After what was likely to have been a rigorous recruitment process to select the best person to take on the vacant role in the team, and we then use the impersonal term ‘onboarding’.
Leadership, of course, is a relationship, and that relationship is with every person on the team and beyond.
The onboarding process conducted by a leader, will ensure that the new member feels welcomed, and that they are a valuable member of the team.
Organizations, through their HR department, spend valuable time, selecting the right candidate for the position.
Then, in order to make sure their decision was the right one, they impose a probation period for the new joiner.
In simple terms, what this really means is “We’ve chosen you, now prove yourself to the satisfaction of the manager and to HR or you’ll be out the door in three months.”
This is a fairly standard practice. The onus is on the new joiner to prove themselves… Or else - out !
However, what leaders will do, is to make sure that this new joiner feels immediately part of the team, is warmly welcomed, that they feel trust is being built. Very quickly, they realize that here as a leader who will support them, allow them to make mistakes and to grow Individually and professionally.
Organizations universally give the new joiner a ‘probation threat’ - if they don’t perform satisfactory, they will lose their job !
Think about this: there is considerable irony in this almost universal probation arrangement – lack of performance by the new joiner in the probationary period is likely a clear indication that the recruitment process has failed at great expense and the organization then has to go through the process again to find a replacement for the person whose failed the probation test.
What if we ‘flip’ the probation?
What if the leader said to the new employee “If in three months time you don’t feel that this environment, this team, is the right fit for you, that you are not inspired, encouraged, empowered, and recognized for the good work that you do, if this role doesn’t fit your passion and ‘job satisfaction’, please give us two weeks notice of your departure.”
In a very real sense, this is not just the new joiner proving themselves in a ‘probationary period’ - with it’s implied threat of dismissal - but the leaders in the organization proving that the organization can bring out the best in everyone - through leadership - or that individual can choose to exercise their act of ‘probation’ on the organization.
After all, leaders bring out the best in those they lead because they lead with their heart…and for many new joiners this is a new and positive experience.
And likely they will exceed expectations.