The Ultimate Guide To Your First 90 Days In A New Role

Episode 169 June 24, 2025 00:37:59
The Ultimate Guide To Your First 90 Days In A New Role
Let's Be Diverse: Solutions for HR Leaders, Managers and the Workforce
The Ultimate Guide To Your First 90 Days In A New Role

Jun 24 2025 | 00:37:59

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Hosted By

Andrew Stoute

Show Notes

Starting a new role is a time for learning, relationship building, and demonstrating your value. In this episode we discuss the importance of taking initiative to set yourself up for long term success in your career. Our guest is Chrsitina Somerville

If you would like to reach out or connect with Christina:

linkedin.com/in/christinasomerville

Thank you again to my Gold Sponsors Nicole Donnelly, with Hello Moxie, and Alexandra Bowden, Will Kruer with PEOPLEfirst Talent & Retention Consulting andThe Wellness Universe Corporate, Feature Sponsors Trish McGrath, CCTC, CDCS, MBTI with Edge Career Solutions, Erika R. Taylor Beck with Authentic Foundations Kaitlyn Rios with Faced With Grace and Ashley Cox, PHR, SHRM-CP from ashleycox.co. Thank you all very much for your  support.

Hi, I’m Andrew Stoute, host of Let’s Be Diverse, an HR podcast where I share motivational posts, insights on HR and leadership topics, and personal anecdotes. As an empathetic and innovative HR professional, my goal is to inspire like-minded individuals who believe that the workplace should be a safe place to succeed and grow. Together, let’s explore different perspectives and create meaningful

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Opinions expressed in this episode are personal. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this streaming platform. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Good day, everyone, and welcome to another edition of let's Be Diverse. I am your host, Andrew Stout. This episode is dedicated to all my loved ones who supported me through this journey. Those who have left us will always be in our hearts and will never be forgotten. I'm sure a lot of you have started a new job and. And in the process of the new job, there was that first 90 days where you were expected to do certain things or you were learning certain things or you were trained in those certain aspects in those first 90 days. We're going to talk about that today. And I'm so honored and thrilled to have as my guest today Christina Somerville. Christina, welcome to the show. Like I said, I am super honored to have you on as a guest today. [00:00:50] Speaker A: Andrew. I am so excited to be here. I'm smiling, I'm grinning ear to ear. We were supposed to do this last week, but we're doing it this week. I'm so happy to. To be here with you and have this conversation. [00:01:00] Speaker B: I am thrilled as well. How are things with you, Christy? And I want to know what's going on with you. Give me the tea, the deets, give me it all. Timmy, what's going on? [00:01:08] Speaker A: Well, it is what, the latter part of March, and as I'm in the Pacific Northwest, so we're just eking out the end of our winter. We're waiting for some sunshine, but that might not come in for a few months, you know, but things are good. It's a Friday wrapping up a long week, but things are good. Getting into the weekend. Yeah, I mean, we had talked last Friday it would have been PI day and I had made a pie for PI Day, so. But we're one week out, so. [00:01:36] Speaker B: Wonderful. What kind of, what kind of pie? [00:01:38] Speaker A: I made a blueberry lemon pie to kind of bring on the vibes of spring, you know. [00:01:43] Speaker B: So how come we didn't get any invite to have a slice? I can imagine a good slice of pie. You can't go wrong with it. Maybe a little scoop of ice cream or whatever. But yeah, you can't go wrong with a good slice of pie. So I love to hear that things are going well. And yes, the warm weather is. Is coming and it's super exciting. I hear in Canada, too is the same thing, warmer weather. You know, we're looking at sitting outside in the deck and enjoying the sunshine and the weather and probably eating outside, having separate outside. So it's super exciting. For sure. So, as you know, before we get going or all my listeners know before we get this podcast going, I always have a fun, thought provoking question to ask my guest to get things going. Christina, are you ready for yours today? [00:02:26] Speaker A: I'm a little nervous, I'll have to admit. I'm a little nervous. This is going to be the test of like, can you think on the fly, Right? Okay, go for it. [00:02:35] Speaker B: You're going to do great. I just know it. I just have a good feeling. Okay, so your question is, if your 14 year old self suddenly found themselves inhabiting your current body, what would your current self do? [00:02:49] Speaker A: Okay, let's see. You know what? I think my 14 year old self would give me a high five. And the reason I'm saying that is because this is going to be a milestone birthday this year and I have committed from early on and I've kept it up to continue, continue to take care of my health. So I make it a priority to exercise three or four times a week and I push myself hard and I, and I eat well, except when I have my pie. But like, it's just like, you know, you think. Cause I remember when I was a kid and I like, I don't know, your perceptions of your parents is just warped because you're a kid, right? And now I'm on the other side of it. But I was always like, you know, my mom wasn't like