New Manager DailyHow to conduct your first team meeting as a new manager
Hold your first team meeting in your first week, keep it to 30–45 minutes, and make it about trust, not plans. Introduce yourself in under five minutes, say what you'll keep and what you won't change yet, ask the team two or three questions and listen, then book a one-on-one with everyone before you leave the room.
The team is asking one question the whole time: what's going to change for me? You can't answer that yet, and you shouldn't pretend to. What you can show is how you'll behave: whether you listen, whether you're straight with them, whether you follow up. Below: how to prepare, the invite to send, a timed agenda, what to say word for word if you were promoted from the team, hired from outside, or are replacing a manager who left, the questions to ask, how to answer the hard ones they'll ask you, and what to do in the two weeks after.
What your first team meeting is for
Claire Lew, who runs the management research company Know Your Team, puts it simply: your first meeting is for building trust, not for setting a vision. A new manager who arrives with a five-point plan tells the team they've already decided without hearing from them. One who arrives curious tells them their knowledge counts.
So the meeting has four jobs, and only four:
- Introduce yourself, briefly, as a person and as a manager.
- Lower the worry by saying what won't change soon.
- Learn something by asking a few questions and listening.
- Set up what's next: one-on-ones, the regular meeting, how to reach you.
Leave out: new goals, process changes, reorganisation, opinions about how things were run before, and anything you haven't checked with your own manager. Michael Watkins makes the same point in The First 90 Days: in the first weeks, learning comes before acting, and early mistakes usually come from acting before you understand.
How to prepare (about an hour, spread over two days)
- Talk to your manager first. Ask: "What do you expect from this team in the next 90 days? Is anything about to change that the team doesn't know yet? Is there anything I shouldn't say?" You don't want to promise "no changes" a week before a reorg you weren't told about.
- Learn what you can. Each person's name, role and how long they've been there. Current projects and deadlines. If you're replacing someone, why they left, and what the team has been told.
- Ask HR or your manager about anything sensitive. Someone on leave, someone on a performance plan, someone who applied for your job. You don't raise any of it in the meeting, but you need to know so you don't trip over it.
- Write your opening. Two or three minutes, out loud. Practise it once. Nerves make people ramble, and a ramble about yourself is the one thing the team won't forgive in a first meeting.
- Pick your two or three questions from the list below.
- Book the one-on-ones in advance, so you can say "They're already in your calendar" at the end.
The invite: what to send
Send it two or three days ahead, so nobody walks in guessing. Keep the tone plain. Something like:
Subject: Team meeting Thursday 10:00: a first chat
Hi all,
I'd like us to get together on Thursday at 10:00 for 45 minutes (room 3 or the video link below). Nothing to prepare. I'll say a bit about myself and how I like to work, and then I mostly want to hear from you: what's working, what isn't, and what you'd want from a manager.
I'll also be setting up a half hour with each of you over the next two weeks.
See you Thursday,
Sam
If you'd like a written option for quieter people, add one line: "If there's anything you'd rather tell me in writing, reply to this email or send me a message before Thursday." Some of your best information will arrive that way.
A 45-minute first team meeting agenda
Thirty minutes works for a team of three or four. With eight or more, keep the full 45 so everyone gets a turn.
| Time | Item | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 0–5 min | Your introduction | Who you are, your background, one thing about you outside work. Under five minutes. |
| 5–10 min | What won't change, and how you'll start | What you'll keep, what you won't touch for the first 30 days, that you'll meet each person one-on-one. |
| 10–20 min | Round the table | Each person: name, what they work on, and one simple prompt (below). Go first to show the length you mean. |
| 20–35 min | Your questions | Two or three questions to the group. You listen and write things down. |
| 35–42 min | Their questions | Open floor. Answer honestly, including "I don't know yet." |
| 42–45 min | Close | What you heard, the one-on-ones, the regular meeting, how to reach you. |
About a third of the time goes to you, two-thirds to them. Lew's rule of thumb is to spend no more than about a quarter of the meeting talking about yourself; this agenda keeps you near that.
What to say: your opening, word for word
How you got the job changes what the team is worried about, so it changes your opening. Pick the one that fits and put it in your own words.
If you were promoted from the team
Their worry: will you change, will you play favourites, and does someone resent it. Name the awkward part once, then move on.
"This is a bit strange for all of us. Last month I was sitting where you are, and I know some of you might have wanted this role, or expected someone else to get it. That's fair.
Here's what I'd like to keep: the way we cover for each other on deadline weeks, and the fact that people here say when something's broken. Please keep doing that, including to me.
For the next month I'm not changing how we work. I'll meet each of you one-on-one, and I'll ask some questions I never asked as a teammate, about what you'd change and what you want to grow into. My job now is to clear the way for you."
Our guide to managing former peers covers the one-on-ones after this, the friend on the team and the person who wanted your job.
