Leadership Transitioning: How To Start Your New Role On The Right Foot

The Centra Foods sales team recently attended the National College & University Foodservice conference for the Pacific and Continental regions. On the first morning of the conference, I presented at one of the breakout sessions.

I talked about Leadership Transitioning — how to most efficiently and smoothly step into a new role and begin to make changes that positively affect (and sometimes completely re-direct) your company. For this conference, this discussion was related solely to college foodservice.

Gathering Information From Foodservice Leaders

The fun part for me was preparing for this presentation. In an effort to make a presentation that was both interactive and informative, I asked for help from the people actually attending the conference before they arrived.

I emailed all of the conference attendees about a week before, asking them this question:

What advice would you give to someone starting a new job? How can they do their best to be effective and make the transition as smooth as possible?

I got a lot of great responses back — each of them had helpful input on what they would do and what they wouldn’t. This advice from the trenches included horror stories, great experiences and advice pertaining to both.

With their suggestions in hand, I built out a presentation that compiled both their experiences and my advice. Below is the presentation I created.

If you click through it, you’ll find all of the best advice as you’re transitioning into a new role and quotes from the major influencers in college and university foodservice.

My favorite piece of advice? It was repeated over and over by experienced foodservice directors:

“When you get into a new role, don’t act, don’t try to prove yourself”, they suggested, “Stop. Take Stock. See what’s been done before. Get a lay of the land”.

Course Resources

At the end of the slideshow, I recommended some more resources for Leadership Transitioning in case you need them. There are two great programs for stepping into a new role, each that direct you through the first 90 days of the process of starting a new job.

The First 90 Days (Genesis Advisors)

Leadership Transitioning (Harvard Business)

These courses are available both in person and online for someone who really wants to move into their new role as effectively as possible.

Book Resources

I also recommended a few of my favorite leadership and business books that are especially helpful when you’re starting a new job (or for that matter, any time).