Situational diagnosis conversation

  1. The situational diagnosis conversation. Seek to understand how your new boss sees the STARS portfolio you have inherited. Your view may differ from your manager's, but it is essential to grasp how she sees the situation.
  2. The expectations conversation. Your goal is to understand and negotiate expectations. What does your new manager need you to do in the short term and in the medium term? What will constitute success? How will my performance be measured? When? It's better, of course, to under-promise and over-deliver.
  3. The resource conversation. This is essentially a negotiation for critical resources. What do you need to be successful? What do you need your manager to do? Key here is to focus your manager on the benefits and costs of what you can accomplish with different amounts of resources.
  4. The style conversation. This is about how you and your new manager can best interact on an ongoing basis. What forms of communication does he/she prefer, and for what? Face-to-face? Voice, electronic? How often? What kinds of decisions does he/she want to be consulted on, and when can you make the call on your own? How do your styles differ, and what are the implications for the ways you should interact?
  5. The personal development conversation. Once you're a few months into your new role, you can begin to discuss how you're doing and what your development priorities should be.