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Last week, I adopted a dog thanks to Salesforce. Let me back up: For those who aren't familiar, Salesforce is a very dog-friendly employer. There is a room in our headquarters called “Puppyforce,” a spot where you can reserve a desk and bring your pet to work with you. Puppyforce hosted an adoption event with SF Animal Care and Control, where I met the adorable, lovable Peanut — a 6-year-old pup looking for a good home. Last week, after a seemingly endless stream of Amazon packages delivering dog supplies, I brought her home.
As we (both Peanut and myself) adjusted to our new living situation, I've been thinking a lot about how taking ownership of Peanut is a lot like taking on management of a new individual or team. Here are three key similarities.
Peanut is different than any other dog I've met — with her own individual strengths and her own individual weaknesses, just like people. As a new manager, it can be hard to suss out what makes your direct-reports tick — especially when you haven't developed rapport with them quite yet. This is where you put your listening hat on. Rather than making assumptions, take the time to sit down with each employee one-on-one to understand them more on an individual level. Topics to be discussed include, but are limited to:
Meeting individually with your new employees should be near the very top of your week one agenda items — if not the top. If you're meeting with people outside of the team before you've gotten to know your own team members, you're doing it wrong.
As a manager, your role is first and foremost about building an environment for motivated people to do their best work. But relating to point number one, your employees are going to have different things that motivate them. Peanut, for example, is not particularly food motivated. This confused me immensely, and still does — I'm accustomed to my parents' Labrador, who would eat an entire truckload of her kibble given the chance. Most of the treats I wave in Peanut's face simply don't faze her — so it's up to me to keep learning what does motivate her.
As a manager, this is equally true. Forbes put together a list of nine top things that motivate employees. Your employees typically won't be motivated by just one of the items on this list — most likely, it's a combination of this list. Perhaps in a team meeting it's a worthy exercise to have everyone stack-rank these nine items.
As a new manager, you're most likely pretty nervous. But you're employees are nervous too! Even after you've set up your initial one-to-one meetings with your direct reports, agreed upon the cadence of how often you will continue to meet, and begun to understand what motivates each individual employee, you need to stay visible to that employee. What does that mean?
You'll surely be invited to a lot of meetings in your first couple weeks. It can be overwhelming to you, and from your team's perspective it can be disconcerting. All of a sudden there's this new person that is sitting in the boss's chair, but from 9am to 5pm, they aren't anywhere to be found. Try to carve out some time each day to spend some time at your desk so your employees have the opportunity to ask questions or engage in small talk with you. If you aren't in an open-office plan, ensure that you “make the rounds” to your employees each day, so you aren't shut up in an office or in a cubicle that seems unapproachable for your new team. It will go a long way in building relationships with your new team members — you're showing them that no matter how full your calendar is, you care about getting face time with them as well.
I have to go to the office every day, Monday-Friday. With Peanut in this adjustment period, I make sure every morning I wake up with enough time to not only feed her and take her outside, but also enjoy some time for cuddles and quiet time on the couch before the day starts. I want to be visible to her in the morning, so she knows that I'm thinking about her and that the morning is our time together.
Got any other leadership tips you've learned from owning a pet? Tweet us your ideas @Salesforce!
