New Leader Intro 1:1 Template

Listen first with every person on the team you inherit, and find out what nobody put in the handoff.

The fastest way to lose a team you just inherited is to show up with the answers before you know the questions. Your new team is wondering whether you'll change everything, whether you'll see their work and whether they should update their resume.

This template runs your first real one-on-one with each person. You go first with your own introduction, then learn how they work, what energizes and drains them, where their time goes, what they think about the team and the customers, where they want to grow and how they want feedback. It ends with room for their questions and a themes and follow-up section you fill in within the hour. The guide shows a full made-up example and a plan for running every intro 1:1 in your first 30 days.

What's included

• New Leader Intro 1:1 template in Word, plus a make-a-copy link for Google Docs

• 10 sections: meeting details, introductions, working styles, experience and motivation, priorities and productivity, team and customers, goals and growth, feedback and start, stop, continue, their questions for me, and themes and follow-up

• A step-by-step PDF guide with a worked example for every section, a six-step plan for your first 30 days of intro 1:1s, extra questions for reorgs and internal promotions, and the mistakes to avoid

• A Steal This new leader listening check

Who it's for

New CS leaders and managers inheriting a team through a new job, a promotion, a reorg or a merger.

How it works

Digital download. Your files are ready right after checkout. Open the Word file, or use the link included with your download to make your own copy in Google Docs. No physical item will be shipped.

Bundle and save

This template is part of the New CS Leader Bundle: 8 templates for $79, about half the price of buying them one at a time. Want everything? The Complete Architect Collection has every template in the collection for $299.