Development 4 Managers.com

Belonging at Work

100 Days Into a New Job

Recently a question was asked in LinkedIn.com regarding what an employee should do 100 days into a new job.

The author of the question was kind enough to select my answer as the best answer to his question. In my reply, I pointed that 100 days into a new job one should take a 30,000 feet view of what is happening. From that distance, around the 100 day mark, one should ask oneself if you are ?the right person in the right place.? Only you can answer that for yourself, but sometimes you may need the help of someone in HR, or a manager, a mentor, even a coach to get to that answer. A follow-up strategy could be to start outlining what you need to start doing now to take the job to the next level.

If you are sure you are in the right place and that you are the right person for the job, then we go from 30,000 feet right down to earth, our second area. At this point it helps to do what Scott, Tom and Lee mention. These are a combination of tactical things and strategic things you do. You have to ?learn the job? and build the relationships that let you do the job the right way.

Something to consider in this second area: never have lunch alone your first 100 days. Also, be genuinely interested in everyone you meet at work, even the janitor. Being ?new? gives you an outsider?s perspective of what people say and do. You may hear from the most unexpected places ideas for the most successful changes.

A manger once heard a warehouse assistant in shipping mention how packaging of a product could change, and save in shipping costs. That comment had been heard before, but fallen in deaf ears because of the assistant?s reputation for "always coming up with crazy ideas." The problem is that the ideas never made it to management.

A third area is what happens outside the office. Never stop building your extended network. At 100 days you may have the opportunity to meet many new people outside the company. Get to know them, and make sure you get their contact information, even if people tell you that you may never interact with them on your day-to-day job. It is because you may never see them again that you want to keep their information. You may not need them now, but you may in a year or so.