in the greatest shape and I have a 9 year old daughter and I am proud that I continue to like make sure that I'm in good shape and I'm healthy and I do it for the health so much more than like looking good. But I want to model for her good what, what a good body image is, right? Like, I don't talk about dieting, I don't freak out about having the pie on PI day. But she sees me working out, she sees me, you know, and also it's more than just, you know, working out or eating right, but like I get my sleep or I meditate every day or I make sure that I'm socializing with my friends because I think social health is a component of overall health. So I think that's the answer I'd give the wonderful. [00:04:09] Speaker B: That is a great answer. [00:04:10] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:04:11] Speaker B: It's a fantastic answer. You're going to make me sound like I seem like I'm a liar here, a fibber here, because I always tell my guests that they never or listeners. I never tell the guest about this question. You're going to make it look like you. [00:04:23] Speaker A: No, no, you didn't tell me. You didn't tell me. I guess I just like for the moment, like thankfully I was able to kind of come up with something on the fly. [00:04:30] Speaker B: But you did do very well and I totally agree with you. You're, you know, the image and our health and we do stuff for ourselves, we do stuff to, to, to keep ourselves healthy and so that we can actually do the things that we want to do. So yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly on that. That it would be a great situation or thing for your 14 year old self and for your daughter now to see what it is, what it is like. And that because it is, it is super hard for sure with social media and everything. It's a super, it's another topic. But social media for sure is, is, is definitely a difficult, difficult thing. Okay, so Christina, let's get into this topic here. This is a super exciting topic for me. We're talking about the first 90 days of a new job here and why it's so important. So I want to get your thoughts on this. Why are the first 90 days in a new job so important? [00:05:17] Speaker A: Well, let me, let me just do a little quick of an intro so somebody could say, well, why do, why do you care? Why should they care about my opinions? Right, yeah, the question, oh, no worries, no worries. But so I have, my career has been, I like was thinking about it, it's like kind of a long, strange trip. It's been. I, what I am right now is a project manager and I didn't start my career off as that. And I started off in sales and a consumer packaged goods industry and now I'm in fintech. I've kind of meandered here and there. I did a lot of college recruiting when I was early on in my career and so I've been very attentive, I guess to what that onboarding HR experience was. I never actually was in hr, but I did a lot of the interviewing. I did some of the college recruiting like I mentioned and I remember being at one of my companies and they used to call the first 90 days the coffee break. And I, that kind of like stuck with me. And I think for the companies who are progressive and they really want to have a good onboarding experience, they think about, okay, this 90 days can really shape the, this, this employee's experience. And if we do it right, they can really get their ROI out of this employee as quickly as possible. So I think it all depends on the company. Right? I've had some really great onboarding experiences, and I've had some really less than stellar onboarding experiences. But again, I'm not sitting in the boardroom talking about the onboarding strategy of companies, but I think in general, what can you get learn. What can you learn in the first 90 days? You always hear that analogy of people saying, oh, I'm drinking from the fire hose type of thing. And I think it's about that, you know, this is this opportunity for people to kind of really get ramped up, really learn as much as they can. The expectations are lower than, you know, six months in. So that kind of get the employees more or less hopefully are given a bit of grace as they get themselves up and running. But, but the thing that I, I'm a big advocate for, and one thing that how we actually connected is Even on my LinkedIn headline, I am a networking enthusiast. I really believe in meeting people, forming relationships, connecting, like, really connecting. I think that can take you very, very far. And probably a lot of people who are listening. If you were to poll the people who are listening, what percentage of people found their job through some connection of theirs, whether it's their immediate connection or a distant connection, it would probably be more than 50%. I would, I would guess so. The thing about the first 90 days is, in my opinion, it really is an opportunity for you to. You're given license to network internally and you're brand new. Oftentimes, people are very welcoming of new employees. And this is your opportunity to, as I say, network up, down and sideways. You develop a good rapport with your boss. There isn't the stress of projects happening or there isn't the stress of things, deadlines. You have a good rapport. You, you can start off on the right foot. Same thing with your team members, right? Your peers. You can get to know them, you can develop rapport, you can develop a trust. And then likewise, I think there's ample opportunity to go up, like, skip level, right? Go up to your boss's boss