When Coming from the Outside to Take Over Leadership of a New Team – Part 1

When you are the new manager taking over leadership of an existing team, you are coming into a whole scene with its own backstory. You are a new character: the outsider. Your new direct reports, on the other hand, are the insiders. They very likely have plenty of baggage with each other already.

You need to learn the nuts and bolts of your new job ... 

The question on everybody’s mind right now is simple: Who the heck are you to be taking over their team?

As the new leader of an existing team, you are, in all likelihood, replacing a boss who has recently departed – by being either promoted or demoted – or who is altogether gone now, voluntarily or otherwise. In any case, you are filling somebody else’s shoes. Rest assured that some of your new employees will feel that absolutely nobody can fill the previous manager’s shoes. Others will feel their lot can only improve under new leadership. Others might have been internal candidates for the job and resentful that an outsider…