Leadership Playbook: On-boarding newbies
Start strong to ensure a smooth ride for all...
As the start of a new school year approaches, many teams will be welcoming new members. Bringing on board new people is a crucial process in any business, with the mantra ‘start how you mean to go’ never more important. Getting those first interactions right is key. Over time, I have found there are a few things you can do that help things start well, allowing you develop cohesion and build strong relationships that underpin a successful working relationship and a positive, successful team.
Hopefully, your recruitment process has been thorough, successful and new team members are coming on board believing in your values, are sufficiently qualified and experienced, and have passed all the essential checks such as DBS, ICPC, past employer referencing etc. It is also important to ensure anyone involved in hiring is Safer Recruitment trained… If this isn’t right, then what follows is probably going to be a waste of time and you could be parting company soon enough anyway.
On-boarding checklist
I have built two types of these over the years. One I would send to the new hire and one for my team’s use, which has since been updated and adopted school-wide for all new starters. Both lists are just simple spreadsheets and contain important elements of the job that need to be covered before a team member starts…they can be RAG’d or numbered to show where early development needs to focus.
The one shared with the new recruit is designed to get them up to speed, so they can see where they might need to spend time before starting…this includes simple things like MacBook usage and software to more pedagogy-focused readings that would be of great benefit to know prior to starting.
The first meeting
A great leader I had a few years back sent me a couple of questions that he wanted to discuss in our first meeting. Getting them early gave me a chance to think about them so when I met with him I had my answers and was better prepared for our first conversation. One in particular stood out and I now use it all the time:
"How do you like to be led?"
It’s simple but I had never been asked it before and it got me thinking. I shared my preferences and it set a positive tone for our relationship. It gives an insight into how you will be working together…It lets you hear how they function and allows you to shape how they can expect you to show up, which enhances how you’ll work together, sooner. It also shows you care and want to get the best out of them.
The first meeting is always going to be key. Setting aside a good hour for this allows you to introduce, explain and lock in things like 121s, dig deeper into what they want from you as a leader and will also enable you to share your expectations early for them.
Another question I now send prior to the first meeting is:
“How do you prefer to receive feedback?"
This also helps set the tone for your working relationship, allowing you to gauge how they’ve previously experienced getting feedback, as well as enabling you preface how important feedback (giving and receiving) is to you. I always qualify this by explaining I am continuously looking to develop my own leadership skills and recognise feedback as an essential part of this process. I share my process and qualify how it is used to help them develop to ensure the school gets the best out of them. I’ve written before about feedback, and it is still something I’m working on myself to be better at.
What happens in the first meeting?
Prior to the meetings, it is always good to send an invite with a time (1 hour), the purpose and location for them to accept. The first meeting is to establish the relationship, get to know the newbie better and set the tone for the future… unlike normal 121s, I go first in this meeting and lead the agenda.
As a side note: I think that whenever a leader makes a request for someone’s time, they should always give the reason/purpose. We have all had the request from a boss to go and see them later and then worried all day that you’ve done something wrong, only to find a it was a simple request or question of no consequence that has derailed your focus and put you off your best for the day’s lessons! No matter the intent, or even if it is obvious why (like the first intro meeting), a leader should say why they want to meet…it ensures there’s no unnecessary anxiety.
A rough agenda for the first meeting might look like this:
1 Intros - establish relationship
After the usual basic intros…
Ask about family and motivations for being where they are now…Ask about hobbies etc
What is something you'd like to do more of in your spare time?
What would you like to know about me/the team/the school?
2 Onboarding - checking in on how they have been onboarded
Much of this will be out of your hands as induction is the responsibility of lots of different parts of the school…but as a leader it is good to get a grip on where they’re at…
Here, you bring out and review the onboarding checklists shared and explore what they know, areas of development they need in short term, who they still need to be meeting (and why) and what they need to be doing themselves to get up to speed.
Qs might include:
How has induction been so far?
How has your first week been?
Anything surprised or confused you?
Is there anything you'd like more info or resources on?
What can I do to make the next two weeks successful for you?
How connected to the school/team/other newbies do you feel? In what way? Ask about anything that might help with this.
3 Expectations - share the team expectations, school-wide expectations and yours
This is key to getting the tone right. Sharing a bit about culture, how things currently work and your expectations of them. Without sounding corporate, it’s good to run through or at least touch on and link with the team’s and school’s vision and values.
This is where the “How do you like to be led?” question can be discussed in detail. As mentioned, this Q is generally shared prior to this meeting, and if it’s an external starter, I will have asked it at interview, but it is still great to talk about here in this first meeting.
In this part of the meeting, I find it useful to explain my process for 121s and feedback. I would also ask here: “How do you prefer to receive feedback?” Again, this is often shared beforehand so they should have considered it. I like to hear what they say but then share my approach of giving feedback (bit.ly/4fkH7TV).
Other questions to consider include:
What is your ideal working environment? Independent or collaborative? They might prefer to take work home, work quietly in the office or be part of a team…all good to know. (Culture/climate)
What makes you feel valued at work? Undervalued? (Belonging)
Do you have any pet peeves?
What do you expect from me? It’s good to know the expectations held about you as the leader. These can be discussed and may help you develop and be better for your team.
What do you expect from your team? How have/can you communicate this? This Q might be more for a leader but still helps you to understand their expectations within a teamwork environment and can help you shape what you expect, and share the culture of how things currently get done.
4 Goals and PD
A bit like in 121s, this tends to be the last thing to discuss as it is future focused. It might not feature in the first meeting as there is always a lot of job/team specific matters that need to be covered beyond the basics written in this structure. But, if time allows it, or in a follow up meeting, it is good to understand their aspirations, goals and direction.
Questions worth using include:
What accomplishments are you most proud of so far in your career?
How are you tracking your progress? Google Doc, voice recordings...enables a chat about Bluesky at our place, but this is covered more thoroughly at induction.
What goals are you thinking about for this year, personally, for your team, T&L and leadership?
Where do you see yourself in two years, five years, ten years?
What barriers do you see in your way of these goals?
What support do you need? How can I help you achieve these?
It might be you need to have a few meetings to get through everything. If there’s time before teaching starts, it’s good to try and squeeze them in then, teachers really do just want to focus on teaching so the sooner the better. It may be you bring some of the remaining questions into your first few 121s.
Very early on, I will encourage them to ask questions - as many as possible - for the first few weeks to get to know how things work. You have to prep the teams they’ll work with to expect this so no one gets annoyed! Lots of questions mean lots of learning, and as they get settled they will slow down but it is important they know they are expected to be asking so they don’t feel stupid, or that they can’t ask!
5 Email template
Below is a template of a basic email I have used in the past to lock in this first meeting.
Subject: Welcome – our first check-in
Hi [Name],
I hope your first few days have gone well and that induction has given you a helpful overview of how things work here. It’s a lot to take in, but I hope you’re starting to feel settled and connected.
I’d like to set up our first one-to-one so we can get to know each other a bit, talk through how we’ll work together, and make sure you’ve got everything you need to make a strong start.
As part of that, I’ll also share a bit about how our team works, what you can expect from me, our team’s focus and how we’ll approach feedback and development over the year.
Before we meet, have a quick think about these two questions - we’ll start the conversation from here:
How do you like to be led?
How do you prefer to receive feedback?
They’re simple but helpful in shaping how we work together from day one.
Which of the following times work for you?
[Insert 2 suited options, e.g.
Thursday 11:00–12:00 or Friday 2:30–3:30]
I’ll send a calendar invite once you confirm what works best.
Looking forward to the chat.
Best,
Your name