Team Members Over-Interpret the Actions of a New Leader

Team members are naturally nervous when a new leader arrives or is elevated to direct the team. Even if the leader is somewhat known to the team through reputation or experience, their values, priorities, and preferences are viewed as highly uncertain and potentially problematic. 

Team members have a desperate need to understand how things might change and what priorities might shift. Their lives are affected by the introduction of a new leader. They make every effort to learn what’s in store for the future.  

Unbeknownst to most leaders, team members engage in an active hunt for meaning in everything the new leader does. They over-interpret and overanalyze just about every action and choice a leader makes, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. 

Who are they meeting with first? How are they arranging their workspace? What questions are they asking?  How do they introduce themselves to others? What meetings are on their calendar? What car do they drive? Have they spoken to customers? In what order? 

In the search for meaning and certainty, team members make big inferences from the small acts and choices a new leader makes. Leaders who dismiss this as nonsense or just the games people play are shortsighted. While they can’t stop or prevent team members from engaging in this pursuit of sense-making, they can and should harness its power.

Since leaders can’t prevent team members from drawing conclusions about their often random choices, they have the opportunity to become more intentional about what they do. While leaders shouldn’t overthink how others will interpret their actions, creating salience and priority by the choices they make is a smart call. 

Whatever is most important (initiatives, people, customers, issues) should come first on purpose. For instance, arranging the order of meetings to begin with the most important meeting first will be interpreted by the team exactly as intended. The most important customers and issues need to be visited or addressed in the order of their salience to the leader. 

Leaders need not over-engineer the possible meanings associated with where they park, what their voicemail message reflects, or how they arrange their office space. However, they would be wise to use the natural over-interpretation by team members to establish the correct priorities and salience. 

Team members have a need to predict how the leader will engage in the future and will continually draw inferences from nearly all actions and choices during the honeymoon phase. Smart leaders use this to their advantage. 

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