and again, establish some rapport, establish some reputation in this, this company that I just, I am that now. I've been there now about a year and a half and I was very deliberate about, like, I am going to network internally. And I had come off of a layoff and I was like, I guess almost like scared scared, like, okay, I really want to cement my, my reputation here because anything can happen. So I don't know if I ever told you this stat, Andrew, but in the first year alone, I completed over 81 on ones in my company, 80. So I was just like. And it went from senior VP level all the way down. And I don't want to say down, but I ended up meeting an intern and we developed actually very good rapport. And this day we now have a great mentor. Mentee relationships. We talk, you know, we talk about diversity. And I think be mindful about diversifying your network. And that can look like a whole bunch of different ways. So I don't know if I answered that question precisely about the first 90 days. [00:09:16] Speaker B: You sure did. And what you're telling me. When we're starting a job, our first 90 days, we have to show a degree of autonomy and ownership. So when you're starting that job, you're showing that organization or that team that you are owning responsibility to, to take on that job and be successful at that job. So that is a key part. And if you're engaged in that first 90 days, then the ownership and the autonomy is going to grow and it's going to be up there. If you're not engaged in that first 90 days, then there's something wrong. And you mentioned it before, building rapport. So that would be key. Maybe it's because you're not meeting enough people. Maybe it's because you're just not feeling part of the team. Maybe you're feeling like an outsider because sometimes you join a team. Everybody's been working together for three, four or five years. You're just coming in new, everybody knows each other. You're like the newbie, and you kind of feel like the outsider. So by asking them questions and being part of their network and getting to know them, that's going to build your autonomy. And you're taking ownership in all of that as far as I'm concerned. [00:10:25] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. [00:10:26] Speaker B: So do you think that leaders understand the importance of an employee's first 90 days? [00:10:32] Speaker A: Well, I think it. It all depends on the each individual organization and the commitment at the top for making sure that the onboarding experience is a good one. And you know what, if you think about it, the onboarding experience really starts if you back it all the way up to the hiring process. Right. And so you get signals, you get signs early on about how things are probably going to go. So it wouldn't make a lot of sense if you had a pretty less than desirable hiring process, interviewing process, why would you expect the onboarding process to all of a sudden be stellar? Right. You would think that there would be either quality throughout, end to end, or not. So again, as I think about you Know, when you go through the interviewing process, they're probably showing you the best of what they've got from the outside. And then this is a sampler of probably what it's going to be like on the inside. But getting back to your question, I think that, you know, it all comes down to the commitment and the priorities of higher leadership. Do they want to have a good onboarding experience? And in one hand it's like, okay, it's brand reputation, okay, that's fine. But also it could be roi, right? So the salaries that we as employees are earning when we come on board, it's, it's, it's a lot, right? Like over the expense of labor is one of the biggest expenses on the, on the budget. And so if we can get an employee up and running and producing sooner, you know, faster, then you're, you're starting to pay for the, this investment, starting to pay out. So if you want to, you know, the companies that look at it, maybe it's a two pronged approach of what is our, how do we support a good brand, our brand, you know, as an employer and then also how do we get the ROI out of this employee? And I know that sounds kind of crass or a little bit, you know, cold, but. Right, let's, that's what we're here for, right? Where this is what we're here for. We need to contribute to the bottom lines one way or the other. The top line or the bottom line. And so when an employee has feel supported, then they can get working as quickly as possible. And then it probably also does have the residual effect of long term retention. Right? So interestingly enough, I've, in the course of my career, as I said, I've had great experiences, not so great experiences. I had this one, I had this one onboarding. My manager, I swear to you, did not know my name. He, he, like I was, I came on and I was with a small team and he worked remotely and he would come into the office like a couple times a month. But every time he came into the office he was so busy with all these meetings and I don't think I ever, I don't even know if he knew I reported to him. It was like he was so disconnected. So it was not. That wasn't a good experience, but what made up for it maybe if it wasn't structural. The actual team was very welcoming. And so sometimes you have team members who take it upon themselves because they're nice people, because they want their whole team to perform well, that they Kind of pick up the slack, and they provide an onboarding experience that the company