Onboarding Success Factors

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Rodney Apple: Welcome back to the Supply Chain Career Catalyst podcast, where we help supply chain professionals take control of their careers with practical, real world advice. In our last episode, we walked through how to evaluate and negotiate. A job offer, making sure you’re saying yes to the right opportunities and not making any regrettable moves.

Today we’re gonna follow in that linear journey. You’ve negotiated the offer, you’ve accepted it you’re excited to get started, background checks have been cleared, and you’re just waiting on that start date. So this episode is gonna dive heavily into onboarding from the new hire’s perspective, what you can do to set yourself up for success before day one. What you should focus on in your first week, and we’re gonna carry that through your 30, 60, 90 days and beyond. But here’s the reality: Most careers don’t stall because someone wasn’t smart enough. They stall because onboarding. Was passive [00:01:00] instead of intentional or reactive, instead of proactive. So today we’re gonna break down how to own your onboarding experience, avoid the common pitfalls and mistakes, build some credibility and confidence early on, and take that new role into some serious momentum.

So Chris let’s get your perspectives when you think about onboarding as. Something that’s serious, like a serious inflection point. What’s your take on that?

Chris Gaffney: In, in my own experience, I’ve been on both sides of this and I think the most impactful onboarding experience that I had was when I went from a JC to Coca-Cola and, reflecting back on it, that was the catalyst for my career at Coke.

It was important to me and my family, but I was also fortunate to have a boss who enabled a lot of things. So I definitely view onboarding, particularly today, right? The [00:02:00] job market is changing. Every person makes a finite number of these job changes, even if it’s within a company. But particularly to a new company and, to your opening, Rodney being super intentional about it.

Every, new job entry is a chance for you to make a fundamental shift in your career. A real inflection, and I think the, the stats bear it out, is that, this is getting you out of the blocks in a, track and field mindset. You’re always coming in or almost always coming into an ongoing operation, so you’ve gotta find your way.

To swim up to the pace of where the organization is as rapidly as possible. And I think, you know what I got that was most important when I was at Coke was I got plugged into the network at Coke. And I think in any organization, figuring out who the stakeholders are early on can make a [00:03:00] huge difference.

I think getting that right. Working with your boss to get really clear around what you’re gonna be expected to do in the job and getting a sense of what actions and behaviors are acceptable in that organization. Be a real observer, I think is important. The so what of this is when you show up day one?

You can’t assume that you’re gonna get a very structured onboarding. It does occur in some cases, but not always. But that’s not the reason for you not to be successful. So you need to be prepared to take ownership of your own onboarding and view it as a critical leadership accelerator for you. And if you take that frame of mind, that positions you for success.

Versus, a struggle in a new role.

So Mike, if we’ve reframed it, and I’m that employee. I’ve accepted the offer and I typically have a period of time, whether it’s a couple of weeks of given notice or whatever [00:04:00] before day one, what can I do to make the most of that time as I lead up to day one?

Mike Ogle: Yeah, that’s a great second step for us to talk about now. And I gotta say, like you did Chris I’ve faced this from both sides as well, and I’ve probably only done about five to 10% of what I should have done. Both for myself as a new employee or when I was a supervisor, to give somebody else a great headstart.

But we are gonna concentrate here on what you do as a new employee. So I’d say you don’t waste your time between the offer acceptance and the first day and the office and make some kind of assumption that they’ll have something really set up for me. It’s actually one of the most valuable periods of time that you’ve got to get your thoughts and plans together.

And figure out how you’re going to approach a great start. So before you start, your goal isn’t to master the job somehow. It’s really to prepare yourself to develop the valuable relationships and to [00:05:00] learn quickly and navigate the environment once you get there. So a few things to focus on. First, you really need to get that mental shift from being a candidate. ’cause that part’s over to being the new position owner. You’re still selling yourself as you have your first sets of introductions and meetings, but now you’re really preparing more to deliver value. What can you do ahead of time to put you in the best starting position? What kinds of resources are you gonna need? What knowledge do you need for short term and long term success? So my suggestion is to map it out and second revisit why was I hired in the first place? You gotta make sure that how you sold yourself before and how the position was sold to you, that you still understand that. So revisit the job description, your interview notes, the problems your role was meant to solve. Revisit the conversations with the major players, but also find out who else you should be [00:06:00] connecting with both prior to arrival and shortly after your first day in the office.

