Starting your staff on the road to true effectiveness!

What is your definition of effective leadereship? How do you get there? These are the questions that trouble every new manager in the first month on the job!

Walking into a new position of authority is always challenging whether you are moving up in a company that you have worked in for years, or if you are entering a whole new company. Some would say that it is easier to start fresh at a new company or department so that your new staff will not be too familiar with you and more easily accept your leadership suggestions. Others say they would rather have a staff of people with whom they have worked for years so that you can "hit the ground running" with any momentum you have already built up, and with the ability to read each other well.

However, no matter which way you go there definitely has to be a set of guildelines that you can evaluate your productivity and effectiveness! Every time I have entered a new leadership position I have taken a month to evaluate the situation -- even if I was moving within a department -- and get the input of my staff on what goals they think we should have. I have sat with my bosses and asked what their goals might be for my job. And I have asked what I think are the best and most important goals that meet as many of those goals as possible. that is always my starting point.

What is your technique? Please let us all know!