Why We Love New Team Members…...not

Author: Dean Tuckey

In a previous life I was an Account Manager for a commercial office supplies company. Then one day we had ‘Peter’ join us. We were told by management that he was a superstar who had years of experience selling office supplies in America and would ‘keep us on our game’.

I can speak for my colleagues in saying that we instantly disliked Peter.

This opposition to a person that we had never met was not reasonable, but we were not processing the impending arrival of a new team member with our rational brains. Management failed to recognise the significance of a new arrival and the threat to individual status and social harmony that team members felt when presented with this information.

The new person coming into the team is perceived as a foe to our limbic brain and not a friend. Social harmony is knowing our place in the hierarchy. It is not necessarily about being at the top of the ladder but knowing and being secure in our rung’s stability. A new team member threatens that stability; will we be on the same rung, or could this end in us having to find another ladder as our colleagues find a new best friend?

In stating that Peter was a superstar and would potentially ‘show us up’, Management further heightened our sense of vulnerability and need to defend turf and toys. Peter did not have an easy integration, and he struggled to move from foe to friend. Peter ended up leaving the organisation prematurely.

What could the manager have done differently?

As Andrew O’Keeffe writes in his book, Hardwired Humans – Successful Leadership Using Human Instincts, “People want to work in a functional team where they are secure in their relationships with each other and confident in the support the leader gives them”.

We recognise the need for a leader and the chaos that would ensue without one. We want a boss who meets our often-subliminal expectations, including that the boss takes care when bringing new members into the team.

Good bosses recognise that bringing on an employee is critical for both the individual and the team. They want to ensure that the transition from stranger to part of the in-group happens as quickly as possible. Good bosses facilitate this transition by:

• Ensuring that the new person is set up with the equipment and space to do their job
• Making informal introductions to break the ice
• Clarifying the purpose and values of the organisation so that the newcomer knows what to focus on and how they should work with others
• Staying connected with the employee and not being too quick to palm them off to other staff

Inducting a new employee represents a great opportunity, but it is also a time of high risk. Think about your onboarding practice and look for ways to make it more favourable for newcomers and existing staff.