9 Things YOU SHOULD Be Doing at Work - FREE Career Success Checklist Download and Training

Hey, friend!

Welcome to my blog where you can listen to or watch my podcast.

My name is Kayla Fahey-Ahrndt, and I teach mindset and organizational tips for professionals. Today's video lesson is going to be all about a new role checklist, also known as my career success checklist, that I created.

Have you ever started a brand new job and you're like, “What am I supposed to be doing?”

Been there, done that. There are oftentimes when you lean into a new job or you start a brand new career and you're like, “Where do I begin?” Sometimes the training at the beginning of a new job is subpar, and you're left to your own accord…and actually, as your Virtual Manager, I will say —that's a really good way to build your skills and figure out what is important in your new role.

It just means that you're going to have to take accountability for your own learning.

So to make this easy for you, because I've been there and have done it several times, I created a free download for you. It's called the New Role Checklist (aka Career Success Checklists) and you can download it here! I will email you the document and send you a link to my free training where I go over it with you so you don’t lose the info to this page! :)

If any of these items seem overwhelming, I don't want you to worry about it…

I have the Career Kickstart Course you can take that dives deeply into each of these items to set you up for success.

So let's get started!

I'm going to go over the new role checklist and walk you through everything you need to know to get started on the right foot.

1. Job description — What are your main role responsibilities?

Honestly, this is something they should provide to you whenever you're interviewing, but if you haven't gotten it yet, it's definitely something you need to ask for. I will caution you that job descriptions can be really vague because oftentimes they're used across an entire organization for one job class, so it might have kind of broad, vague idea of what your job includes, but it might not have the specific details. …But it is a start.

2. RACI matrix - When am I Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed?

Ask, what am I responsible and accountable for? When am I consulted and informed? How does my role work with other roles?

This is essentially a list of all the duties, tasks, meetings, projects, and things that you would do. If this list was in an Excel spreadsheet or in grid format, across the top of this list would be all the different roles you work with. For each task and each role, one would ask, “Am I responsible or accountable, and am I consulted and informed?" Then you would put an R for Responsible in the grid for the role and the item the role is responsible for, an A if you’re accountable, and so on and so forth. Ideally, this would include you and each person on your team.

The RACI tools helps you answer questions like “When do I consult so-and-so?” and “Is this me doing the thing or is it someone else doing the thing?” I dive deeply into this in my Career Kickstart Course.

3. Organizational Mission, Vision, and Values

You want to ask “What are they and how do they inform or shape my role?”

I think it's really easy to pull up the company website and be like, “Oh yeah, that's the mission, vision, and values,” but you've got to remember when you're starting in a new job that if you’re going to set goals and execute strategy based on them, everything you do needs to be in alignment with the mission, vision, and values.

You want to really connect and think about, “How is this thing that I’m doing going to advance the mission of the organization? How does it come into play?” And if you can't figure that out, you're going to need your leader to help you and tell you how this thing is connected.

And sometimes, you’ll find that what you’re doing does not align with the mission, vision, and values. And that's a really good place to pause and reflect, “Hey - maybe we don't need to be doing this. How does it add value?” It's a good conversation and decision point to have with your leader.

4. Stakeholder Contact List

Essentially, you need to identify a list of folks you need to know to perform your role. You might ask your leader, “What introductions can you make for me?”

Sometimes I find that employers will provide a list or organizational chart of who works in the department. It will have their email and how to contact them. But then they don't make the introductions, which can be really awkward for your as a new leader, new to the department, or new to the organization. One thing I try to do as a manager is when someone is transitioning or new and in their role, I will send an email and say something like, “Hi Stakeholder, This is so-and-so, our new (list their role). I want to make this introduction for you. You would want connect with this person. for XYZ They are replacing this person.” etc… So just kind of giving like a little bit of a connection point so it's a warm handoff and not like, “Hi Stakeholder, My boss gave me your contact information, uh, blah, blah, blah.”

It has more power when your leader can make that introduction for you.