corporately just is not invested in or just can't do it or whatever. [00:13:29] Speaker B: So when you're talking about priorities, I believe that leaders have to be proactive as well. So you're talking a little bit about it, but a leader is proactive. They're making sure that the process of the person's first 90 days is successful. I mentioned the word engaged before, that they're engaged. And I think we have to look at early, what I would call early wins. So an early win would be something that they did well or they had a really good week, or they, you know, they did something that they were. Maybe not that they wouldn't expect them to be ready for, but they did it. [00:14:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:04] Speaker B: And we have to recognize those early wins. And I could tell you if you do that, it means so much to that individual because you're noticing that early win and you're like, wow, okay, they noticed that. I did. I must have done something good. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing and I'm going to be successful at that. Being proactive is definitely a priority, and that's going to keep your employees engaged in those first 90 days. [00:14:28] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. There's this really interesting thing that happens, I think, in the first 90 days, and I don't know if those listening can appreciate it, but you start on a new company and like those that first few weeks or whatever, you're so brand new and there's almost like the honeymoon part of it. Like, oh, you're brand new and everyone's so welcoming and you aren't expected to know anything. But then as the time inches along, you're, you know, there's like, okay, you're in a meeting. Okay, can you leave this meeting? Oh, can you put this deck together? And. And so slowly but surely, there's this inching along of more and more responsibility, and there's this almost like a jumping off point of saying, okay, got it. And it gets closer to those 90 days, and we're just arbitrarily saying 90 days. Right. But it's those, those first few months, you need to kind of jump off the cliff and hold your own. And it's a little bit scary, like, okay, I'm on. But then you get over that hurdle and then you feel, at least my opinion, you get better, you feel better, you kind of get your legs under you. But it's that really weird feeling of like, oh, I'm just the new guy. Right. How many times do they say that? How many. How long can you let that go? Hey, I'm just the new guy. And then there comes a point where it's like, I think you've run out of that excuse. [00:15:33] Speaker B: Yeah, there's that saying that we can do hard things. So when you do that, you realize, oh, crap, I can actually can do that. Or yes, somebody asks you a question, what you do, and you explain a little bit of what you do in your job, and then you're like, holy crap. I actually was able to explain that. So maybe some of the stuff that I'm learning, it actually is sinking in more than I thought it was. So. Which is. [00:15:55] Speaker A: And it boosts the confidence, right? It boosts your confidence. It's like. And you're right, exactly. You're in a meeting and you have to articulate something. And you're like, I really hope I got this right. And you get it out. And then the people in the meeting are like, yeah, you. That's right, that's right. And you're like, yes, I did it. So it's a very confirming, confidence boosting experience. And hopefully you get those sooner, you know, a lot more sooner than later. [00:16:17] Speaker B: So my next question, and I noticed is something that a lot of people, especially people who are not in hr, may have asked this, and I've heard people ask me this before. Is 90 days an optimal amount of time to measure the success of a new, new hire if the training is inadequate? [00:16:33] Speaker A: I think that's a tricky question. Is it all about the training? This is a kind of a rhetorical question. Is it all about the training or is it in. In some ways, does the employee have to own part of that? And so my point being is that there have been times where maybe the training wasn't adequate, it wasn't sufficient, but then I can't just sit there and say, well, I didn't get trained. Maybe I need to say, I need to be my own advocate. I need to be my own advocate of my own education and say, you know, I'm seeing that there's a gap here. Who can I go talk to? It gets back to the networking. Right. Who can I go talk to to get this. This question answered? And so this rack, actually, now that I'm thinking about it, is a really great venue or, I don't know, excuse, if you will, of going far and wide to get more information. So I don't think, and I don't know if a company is going to say, you know, point blank, okay, in 90 days, this employee is in this camp or that camp. I think after. I think there is a. Generally a sense of grace for those first 90 days. Less grace as you get closer to 90 days, more if you're early on. But ultimately maybe it's, it's more in those first six months, first year, what do, what can you show up and do? But I think it can't just be the onus, can't be on the company of saying, we, we're going to roll out the training red carpet for you and you're just going to consume. I think there needs to be a partnership here. And again, an employee needs to advocate for their own knowledge, their own onboarding. If they aren't getting what they need, do they have the gumption, right, to speak up and say, I need, I need