hires don’t comply with existing formal and informal expectations, they start having the wrong conversations with their manager. Who wants to talk to their new manager about a drinks bill, or explain the impact of missed performance reviews on salary reviews? Conversations with your manager should be about what you are doing, not about what you aren’t doing, and the focus of the talk amongst your team should be about what you are adding, not what you are missing.

Newly appointed managers need to quickly find out what the compliance aspect of their role is. Of all the Cs, this one is the most straight-forward, and can be quickly addressed. You can read about the other Cs on our website:

https://www.rightstartjobs.com/organisations/the-cs-of-success

photo credit: Mark Duffel, Unsplash