When taking on a new leadership role, what’s the first area you focus on?

Our reader poll today asks: When taking on a new leadership role, what’s the first area you focus on?

• Understanding the operational and technical aspects of the role – 22%
  
• Setting a new and compelling direction to get people excited – 2%
  
• Understanding your people and building relationships with them – 69%
  
• Getting to know influential key stakeholders and building rapport with them – 6%
  
• Something else – 1%

Get to know the team first. The vast majority of you (69%) focus on building relationships with your team before digging into other responsibilities like knowing the operational/technical aspects of your role. That’s a solid approach. By getting to know your team members, you’ll build rapport and trust. That then turns into support for your efforts. It also helps you understand who on your team can help you learn and execute those operational/technical aspects of your job. You’ll learn your role faster when you have the right people helping you learn. The only way to know who the right people are is to invest the time in getting to know them.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.