A real sweet spot for us is helping teams, with a new leader, come together to accelerate how they align and tackle the year ahead. There’s been a lot of movement this year already, so we’ve been really busy!
After an energising workshop, one leader told us recently:
In two days, you’ve moved us forward three months!”
Through our engagements we’ve been talking to lots of leaders about how long it’s taking to onboard new talent and for them to become productive.
Here are five things worth keeping in mind:
1. Hiring for experience isn’t enough
“They were hired for their experience … so why aren’t they flying?”
On paper, the hire makes perfect sense. Strong CV with relevant experience and a proven track record.
But onboarding with a new organisation isn’t that simple. New hires need to:
- Navigate culture and unwritten rules
- Understand how decisions really get made
- Build trust and credibility
- Learn where influence sits
And for senior leaders, this is harder. They’re not just learning a role, they’re navigating:
- Competing expectations
- Legacy dynamics
- Pressure to deliver quickly
We all know:
- Experience shows what someone has done
- Attitude shows how they’ll show up
Patrick Lencioni captures this brilliantly in The Ideal Team Player when he describes ideal team members as humble, hungry and emotionally intelligent. As he puts it:
If you have to choose between humble and hungry, choose humble.”
Humility makes feedback easier, collaboration smoother and learning faster.
Similarly, Jim Darragh, on Get Amplified, spoke about looking for coachability over polish.
CVs don’t show you how someone responds when they don’t know an answer. They don’t show how open someone is to feedback.
But those qualities make all the difference.
2. Onboarding – How much guesswork is there for the new hire?
Every time someone joins a team, it becomes a new team. Whether you planned for it or not, the dynamic shifts.
The challenge isn’t hiring talented people. It’s assuming that talent will naturally translate into impact.
Because when someone joins, they’re trying to figure out far more than just their role. They need to know:
- What does accountability actually mean here?
- How is healthy conflict expressed?
- What happens when targets are missed?
- How are decisions really made?
When we’re unclear on these things, performance can become subjective and stress levels rise.
A simple way to remove the guesswork
One of the tools we use with teams is a “Working With Me” guide. It’s designed to take the guesswork out of getting to know each other.
It helps us understand each other better by sharing ways of working that we usually assume, but rarely talk about, such as:
- How we like to communicate
- What we expect from others
- How we work under pressure
- What “good” looks like
Most importantly, it helps us see each other as human beings, not just colleagues with business goals.
3. Expectations are rarely as clear as we think
One of the biggest onboarding failures we see is lack of clarity and unclear expectations.
Leaders often think they’ve communicated what “good” looks like, but new hires are left piecing it together through trial and error.
This can quickly create friction. One of the strongest examples we’ve seen with a client to overcome this included:
Everyone in the team was grounded in clear behavioural principles.
The result?
30 hires. 1 regrettable attrition in 7 years.
When everyone is clear on what is expected for them:
- People settle in quicker
- Accountability feels fair
- Performance improves faster
4. Most new hires take six months to truly embed
This is the part many leaders underestimate. Our New Hire Productivity Survey showed:
- ~6 months to fully embed for most roles
- Longer for senior leaders
When enterprise sales are expected to hit the ground running after 3 months, but it’s am 18-month sales cycle, how can you set your teams up for success?
When it comes to integration, focus on what you can control. Help new hires take the guesswork out of:
- Understanding how the team and cross-functional support teams operate
- Building relationships and trust (understanding each other’s workstyles through DiSC would help here)
- Clarity on roles and responsibilities
With intentional onboarding, you can really kick start their time to productivity.
5. Retention is shaped by the team environment
Thoughtful onboarding accelerates integration. But retention and sustained performance are shaped by how the team operates day to day.
What really determines whether someone succeeds, is the team environment they land in.
This is where our TeamX formula comes in (and importantly, it’s measurable):
- Purpose → why the work matters
- Trust → how people challenge and support each other
- Clarity → how decisions and accountability work
- Simplicity → how easy it is to get things done
And when there’s a continued focus on how the team operates, that’s when the real magic happens:
- Time to productivity shortens
- Execution accelerates
- Results become more sustainable
So perhaps the question isn’t, “Did we hire the right person?” It might be, “Did we set them, and the team, up to succeed?”
Because every time someone joins a team, it becomes a new team.
Curious what might be slowing your team down?
If new hires are taking longer to embed, it’s often a sign something in the team environment needs attention. We can help you uncover the areas that may be slowing performance.
Try the Team Speed Check, it takes minutes, but the insights can transform how your team works.
A Bit About Us
We are an award winning team coaching company dedicated to accelerating organisational performance. We partner with leaders to navigate complex change and operational challenges to unlock the full potential of their teams. Despite the ever-increasing use of technology, organisations are powered by people.
How fast you go is determined by how you work together. We are passionate about the difference we can make in partnership with our clients.
If you would like to learn more, please get in touch. We’d love to chat with you.