The third thing to think about is doing some light, but intentional company research. You’ve probably done some of this before, but now you’re doing it from a focus of how do I land in this position and get a good start so you can revisit the company’s strategy, values, mission, vision, all those kinds of things.

Maybe even go through. Some recent press releases, the of things that are going on, being able to understand how they’ve been in the supply chain news, for instance, who are the key customers? What’s the competitive landscape going on in, in your particular area? What is the company’s supply chain footprint?

Can you map out some of this kind of stuff or get the information from some of the people you’ve already met? It’s not that you’re trying to become an expert before you step in on day one, but you gotta get properly grounded. So fourth, start thinking deeper about those [00:07:00] relationships and how to build them.

We’ll talk a little bit more about this later in the episode, but understanding who are the key stakeholders. Your manager, of course, you know who that is, your peers, the people that are on your team. Cross-functional partners, clients, all kinds of other internal and external influencers that are across your responsibilities.

And finally, avoid a common trap over preparing in just isolation. So start having some initial conversations with the ones you’ve met and about the ones you need to know and have some flexibility. If you walk in the door thinking you’ve got a 90 day plan that is, that’s carved in stone you’ll probably be disappointed.

You’ll refine it once you understand the reality on the ground. So it’s probably a good idea. With that introduction now, Rodney, to really take a look at that first week.

Rodney Apple: Yeah. Thanks Mike. So we’ve done our preparation and now, you’re waking [00:08:00] up and getting ready for day one, and usually that’s when some, an anxiety may settle in.

Just the fear of the unknown and what it’s gonna be like. But obviously that quickly goes away when you step through the doors and hopefully you’re, welcomed with, some positive smiles and hopefully a well thought out onboarding schedule, at least for that first critical week.

I’ve I know I’ve learned probably through some mistakes as a business owner not having a well thought out plan can do a lot of harm. And you want to hopefully come into an environment where you’ve got some fundamentals set up. Usually on that day one though it’s getting everything set up with your systems, right?

The very basics. Your email address, what’s my phone number? Getting some time in with the bosses is gonna be important. And I think you have to frame this up. When you think about company sizes we’re a small, small company and so it’s, very quickly you’re gonna get to know everybody in the company, usually within the first day or two.

And, listening is critical. Do more listening than talking and, try not to come in with any biases [00:09:00] or I’m gonna come in on week one and start adding value. I think that’s where a lot of people make mistakes. Your job the first week is. It really is. Take it easy. Listen, take good notes, ask good questions, be curious, but also be humble.

Don’t feel like you have any pressure to come out and solve anything on that first week. So listen, observe. Take good notes, understand how the business works, what are the fundamentals what’s the mission, what’s the purpose? What are the values, and get to know those keyto stakeholders like you mentioned earlier, Chris, as you get through the week, you’re learning, you’re layering in on the building blocks to get that foundational knowledge of how the company operates and who does what, when, where, how.

You wanna start segwaying some conversations into. As I think about, and I know Chris, you’re gonna get into that in a minute here with the first 30 days, moving into 1690, et cetera. But what does success look like? What are these core responsibilities? It’s a give and take, two-way conversation.

[00:10:00] And understanding where you want your boss, to focus your initial efforts is gonna be important. What are those core objectives? Try to get those forced rank. What’s it gonna look like when I come into next week? Who do I need to meet with? I would say proactively get that list of names if they don’t already have them scheduled.

Most companies should. Have those schedule ahead of time. We just onboarded someone a few weeks ago who’s the person that would normally schedule all these meetings. I had to do a lot of that and I told her like, please, we’re gonna start you right before Christmas. We normally don’t do that.

It’s gonna be chaotic. But I’m so glad we did it. And she was very open and receptive to coming in and not having a lot of things structured. So it was very much a give and take, and I would suggest that’s exactly how you need to play it out. Go with the flow, listen, learn set yourself up for how you move ahead.

Chris, anything to add before we jump into kind of looking further ahead, past the first week?

Chris Gaffney: Yeah, I think you, you said it I [00:11:00] think a lot of what we’re talking about is aspirational and maybe too much for a really small company and may not be possible in a really big company. So I think that calibration is important.

I think ideally, you, at least for the first four weeks and aspirationally all the way through that first three months, if you can get a Friday afternoon check in with your boss, even for 15 minutes to say, Hey, here’s how the week went. I think that’s still a successful practice. That was invaluable to me when I had new employees.