more of this or this is missing. So let me give you an example. My. At the company I'm at right now, we just went through a merger. A lot of changes, lots and lots of changes, lots of policy changes. It's. It's like the whole place blew up and we're starting all over. Well, we brought over somebody from our training department to be a project manager and she has this background in learning and training and all. And she admitted, and she was very tactful about it, but she's like, this has not been a good train onboarding experience. And we're like, we were really sorry. It was just, there's so much chaos going on. And we were all starting from scratch too, because the old process was gone. It was like we had to all start a new process. And I said, this could be a really good opportunity for you to contribute in a meaningful way. So you know what she did? She basically created an onboarding process and her fodder, if you will, was the gaps that she got, the gaps that she had in her onboarding. And I, like, I was so impressed that instead of just sitting there and complaining like, onboarding sucks. This isn't great, and being annoyed by it, she took the initiative and said, I'm going to do this for myself, but more importantly for the person who comes behind me. And so immediately her positioning on our team changed overnight. Because this one girl, I'm sorry, woman, she was here three months and she just took this initiative that nobody else did and, and she could have just been negative about it and like complain or say, you know, or play the blame game like, I can't do my job adequately because I don't have these resources. She took it upon herself and consequently her reputation, like, you know, amplified from. [00:19:45] Speaker B: That you mentioned before, rapport building. And I think that's key. Right. So you could have somebody coming in and the employee and the trainee or a person training them. They just don't have a connection. They just don't get along. They don't see eye to eye on stuff. It could be the tone of the person training and that the other person just is not going with what, you know, how they're speaking to them or what have you. So it could be that. So I think it's important to definitely address the training gaps and get feedback from the new hire. And how are, how are things going? When they're talking about the onboarding, telling them what they're going to be doing and what they're going to be learning through the training. And then for the first 30, 60, 90 days, what they're going to be doing, they have an idea. So if it's not what they were told earlier and the employees seeing that, then they need to find out what's the gap and what's going on. And maybe the person that's training needs to get some training as well in order to train the individuals, because maybe they are a very good individual contributor, but they are not good at training. They're not good at showing somebody how to do a process. So by getting that feedback, getting that information from the new hire would be definitely good because then they can take mental notes of that and then prepare for the next hire and make sure that they make those improvements. [00:21:12] Speaker A: Yep, I think that's a really, really good point that something like onboarding should be very iterative. Right. There should be a constant, a continuous improvement cycle that comes with that. Because also too, like you have one data point of one onboarding experience, somebody may have just a really strong opinion, but there may be also changes and trends that are impacting an onboarding experience. Like for instance, you know, we have the whole debate of like, work from home, work remote. And so, you know, that's something culturally that's evolving and that's going to be impacting something like an onboarding process. And you can't just be cookie cutter. Like this is onboarding. You may need to adapt. I mean, imagine like what it was like to onboard people during COVID and, you know, all sorts of things. So I think it has to definitely be an iterative process. One thing you mentioned too, Andrew, is I think in at least my experiences from the companies I've worked in, you may have a formal training process where you have a trainer, formalized trainer. And they probably are very apt at facilitation and learning the learning experience they are, it's top of mind for them. But in some cases, and maybe I don't know the statistics, but maybe it's a lot of cases, I don't know where your trainer is just like your buddy, right? The guy who sits at the desk next to you, he's been doing it, whatever this task is for X amount of months or years before you. And he's just like, well, this is what I do. Well, this is somebody who's proficient at doing the work, not proficient at training. So they may not even just not have that frame of mind. But the other thing I was just going to say is I, you know, it's a little tricky. You know, you have your onboarding and you're a brand new employee and you want to make a good impression. The last thing you want to do is be a complainer. And so I would imagine, I don't know, I would love to hear your opinion about this. I'd imagine that new employees, if they were like, oh, we really want to get feedback about your onboarding process, how transparent will they be? How transparent will they be and what can we do or what can companies do to help elicit that from them? To give them the kind of the safe space of saying, really, honestly, we really want to