Jump Start Skip with Director

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified)
in
General Questions and Comments

 Hi,

My division has a new Director - two levels up from me.   My teams have successfully provided ad hoc services to her in the past, but we've never actually met.  In the interim, my boss (who was an unsuccessful applicant for the Director position) has taken a international posting - which leaves me, in the short term, with no direct line of reporting upwards.

So - I've just made a 30 minute appointment with the sole intention of building a relationship with the new Director and I intend to apply the MT Jump Start model.   It's also a skip level meeting as well.

Given that she's so new (still under a month in the job), I'm contemplating dealing just in the future tense - "How will you assess how well we're doing?  What metrics will you use?"  that sort of thing.

Has anyone else been in this situation and can offer any advice or foresee any possible pitfalls to this approach? 

 

cheers

Ebn

 

Submitted by jen wren on Tuesday May 26th, 2009 10:20 pm

 I recently went through something similar - new VP and immediate boss not quite as engaged.
While I didn't accomplish much from the session, the feedback from the folks on this forum was very helpful - I modified my approach considerably.
The briefing book (powerpoint slides in my case) and the "Jump-starting Internal Relationships" podcast are great resources.
Since your teams have provided this new Director with ad hoc services in the past, I'm guessing she's got ideas and opinions re. these services and your team. So, if I were faced with something similar, I would really want to understand how the Director views my organization and my team, how she views the key priorities and metrics that define objectives and performance.
Another key area is to understand how she wants to be kept updated on ongoing issues/activities/projects. I find that new bosses tend to be casual about this, but it's good to come to a mutual understanding on this sooner rather than later.
Other than that - you have 30 minutes. I find that posing 2-3 key questions and then letting the other person talk is the best. Helps you get to know the person - in what they say and what they don't say..... and how they do both.
Good luck. Let us know how it goes.