And so again, having been on both sides of it and your boss may be super big. He may have a, he or she may have a very large span, but even if you could say, Hey, just gimme a 15 minute check in afternoon on Friday so we could see where things are at. I think that’s important. I think you will probably have assessed some of this ahead of day one, as Mike talked about.

But understanding the operating culture in today’s world back to work. Or is this a company where everybody’s in the building five days a week? Is it less than [00:12:00] five? If it’s less than five, you’re probably gonna start maybe being there all five days till you get comfortable with it. Be comfortable with that, but know the critical days.

If people say, Hey, Tuesday and Thursday are the days that really matter, most people are here. You may be wanting to say, Hey, how do I get caught up with a lunch crew on those first few days? Those things matter, right? You know that, you know how things are done informally in an organization.

So I, I think those are all things that are important. The other thing that would’ve added from Mike’s section is once you’ve accepted an offer and potentially it’s been communicated internally, there are likely other people that you could talk to that you couldn’t. Have spoken to when you were in your interview and assessment process.

So once the word is out there may be additional people, both internally to the organization and people in their ecosystem, customer supplier, service providers who you may be able to talk to say, what, what actually is going on here? And I think the final thing I would say is you have to accept the fact that.

[00:13:00] No job as you get on the inside is gonna look exactly like you thought it was gonna look like on the outside there. There always is a little bit, oh, I didn’t think about that. And don’t let that knock you off your center. The reality is all the great places I’ve worked that none of ’em were what that, what exactly what I expected.

It’s impossible to know everything, but I think factor that in, calibrate that. Get some coaching and guidance on that and be prepared to keep moving.

So I, I think the next thing that I wanna cover is this idea that’s still, I think, important idea of an actual 90 day plan. And I would say in many companies you might get thrown into the soup much more quickly than that. If you’re in a supervisory role, you’re real structured onboarding, you’re side by side with somebody might be a week.

And if you’re in an operational setting and you’re filling a gap, it may be less than that. So some of that you’ll have a sense of before you walk in the door, but [00:14:00] some of it you’re gonna have to calibrate. All that said, I still think you should sketch out the, those 13 weeks, if you will, three months, 13 weeks, in terms of the kind of things that you mentally want to do.

So even if you get put on the line right away in a supervisory role or a frontline leader role. In the back of your mind, I want you to be checking the boxes that, that we’ve talked about, plus a few others. So understanding the business. How do we make money? If you’re on a supply chain side, you still wanna understand how do we generate demand for our business?

I always want supply chain people to be thinking about. How do we get revenue? How do we get new customers? How do we get existing customers to buy more? How do we leverage our existing product and service, and how do we bring new service to the market? So starting to get a lens of that and listening to that, I think is important.

We’ve talked about culture. When you walk in the door, your brand new, so your interactions matter in terms of building trust, building connections, building relationships. So yes, [00:15:00] you’re leaning in that first week of being a good listener. Your conversations may be more questions where they may be validating what you heard, checking for understanding but you’re starting small and making a good impression and starting to build relationships very close to your ecosystem, and then very slowly going out as we go.

I, I don’t think you can clarify all expectations in the first week, but you wanna start, how is someone viewed as successful in this role? If there was a prior person, how did they succeed? Where did they have challenges that might inform my success? I think that’s important, and it’s not likely that you’re gonna put points on the board in the first week, but starting to think of, to start to look and say, how is someone gonna be.

A positive addition in this role. What are the things that are gonna make early, head turns to say, oh we’ve got the right person. And just start to assess that. And I think that. That’s a big part of what those first four weeks are about. So if you could do that in a structured [00:16:00] way and you’ve got more flexibility, your calendar’s not full and you can be getting in front of a lot of people sitting in, routines and meetings and being a fly on the wall, that’s great.

If you’ve gotta dive right into it, just keep these things in the back of your mind over the course of the first four weeks. I think month two, in most companies, it’s just rare to get a full 90 days before you gotta dive in. By month two, you’re on the line in terms of whatever your core accountability is, and that’s fine.

I’m very big in those second four weeks, even if they don’t have formality to it in that Friday check-in or first second of the week. I love to tell my boss, these are the three things I think are most important this week for me. Check me on that. Am I in the ballpark yet? And then go at that, at the end of the week, say I knocked those three things out and this is what I think are my three most important things next week.