know, we won't hold anything against you. You know what I mean? That it's a little bit of that tension. [00:23:20] Speaker B: Yeah, Well, I think that it's part of marketing. So when someone is applying for a job or when they go to an interview, the company is trying to market themselves so that the employee, if they're interested in them, then they, they're interested in the company. And, and it's vice versa. Right. You know, so they have to see what there's interest there. So if you were not answering the questions in the interview to the employee or the candidate to say, and this is how things are going, if you're not giving a right answer, the answers that the candidate wants to hear, most likely they already have it in their head when they leave and they get into their car, whether they're going to accept an offer from the company or not, just by the answers that they're giving. So if they're giving something, that they're hiding something or if they're, they're, they're negative about something or they are against it. Like if you ask about creativity and they're like, oh, well, we have a process here and, and expect all our employees to follow the process. Well that just tells me that they're not looking for somebody to come in and be innovative and creative. They're just looking for somebody to follow protocol and follow the course. And in some cases people might say, I guess, yes guy. Right. So some lot people don't like to go to a yes, yes company. They want to go to somewhere where companies open minded and open to new and fresh ideas. If they're going to shut them out right from beginning, they're not going to, they're not going to go for it for sure. [00:24:46] Speaker A: A good point. That the clues come in the hiring project. [00:24:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Like I said, they get into their car and they think about how it went. The interviewers get together always after the interview and have a five minute powwow or a few minute powwow. How do you think it went? How do you think they answered this thing? Are they going into the candidate portion or are they going into the. We can't take them so they're deciding right away whereas the candidate is in the car and they're thinking okay, I like their answers, I like the company. However, I didn't like that. Like for example, I went to a job interview way, way back and it was, I was on time 15 minutes before I could hear some giggling and joking around in an office a few doors down from where I was waiting. And I did not know but the person that was interviewing me was in there. They came out at right at the time that we were supposed to be doing the interview. They went and walked away from where the interview was. Went walking, went to go probably to grab somebody and then five to seven minutes later they started walking towards me saying sorry I'm late or sorry we're late, late, whatever. So my way of looking at that is that hey, if that was me 5, 10 minutes late to an interview, you would have discounted me right away because he would have said well he's not on time, he can't be on time for an interview. Is he going to be on time on a regular basis to work? So right away I probably would have got a negative mark towards me. So I just kind of thought like that was like a double edged sword, like it was okay for you to be late, but it's not okay. Yeah for me to be late. So we have to take these things in consideration. People are looking at that and when you're a company, when you're interviewing, you better take that into consideration because if you're thinking that a candidate is not looking at Something like that, or not taking that into consideration, you are sorely mistaken because they are taking that mental note right away and that is something that they're putting in the back of their head. And if they don't get hired or they're not part of the, the next round of interviews, then they're kind of like, oh, well, it's probably not a place they were late anyways. So it's probably not a place that, you know, that I want to work anyways. Right. So. [00:27:04] Speaker A: Right. [00:27:04] Speaker B: You have to take those things in consideration. And how many times maybe I wasn't the only one that she was late for. Maybe she was late for other ones. [00:27:11] Speaker A: Right, for sure, for sure. And that's what I was saying, that they're, they theoretically are putting their best foot forward during the interview process because they're trying to sell you too. And this is a sampler. Right. How organized was the interviewing process? People showing up late, you know, all these types of things. How do they interact with you? What was their body language during an interview? That candidate is reading all of that. And it's like, and I, and I, when I talk to others who are going through the interviewing process, I sit there and think, I know you really want a job or maybe need a job, but they're probably, you're probably seeing the best of them here on the inside. It's probably not going to be a different story. Like there's consistency all the way around. So be mindful of that. [00:27:49] Speaker B: Right, Absolutely. So how do new hires support diversity inclusion within their role? [00:27:55] Speaker A: Well, I think, you know, like as I was, as I was saying earlier, at least in my, you know, how I've Approached My first 90 days is when you think about diversity, obviously there's by nature of the word diversity, you think of like demographics or gender or whatnot. And