Short: Your first days as a Leader - few things to do

Make sure you meet with everybody before you join the very first meeting. You need to understand how your team members’ names are pronounced.

Moreover, have a plan (5 steps ahead - which describe your first ten weeks - one step per two weeks, your goals). I suggest creating this just after day one before you start meeting with people. Remember, this plan will go to the bin later, but it is always essential to have assumptions/direction representing the current state of knowledge.

Next, after you meet with everyone, update your 5-step plan. The one-to-one meeting should be light. Remember, your team may not know you personally or on this new role.

It is vital to help your team immediately. Maybe your teammates were worried about talking about something with the previous lead.

Lastly, Note down how long it took the conversation. Some people will need 5 minutes once a month, and others like talking for hours and meeting weekly. Make sure to be flexible for them. This information will be helpful in scheduling.

Meeting your team sometimes, especially in remote teams, is postponed as a leader needs to engage in much more conversations with their boss and stakeholders. Remember that it is like knowing your tools. If you meet your team first, you’ll understand the context, problems, and what skill set you to have. It will help you in asking the following questions.

Summary

There are much more things to do, but I want to highlight things which are often ignored:

• meeting your team first, especially when working remotely,
• learning how to pronounce your colleagues names.