And hopefully you get some validation that you’re heading in the right direction. That also allows you to show your understanding and get. Course corrected if you’re off a little bit, but it also allows you to start putting [00:17:00] some points on the board and again, helping your boss, his boss, validate again, we’ve got the right person.

Yeah, I think this is where you also start making and keeping commitments, right? Do what you said you were gonna do so that they know you’re high on accountability and your cross-functional peers start to see this is someone who’s gonna be a trusted process partner for me, upstream and downstream. I think, I said get that check in with your boss.

But it’s okay to be asking for informal feedback from folks with lunch or in, in those offline settings. Hey, how am I doing? What are you seeing from me? Any coaching from me that could be a peer or someone else that’s there. So I think that’s second month, and this is just about you starting to gain some credibility.

And getting a little momentum and people say, we’ve got someone who’s again, moved from the new person to being part of the team. And as crazy as it seems in the second month in a lot of companies, you’re already not the new person. There’s someone else who’s been you onboarded or started their onboarding after you, again, keep that shift moving.

[00:18:00] I’m part of this team. I also really this shift to say, think like you’re an owner of the company. Don’t take the frame of that I’m an employee. Feel like what, if I was an owner, public or private of this company, what would I be doing? And use that mindset. So I think, I think the third month is where you clearly articulate to your boss that you’ve got the lead and you’re asking less for direction and more for validation.

This is where I think we’re headed. This is how we’re gonna be successful this month. I have context of what our goals are for the year and where I fit and how I can impact those. This month you are really putting, points on the board and you start to have the ability to impact beyond your core role, be value added for your downstream partners, your upstream partners and your peers, right?

And then I think, then you could start to say. You usually came in midyear. You may not have formal performance objectives, but by the time you get to the end of that third month, you wanna be clear with your boss to say, for the balance of the year, how is [00:19:00] my success gonna be judged? So you’re anchored on that.

And I think if you could do any version of that, with a formal or informal 90 day plan, you really, can be off to the races after that first quarter. Mike, we’ve talked a lot about re relationships so far, but I’d like you to get, with your perspective and experience, go a little bit deeper on, why relationships are so important in any organization.

Mike Ogle: Yeah, thanks Chris. This really is the success accelerator for you. You are going to be learning from day one about all kinds of different processes and setting those up. How do things work? Doing a lot of listening, understanding all the informal and formal systems and all that’s gonna matter, but the relationships they always are in supply chain and so many other kinds of businesses are gonna matter more, especially early on. While you’re the new kid in town as Chris was alluding to, you have a, a particular window of time where you’re making that first impression. It’s a, it’s more than a day, [00:20:00] but it doesn’t last to that 90 day period for sure.

As Chris was mentioning. So think about some of the stakeholders in different categories. So you’ve got your manager. I think one of the aspects in being able to have a good relationship there is early and often communication, and then your team, you are possibly leading others, but do a, as Rodney said, a whole lot of listening.

And adjusting because you’re, you are still that new kid in town, but one of the expectations that’s going to be there is that you have listened. You bring something else to the table, you make that clear, and it’s more of a how about, we explore this direction. And try to make sure that you’re having that kind of impact.

You’ve got a whole lot of people across the company, cross-functional types of partners that you’re going to be working with both internal and external. So make sure that you understand who they are. And then you’ve got a whole bunch of those informal influencers that could [00:21:00] be part of of who you work with, both inside the company and outside the company.

One thing I haven’t mentioned before is you’ve established relationships previously of people that are your mentors or your personal board of directors in a way. And make sure that you discuss the new opportunity and things that you’re seeing and finding and might be able to pursue that’s gonna be valuable.

So every one of these groups that I’ve mentioned, they need something different from you and you need something different from them. So map out all the people. The connections between them and map out the whole thing on maybe some big sheet of paper, a whiteboard, whatever works for you to always keep that visually front of mind.

So a whole lot of your early trust is gonna be built by doing some small things following through, getting some early wins, asking for critical feedback, and. It’s important that you also liberally give some [00:22:00] credit and become part of a team as opposed to look at me and what I did from the very beginning.

And one of the warning sign to take a look at before we finish this part off is that in, in onboarding. It’s a warning sign when somebody only talks to their boss and feels like that’s their only thing that they can do. If you’re not building the lateral relationships, you’re missing out how on how the organization really works.