I think there, you know, obviously that's, that's perfectly fine. I think also too that it can be really broad, more broad and think about diversity of thought. And I remember being in some companies where they just hired people with just this kind of experience, this kind of experience. And I think it's a little bit short sighted because of course, I think the reason that the idea of hiring with somebody with very specific experience, that it complements the kind of work that the business does, it's, it's a lower risk play. Totally get it. They could probably on board and get ramped up faster, completely get it. But then you're also just regurgitating the same ideas, right. Where you're, it's an echo chamber of all the same ideas. And is that what you want? Is that where innovation is going to come from? And so if you have an organization who's brave enough, and I say the word brave very deliberately, if you are brave enough to be able to open yourself up to diversity of thought, of diversity of experiences, and diversity of an experience is not just like, you know, different industry work experience, but like veterans or, you know, people of different cultures. And how do they approach problem solving, how do they approach creativity and how do they approach teamwork? These are things that can really inject some, you know, creativity critical, you know, thinking innovation into a workplace. So, like, for myself and I guess I, I have felt frustration about that. I had I. In my career, I pivoted from one industry to another and I had to break into another industry. And it was very frustrating early on. Like, I can do this. I can. I could do what you want me to do, but you have this bias against me because I don't have exactly the pedigree of companies like the five companies that you think are so fantastic. So it was a hard road to run, but I finally did break in and it was fine and I got my way through tech. But most recently, so again, the company that I work for, it is a fintech company. Everybody, almost everybody that works for this company has come from a bank or a credit union. And that's great, that's great. They have a lot of really, really good experience. I've never worked in fintech. I've never worked in the finance industry. I've never worked for a bank. I came from an entirely different field and somebody took a chance on me and I don't know who it was. I got to go thank them. But I've done really well at this company and people have said to me, they say the way that you conduct yourself in meetings and the ideas that you bring and the brainstorming that you contribute, I would have guessed you've worked for this company for 10 years. And that is the highest compliment that and that they, hopefully with me, as a case study, they can recognize, hey, let's cross pollinate our experiences and bring in other ways of thinking to boost the diversity within our organization. [00:30:51] Speaker B: Yeah. So, I mean, there's three things that I would, that I think of when we talk about this. First thing is, you know, get involved in company initiatives. So whatever they're having, make sure you're getting involved in it from day one, avoid unconscious bias and respect everybody's culture from day one. I would say those Are three things. And I think if, I mean there's others, but I think if you could do try and focus on those three things, I think it's a good start. And I think people will see and respect you from right away because if you're not doing any one of those things, they're going to notice that right away. And especially like I mentioned earlier, if you're going in and you're joining a team that's already built rapport and they've been together for three, four years and you're getting in there, it's hard to jump into something. [00:31:34] Speaker A: To break in. Yeah. [00:31:35] Speaker B: Or to break in. So if you can do those three things, I think you have a pretty good shot to break in. If you're not doing those things and you're, you're biased or you're, you're not respecting somebody from that group or their culture or their way of doing something or stuff that they believe in, it's going to have a negative impact on you for sure. [00:31:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And I think getting back to, you know, when, when I'll keep beating the drum about kind of networking within your organization, you can really learn a lot. So I'll give you an example. There's this Gallus on our team, she's Persian. And today it was either today or yesterday was Persian New Year's Day. And we were all like, what's that about? What do you, how do you celebrate that? What, you know, what's involved in that and like tell us about the culture, the history and the culture. And so it really became this really interesting impromptu way of, of building a bond with our team members and learning a little bit more about, you know, we are more than just how we show up at work. Like this is like the title, you know, on our resume. We are more, we're more dynamic. We have lives, we have histories, cultures like you said, languages. And so you know, I agree with you. Having the ability to where the kind of the mindset, open minded mindset to, to be curious and wanting to know about kind of the tapestry of all of us culturally is a, is a good way to go. