A Letter to a Small Company’s New Hire — Part IV
How to build relationships and prove you’re not just in it for yourself
Note: This is the fourth and final post in my series on how new hires at small, growing companies can make the most of their onboarding and give themselves a valuable head start. If you’re reading Part IV first, I suggest starting at the beginning.
Building Intimacy — Write a Scouting Report
That new laptop your company bought you? It comes with an instruction manual. That instruction manual has two sections.
The first section describes how your new machine works and how you’re supposed to operate it. It teaches you how to get the most out of the device. The second section is for troubleshooting. It describes the specific ways the machine can malfunction. If it’s a good manual, it also gives you some pointers on how to avoid said malfunctions. A few pages of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Your company invested a couple thousand dollars in your IT setup. They’re investing many multiples of that in you as an employee. So here’s a question. Why don’t you come with an instruction manual? How is your team going to know how to get the most out of you and avoid your malfunctions?
I think every businessperson should come with a guide for “how to work with them.” So I invented one. It’s called the Scouting Report. You should write one. Then you should share it with your team.
I won’t belabor the details of the Scouting Report — everything you need to write and share one is in this 5-minute article. The important part is not to wait. On your very first day, in your very first 1:1, you should pull out the one-page guide for working with you and say something like this to your manager:
“I thought it might be useful to share a little about how I work and a few of the blind spots I’m working on so we can get off to a great start together. Would that be ok with you?”
Here’s a prediction. They won’t say no. They will say “thank you.” And by sharing how you work best (and then asking a bit of the same from them) you will have built some valuable professional intimacy. What typically takes months can be yours in your first week on the job.
Avoiding Self-Orientation — Know Who You’re Helping
Marketing exists to make Sales easier. Product should make Engineering easier. And as a new hire, it’s your job is to make someone else’s easier.
The easiest way to guard against self-orientation is to figure out quickly who you’re there to help. Who isn’t on your team, but is still dependent on you? Who do you team up with when it’s time for a big sales pitch, an important board meeting, or when a customer emergency forces you to drop everything? These “loose tie” relationships are easy to forget about, but identifying them early is critical. Not only can they help you build and broaden your perspective on how the company works, but they can also help you prove to your manager and team that you’re “other-oriented.” They’re a powerful avenue for building trust.
Being “other-oriented” is all about empathy. And the key element of empathy is perspective-taking: The ability to connect with the experiences and feelings of another person, recognize the lens they see the world through, and understand what they’re dealing with.
There’s no greater proof of empathy than taking the time to study someone else’s experience. So don’t just schedule a meeting here and there with these people. Don’t just buy them coffee. Dig in. Ask questions and learn what they do all day. Read up on the basics of their part of the company. It’ll prove to them that you recognize the importance of what they do and how they contribute. Learning a bit about someone else’s job is extra work but, as I’ve written before, it’s worth it.
After all, you’re here to help.
Final Thoughts
The Trust Equation changed the way I think about onboarding. It was encouraging to learn that trust “doesn’t just happen.” Trust can be assembled — piece-by-piece — through intentional vigilance and relationship-building.
We all want the same things from our work — autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Trust is the foundation upon which all three are built. It’s the best investment you can make as a new employee. And while you can’t expect much from a small-company onboarding program, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Everyone has the power to take ownership during the first few weeks on the job, build relationships, and come out firing. Everyone has the power to make their onboarding theirs.
As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. The best recipe for a great first impression and a fulfilling career is to build trust. Focus there, and I’m betting you’ll look back after a few months and marvel at how far you’ve come — and how much you’re contributing.
Trust me.