You’re missing out on kinda spreading the word about who you are and how you interact with others. Do you work and play well with others? And that can spread. Pretty quickly through the organization. So ask your boss and all your stakeholders for the opportunity to meet others. Don’t ever pass that up.

And so finally, build that map of relationships and their value, it will serve you well. So I think Rodney, it’s, and Chris it’s important now to be able to talk about [00:23:00] some of the pitfalls that you can run into when onboarding.

Rodney Apple: That’s good stuff, Mike. Yeah, and I would add too, we’ve got LinkedIn out there and, before you start and during your time and this is applies to your larger companies where you’ve got a significant workforce, thousands of employees you.

You can certainly hop on LinkedIn and meet friends that might be far away, or colleagues through the click of a button. So just keep that in mind. Good way to map out and connect with people, and then turn that maybe into something a little more personalized down the road. Yeah, I’ve seen my fair share of onboarding mistakes.

I’ve probably made them as an employee and definitely as an employer. But I I see a lot of folks coming in and just trying to solve all the world’s problems right away. And you just can’t do that. You have to read the room and understand the, what is the sense of urgency and understand deadlines, how decisions are made and work within that framework.

But definitely don’t come in and try to solve everything right away. You’re, it’s gonna take weeks in most cases and [00:24:00] some, sometimes months to, to get up to, to speed where the foundation and the basics. So don’t come in with that mindset. Come in to listen and learn like we talked about through, throughout this onboarding podcast.

Making assumptions can get you into a lot of trouble as well, especially early on. You really need. Chris, you hit the nail on the head. Val validate in instead of making assumptions and just running with going with the flow that can get you into a lot of trouble.

Understanding the culture, is critical. The behaviors that are acceptable and those that are frowned upon. Some companies are pretty loose and they talk that way. They belt out your F-bombs and no one cares. And then in some cases, you, that could get a pretty serious frown.

So read the room, understand the culture, the values. Keep the behavior in check. When in doubt, err on the side of being safe versus, sorry. Over relying on, okay here’s my onboarding schedule. HR is gonna give me everything. Another way to frame this up is just being reactive and waiting for someone [00:25:00] to tell you every little thing you need to do by every hour of your onboarding.

As we’ve talked about, it’s really important to be proactive. Meet them where they meet you, and and be proactive in how you expand the relationships, ask questions, validate, Hey, is this what I should be focused on right now? I think keep keeping your head down for too long. You don’t wanna sit there at the computer all day long and it’s easy to do right.

Can get caught up into here’s the system. I’m going through all the different training programs, but you need to be sure you’re taking mental breaks and doing proactive check-ins, with your boss and with your colleagues. Having something to do when the onboarding schedule there’s nothing there, right?

Understanding what you should be doing with your free time. It’s easy to get caught up into water cooler conversations and the gossip. Trained as well, and you wanna refrain from that. Of course, listen, understand what the issues are. A lot of times you learn a lot about the culture around that water cooler.

So keep that in check and take it for a grain of salt. There’s always gonna be employees out there that may [00:26:00] have, a chip on their shoulder. Just take it for what it’s worth. And don’t treat it as factual. ’cause there’s always someone out there that’s that’s jaded or feels like they haven’t been treated properly.

So don’t make those assumptions just based on one conversation that you hear. I think asking for feedback, doing those check-ins. Chris, I love. Hey, it’s at the end of the week. This is what I’ve learned this week. This is I believe I should be focused on that.

Going into next week, what do you think what’s on your mind? Is there anything that you would want me to add and have that routine till you get real comfortable and you feel like you can interpret or it, make some expectations around, around what’s around that corner?

I think confusing activity it’s real easy to get caught up with, oh man, I’m so busy. But are those tasks, are those activities focused around, those core objectives and deliverables that your boss or colleagues or customers or vendors, suppliers, et cetera, whatever your role is, are you making that momentum? Are you moving the needle forward or are you [00:27:00] sitting there stagnant? You don’t wanna be stagnant, you always wanna be moving things forward as best you can. Usually these aren’t technical or functional related as everything we just talked about and covered is more behavioral.

And I think just having that situational awareness will take you a long way.

Mike Ogle: You spurred a thought for me as you went through that. And that’s one aspect in supply chain of just making sure that when you mention sitting at your desk and looking at the screen that it’s a supply chain.

