Don’t be afraid to reach for the stars. Following your passion requires courage — especially when fear shows up. Fear is loud, but passion is louder when you let it be.
Starting a new job is always a mix of excitement and anxiety. Even when you’re confident, those first
days demand learning new rhythms, new expectations, and new relationships. The work may be familiar — but the environment never is.
Starting a new employee brings its own mix of excitement and anxiety for leaders too. You’re eager to
see whether the skills and traits you saw in the interview show up on the job. And you’re quietly hoping you made the right choice. That tension — their fear and your anticipation — is exactly why onboarding matters.
I’ve always been sensitive to how new employees feel during those early moments. That’s why I
built onboarding around servant‑leadership behaviors: listening closely, anticipating needs, reducing friction, and creating a sense of safety from day one. When onboarding is treated as a thoughtful, human‑centered experience rather than a checklist, everything changes. Emotional intelligence removes fear. Passionate attention to detail helps people acclimate quickly to their new environment and culture.
Too often, onboarding is dismissed as a perfunctory practice. But you only get one chance to make a good
impression — their impression of you. Effective onboarding calms people with kindness and clarity. It helps their true personality emerge sooner. That’s when competence grows. Confidence grows. And passion finally has room to take hold.
Courage isn’t just for employees — it’s a leadership requirement. Don’t let fear, haste, or indifference derail your onboarding process. Lead with courage. Build with intention. Create passion‑boosting experiences that launch your new employees’ careers with strength and momentum today.
Bethany Hamilton (born 1990): American professional surfer and writer. [1]
[1] On October 31, 2003, she survived a shark attack in which her left arm was bitten off; ultimately, she returned to professional surfing and wrote about her experiences in the 2004 autobiography, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board. The book was adapted into the 2011 feature film, Soul Surfer. Hamilton attributes her strength to her Christian faith. Hamilton is also the subject of a 2018 documentary, Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable, in which she discusses how marriage and motherhood have affected her professional surfing career.
No comments:
Post a Comment