Two questions you should ask your team as a leader in a new role

Two questions you should ask your team as a leader in a new role

I remember it very clearly: I was in my mid-thirties, on a plane to meet my new team. My very first leadership role lay ahead: one hundred engineers, mostly highly experienced experts who had seen plenty of bosses come and go.

There I stood before them, slightly unprepared and nervous, immediately thrown in at the deep end by my then boss’s warm introduction:

“We’re delighted you’re here, Michael! Now I—and all of us—are curious to hear what you have to say…” It must have gone something like that. :-)

Fortunately, I had had a flash of inspiration on the flight: introduce myself very briefly, ask just two questions, and let the expectant team members write their answers on workshop cards. Yes, back then a hundred people could still meet physically in one room and write on paper cards!

1. What hope do you attach to my standing here today and becoming your new boss tomorrow?
2. What concern or fear arises from my standing here today and becoming your new boss tomorrow?

With the first answer on the front and the second on the back, almost one hundred responses gave me fascinating reading on the flight home and a first impression of what mattered to people in my new team.

Much later, I received personal feedback that this appearance had made a positively surprising first impression. It was also the first and most important leadership lesson I learned:

Good leaders show a genuine interest in people!