If you’ve got an operation that you’re right there where things are happening, get out on the floor, walk around, get the pulse of what’s happening, be able to establish some of those relationships. ’cause sometimes as one, one. Unfortunately, a past leader, somebody who had passed always emphasized was he learned more about standing out on the loading dock, listening to people while he was smoking cigarettes with some of the workers than he did sometimes in, in talking with the [00:28:00] people at his own level.

Rodney Apple: Yeah, that’s a great add, Mike. And another one that I just thought of and we could probably go piggyback on this for a while, but is a hundred percent business. You’re making everything about business. People are, people we work with, people, they typically have lives outside of work.

And you certainly want to socialize and get to know. Folks on a personal level and not just keep it all about business. Now that, that could vary from company to company, you get into some places, startups where everything is serious and running 24 7, that, that might be a little bit different.

But in most cases it’s really important to get to know people on a, both a personal and a business front. So Chris we’ve, and Mike we’ve covered how to prepare before you start, that first day into that first week, extending that 30, 60, 90. We don’t stop at 90 days though.

So Chris, what are some of your tactics and strategies for continuing to build that momentum? And, ultimately contributing [00:29:00] value and ideally you’re moving up through the organization.

Chris Gaffney: I think, a corollary to one of your onboarding things is it’s probably not practical to, to think you’re gonna solve world hunger in the first 90 days.

And in most cases, even a significant change or opportunity can survive till the second 90 days. But, and so I think in most cases, and there may be some exceptions, if you’re in a more senior role and you’re in a, you’re digging out from a very difficult situation. It may demand significant action in the first 90 days, but if you’re coming into a reasonably stable organization and you’ve seen things that are opportunities, you can really start making that move in that second 90 days.

Right and I think we framed a lot of our discussion to this point in the pod. As someone who’s an individual contributor, probably in many cases, you’re gonna come in and you’re leading a small team, if not a larger team. So at the same time, you’re [00:30:00] getting yourself situated. You are having to get situated in terms of a team that you’re leading.

And I think the second 90 days is where you start making a big impact with them. You’re getting to know them in the first 90 days as well, right? What are they doing? How are they doing? Where do they need help? Where are their developmental interests? You’re mostly listening around that in the first 90, but in the second day, you, the second quarter, you can start to pivot and really get after that.

So you’ve probably, had your own perspective, but you’ve also validated, what’s working well and what’s not. I could think of a team that I joined and very quickly it was clear that another unit that we were dependent on for a lot of administrative support. Was not a great provider of service and, but they were the only game in town.

So starting to wade into how, how we could start to make an impact there, even though that was a long-term issue and somewhat systemic. [00:31:00] But you’ve gotta start building some credibility with either your boss, your peers, or your team, depending on your role to say, I’ve now identified these two or three big things that.

We can, we need to do something about, you’ve got some calibration with your boss and you start trying to make an impact there. And that’s beyond the running the business. That’s starting to get into the change the business. How do we start to have an impact on how we do things better? Maybe a core supply chain process, like an integrated business planning process.

It may be, some of your, collaboration with sales and or customers, starting to sit here and say, this is not where we want it to be. I’ve seen it. It’s validated. Let’s start working on that. I think that’s where, you can have a huge impact in that second quarter and start to again, really validate that this person is not just gonna be a caretaker for their role, they’re gonna elevate the role. They’re gonna be part of the larger, larger process if they own a subprocess and be a big [00:32:00] influencer on potentially how the whole supply chain starts to perform. That second quarter can be where you can make a statement around that and, so I think as I said before, that’s also where if you’ve got a team, you can really start to set the tone on how you’re going to, lead them from a developmental standpoint, be an a advocate for them, which can get your scale, the goal if you’re leading a team.

Is to get a lot more done through other people. But the only way you’re gonna do that is if your people see that you’re credible, you care about them, you trust in them, you’re invested in them. Then you start to begin the process of getting discretionary effort for them because they’ve been assessing you in that first 90 days.

Who is this new character? And, am I gonna line up behind them? But hopefully in that second, that second quarter you could start to say, all right, we’re gonna give this guy a chance. It seems like he, he or she’s a decent person. They’re a good judge of what’s going on and they appear to be invested in me.

That can be a massive accelerator in that second quarter. And [00:33:00] I think the same thing is true with cross-functional stakeholders, right? People start to say, oh, this is gonna be a good thought partner. You know this, if we are a service provider to somewhere else in the organization, they see we’re not just about status quo.