5. Leader Support

You want ask your boss, “What is our one-on-one meeting cadence, and what's the best way that I can ask for help, ask for feedback, or request time with you>?” I think this is just being really intentional about the fact that you want to make time to be aligned and talk with your leader. It’s a great time to make sure that you know how your leader can help you and visa versa.

If your leader hasn't thought of this, this is a great prompt to say — “How often do we meet with each other?” or “If I was to ask you for feedback on something, how would you like that communicated to you?”

They might say, “Send me an email, Teams chat, or text,” or “Yes, we meet weekly. You can save all of your things for then, but if you need something before then, send me an email.”

6. Communication Preferences

The next thing you want do is talk about communication preferences intentionally. You should talk with your leader and say something like “Is there a preferred way to communicate with you during office hours?” Another good questions would be, “What are the communication boundaries outside of working hours?”

You want to decide these boundaries for you and know what other people's boundaries are. So for example, if you just got hired and the employer says, “I expect you to be looking at your email after hours at 8:00 PM at night…”

…You might wanna find a new job….Not entirely joking…

But you do want to know that ahead of time. Then you can say, “Okay, actually here are my boundaries. My hours, as we've talked about, are (until five or whatever that is). And then after five is family time. And then I'm happy to log in in the morning and check my email then.”

You really want to have that open dialogue to know the expectations and then to also be really intentional with your boundaries as well. Boundaries are flexible. They can be moved, they can be put up, they can be taken down. But nobody knows what your boundaries are unless you communicate them.

7. Performance Appraisal

You want to ask, “When does my performance appraisal or review occur, and how is my performance evaluated?” You want to set yourself up for success. You can ask questions like, “How would I obtain an exceptional rating at the end of the year, and how do I get more money or a raise if I do well?” "or “How do I get my performance evaluated, and what does goal setting look like?”

That brings me to point number eight…

8. Organizational and Professional Goal Setting

You’ll want to ask “How do I set organizational and professional goals, and how can we check in on these together? And how often should we check in?”

Goal setting or organizational/professional goals will probably be the things you're going to be appraised on or reviewed on for your performance review.

You want to talk with your leader about how goal setting works a your organization. Oftentimes there is a program where you can input these goals into an online form so both you and your leader can see them. You’ll want to update milestones and track things regularly. You’ll also want to make an intentional effort to touch base on these goals with your leader at some scheduled cadence.

This gives you an opportunity to ask how you’re doing and if the leader thinks you’re performing as expected. You can share where you’re at with the goal, escalate any barriers, and ask if you should change or repurpose the goal. You may even want to ask if the goal still matters as things can change rapidly in an organization. These are conversations you want to have during the year and not during during the review…when it’s too late and you missed your goal…

Definitely ask to have this conversation with your leader and get started today so you know what your expectations are.

9. Learning

The last thing I have on my New Role or Career Success Checklist is learning. You want to know if there is a learning management system (LMS) for required organizational learning. You should be asking what types of trainings or learnings you have to do every year to make sure that you're in compliance or meeting your continuing education goals. You will also want to ask “What resources are there for personal or professional growth and development?”

You may even frame the question like this— “Are there any resources that you can point me to that help make me a better leader or professional?”

Perhaps in your industry you need continuing education credits for certification or maintenance of your license. You should ask your leader what is available for continuing education, as often employers will provide that for free.

If you’re still reading…thank you…and awesome — I know you really care about doing great work in your career!

You’ve now reviewed the New Role or Career Success Checklist!

I know it can be a lot of information, so you can download it for free here.

If you want to go deeper into each of these items, get free done-for-you templates for almost every single one of these items, then the Career Kickstart Course might be for you. You can enroll and gain immediate access to the course modules as well as a bonus module which includes my most updated digital and printable Leader Standard Workbook for free.

If you found this blog post or video helpful, please don't forget to leave a comment and subscribe to my YouTube Channel or podcast so you get notified when another lesson drops. :)

Take care, and talk soon!

-KFA

Links & Resources Mentioned:

• 🆓New Role Checklist (aka Career Success Checklist) instant download🎉

• 🎉Career Kickstart Course Details/Sign-up (Get instant course access!)

• For more videos about the Career Kickstart Course, check out my Career Kickstart Playlist.