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Because you can be a part of a team and you could be somebody who fully gets along with everyone. You're a family orientated person. Everybody in your, you get along with everybody in your family. You have a huge family. There could be somebody on that team that doesn't get along with their family members at all. They don't talk to any of their family members. And by you talking them negatively about that could definitely cause a culture shock and they could definitely be like, wow, like you actually are talking down to me because you talk, you get along with your family and I don't. That could definitely be a negative impact on you, for sure. And that's may not be something about, you know, it's not about work, but it definitely could create a huge impact on the rapport and. [00:33:44] Speaker A: Exactly. The atmosphere, the bonding, the collaboration of the whole entire team. [00:33:49] Speaker B: The team cohesiveness, for sure. For sure. So in closing, what is one takeaway that you want our audience to take away from this episode? [00:33:58] Speaker A: I think, I mean, the theme here that we've really been talking about is those first 90 days. I think it is a really unique time. You really can't, as long as you're with that company, you really can't get it back because you will have established yourself right, you know, after four months, after six months, four years or whatever. And so it's a really unique time and I would really encourage people to take advantage of it, be very strategic and deliberate about it. You are given a lot of grace, you're given a lot of opportunity. You have open doors, people are being nice and courteous. Try to really form and build those relationships. And as I said, I'll say it again, update, update. Up, down and sideways. Build rapport and strong cohesion with your team. Even at higher levels, there are other people who are support staff, that they are the institutional knowledge that you do not want to discount them. And as much as they're, you know, it's. It's a hit or miss. At least my experience is hit or miss about how great the onboarding experience is. It all comes from the top. I believe how much the senior leadership really cares about that candidate experience. But in the event that you are in a place where you. It's not ideal, but do what you can do, right? You embrace your own autonomy, advocate for your own learning, advocate for your own onboarding experience and say, there's a gap here and I'm still missing this and this, and have the bravery or the courage to kind of speak up about that. And in the spirit of process improvement, and we talked about the onboarding experience should and ought to be iterative and it should be grounded in process improvement. Be brave enough to give that feedback. And I think if you, if it's done properly, properly and well and tactfully, it will not be judged as complaining or ungrateful or anything like that. So again, it's just really be mindful about these first 90 days. And don't just kind of sit in the corner doing your training. Just, you know, get out there. Get out there and build those relationships and, you know, and go for it. [00:35:49] Speaker B: Christina, I love everything that you said there. It's. I can talk till the cows come home about building rapport. It's super important. Anybody listening? I would. My call to action today would be to, like, share, share. Follow this episode. Get as many people as you can to listen to it because I think it's super important. And there was some great lessons that we can learn and. And help out somebody who might be struggling in those first 90 days. I want to take the time to thank you for coming on today, Christina. [00:36:16] Speaker A: It is my pleasure. [00:36:17] Speaker B: We've been talking for. For a while now. We've got to know each other and I'm gonna give you your flowers today. You are such a sensational individual. [00:36:27] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:36:27] Speaker B: Truly admire you and everything that you do and everything that you stand for. And you talk about rapport building like I do, and I can see why you are the way that you are. And I can see why so many people resonate to you because they just see the amazing person that you are, an individual individual that you portray. And it's not a fake individual. It's what you see is what you get in Christina. And people just love and admire that. I can see it on a daily basis. And for that, it's been a pleasure to have Andrew. [00:37:01] Speaker A: Thank you. I'm very humbled. I don't even know how to respond to that, but I will say thank you. What I really appreciate is I believe I'm an authentic person. And you read that and that's the takeaway. Like, I appreciate. I'm glad that that comes through. So it was a wonderful pleasure. How did we meet, Andrew? We met through networking. So I'm so glad that we've been able to connect. And it went from just one. It wasn't just one interaction. We continue to connect and every, you know, couple weeks, we check in with one another. So it's been a pleasure and thank you. Thank you, too, for inviting me and being part of this or allowing me to be part of this conversation. [00:37:37] Speaker B: Our pleasure and our honor was ours. On behalf of myself and my guest, Christine, I'd like to thank you all for listening today. And until next time, be safe and remember, everyone, that if we all work together, we can accomplish anything you have been listening to. Let's be diverse with Andrew Stout to. [00:37:55] Speaker A: Stay up to date with future content. Hit Subscribe.

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