I think you could start sending really good signals in that second quarter. Again, that can set the table for a very first successful year. So I think this is about this whole macro onboarding being a launchpad for your career. We don’t assume that we’re gonna work in one place for 30 years anymore, and whether that’s the right thing or not, but you still, when you show up on the new team, you need to say, I’m gonna be here.

For a significant period of time. And in our sports analogy, I’m gonna be part of a good run for this company. You wanna have that mindset and if you’ve established that in your own mind and other people see that from you, into that second quarter, that starts to really position you well.

Again, we’ve made a good hire. This is a person we can invest in. When they have the first [00:34:00] talent review and they say, Hey, we brought this person in, and everyone says, I think we made a good decision. This is someone who, we should be thinking about not just in their current role, but where can they go with the organization.

And I think then you’ve really, you’ve had a successful macro onboarding at that point. Yeah, I wanted to add one more thing in there that you’ve made me think of as you went through that process when you hit this 90 day point, it’s probably a really good opportunity to update your personal SWOT analysis ’cause you’re gonna have your strengths that of course.

But now you’re gonna know a whole lot of weaknesses of things that you still need to learn about and how to develop yourself in this new role. And you need to be able to clearly identify the opportunities that are a match for you. You had addressed part of that, certainly with what should you focus on next and adjust on, and then also one of the other valuable things that you’re bringing to the table with that new perspective.

Is, what are you seeing in those [00:35:00] opportunities and threats? And as you share those and ask questions with your bosses and others, that’s gonna be, I think a nice game changer for you.

Rodney Apple: That’s a great add. And I think it leads into the broader, learning and development. Of course you’re gonna have your objectives, deliverables to go after, but in tandem with that.

Thinking about just like what you said, Mike, your skills, and I know I want to go, I’d like to, now that you’re in there for the first 90 days you don’t wanna start thinking about, oh what’s the next job? You want to do well in the job that you’re in now, but it doesn’t hurt to be thinking, about what the possibilities might look like.

And then what are the skills, experiences that I need to get there? And then formalizing that into some kind of an individual development plan. Whether your company has something like that. Formalized or not, you can certainly work with your boss and colleagues to help identify a few things that you wanna work on, courses to take classes, et cetera.

So make sure you blend that into your onboarding. And as you move through those first [00:36:00] quarter, second quarter into that first year or so, always be learning is the mantra.

We’ll close this out. And before we do though, I did want to highlight that this is our foundational series for the supply chain career catalyst.

The word catalyst is, certainly is what we’re focused on here and. If this is the first time listening it is a linear journey. And so I would encourage you to go back and listen to episode one through five. Episode one, we get into career planning and taking the proper time and space to reflect on where you’ve been and what you might wanna do next before you make a hasty unre regrettable move like a lot of folks do. And then what are the myriad of career paths? What’s hot, what’s not, thinking about things from industries that are growing versus declining. What are those career paths where you might wanna focus your efforts?

And then three, we put the plan together job search strategy. How do you map out companies? How do you identify that next opportunities, how do you connect with recruiters, networking best [00:37:00] practices? You start getting interviews. Let’s talk about what you need to do to prepare before the interview.

How do you conduct the interview? What do you do to follow up on that interview to position yourself for that next step? Hopefully an offer. Episode five dives into offer evaluation as well as. Negotiation so you can make the right move and ideally get the things that matter most to you before you sign on the dotted line.

And then obviously this episode dives into what you can do as the new hire to set yourself up for success. And this guy leads right into the leadership series that, that Chris, that you led 20 episodes. And I would also encourage you to go back. Through through that, because we start out in a linear fashion.

How do you lead yourself? Got a little bit of that today with onboarding. And eventually you may aspire to be a manager. How do you lead others? And at some point you may lead other leaders that have people under them. And some people wanna rise on up to the top leading a supply chain.

And we talk about, what does that role entail? [00:38:00] So it’s very much a linear journey leading yourself to leading the whole thing. So we do encourage you to go back and check out our supply Chain leadership series as well. And with that said, if you found this episode helpful and you think others could benefit, please share it with someone that, that might be starting out a new role.

It’s the first of the year here in, in January. And a lot of people are starting new roles, so we have quite a few people starting this month as well. Share it and give us a on your favorite platform. That’s always very helpful. And if you’re looking for additional supply chain career resources, check us out at s scm talent dot com.

We look forward to seeing you next time around. Appreciate you listening. And best of luck in 2026.