If you were hired from outside
Their worry: will you come in and change everything, and do you understand the work. Show you know what you don't know.
"I'm [name]. I've spent [eight years] in [customer support], the last [three] leading a team of [six] at [a software company]. Outside work, [one light thing: a hobby, a sport, a pet].
You know this team, these customers and this work far better than I do. So for my first month I'm here to learn, not to fix. I won't change how things run before I understand why they run that way.
What I will do: meet each of you one-on-one in the next two weeks, sit in on how the work actually gets done, and tell you what I'm thinking before I act on it."
If you're replacing a manager who left
Their worry depends on how the last manager left. If they were well liked, the team may be grieving a little and comparing you. If not, they may be hoping you'll fix things fast. Either way, don't criticise your predecessor, and don't promise to be their copy.
"I know Priya was here a long time and built a lot of what works on this team. I'm not going to undo that, and I'm not going to try to be her either.
I'd like to hear from you what she did that you'd want me to keep, and anything you'd like done differently. You can tell me in the room, in our one-on-one, or in a message."
Lines that help in any version
- How you like to work: "I'd rather hear bad news early. You won't get in trouble for telling me something's late; you might if I find out the day it's due."
- How to reach you: "If something's blocking you, don't wait for a meeting. Message me."
- A small honest thing: "I'm new at managing, and I'll get some things wrong. When I do, tell me."
Introductions and icebreakers that work at work
A round of introductions is useful even when everyone already knows each other, because they don't know you and you need to hear how each person describes their own job. Give one prompt, keep it light, and go first so they copy your length (about 30 seconds).
- "Your name, what you work on, and the part of it you enjoy most."
- "One thing you're working on this month, and one thing you wish you had more time for."
- "Something about you that wouldn't show up on your profile." (Light: a hobby, a place, a pet.)
- "The best piece of advice a manager ever gave you."
Skip anything that asks people to perform or share personal stories: trust falls, "a secret about yourself", games with winners. Some people dread them, and in a room where they're unsure of the new boss, that dread is what they'll remember.
Questions to ask your team
Pick two or three. Ask one, wait, write down what you hear, then ask the next. Hold the deeper versions for one-on-ones, where people say more.
| Question | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| "What's working well on this team that I shouldn't break?" | What to protect, and what they're proud of |
| "What's one thing that slows you down every week?" | Quick wins you can fix in your first month |
| "What do you need from a manager to do your best work?" | Their expectations, in their words |
| "What's been hard to raise here, or felt off-limits?" | Where the trust gap is (expect silence; it may come later, in writing) |
| "How do you like to hear feedback, and how often?" | How to give it without surprises |
| "How often should we meet as a team, and what should the meeting be for?" | Whether the regular meeting is liked or tolerated |
| "What would a good first 90 days from me look like to you?" | What they'll judge you on |
Claire Lew's list in her Signal v. Noise piece includes several of these, and her advice is the same: ask a handful, keep the group part short, and save the fuller talk for one-on-ones.
For quiet people and a team that won't talk yet: hand out cards or open a short anonymous form with two of the questions, and say "No names. I'll read them all and tell you next week what I heard." Then do exactly that. Reading back what you heard, including the uncomfortable bits, is one of the fastest ways to show the questions were real.
Hard questions they may ask you, and how to answer
Someone will ask something you can't fully answer. That's fine. Honest and incomplete beats confident and wrong. Never promise what you haven't cleared with your manager.
| They ask | You can say |
|---|---|
| "Are you going to change things?" | "Some things, eventually, probably. Not in the first month, and not without talking to you first. Right now I don't know enough to change anything well." |
| "Are there going to be layoffs / cuts?" | "Nobody has told me about any. If I learn something that affects you, I'll tell you as soon as I'm allowed to." (Only say "no" if you know for certain.) |
| "Why did you get the job?" / "Why not someone from the team?" | "I can't speak for the decision, but I can tell you what I'm going to try to do with it." Then move on; don't argue your case. |
| "What happened to the last manager?" | Say only what has been officially shared. "That's Priya's story to tell, but she's left on good terms" if that's true, or "I don't know the details." |
| "Will we keep working from home on Fridays?" | "Nothing's changing on that right now. If it ever does, you'll hear it from me first, with the reason." |
| "Can we get a raise / more people?" | "I don't know yet what I can do there. Bring it to our one-on-one so I understand your case, and I'll find out what's possible." |
| A complaint about a colleague, in the room | "That's worth talking about properly. Can we take it to our one-on-one this week?" Don't discuss a named person in front of the group. |
Write every question you couldn't answer on a list in front of them, and answer it by the next team meeting, even if the answer is "still no news."
How to end your first team meeting
Use the last three minutes to show you listened and to set up what comes next.
"Thanks, this was useful. What I heard: the release process is the biggest weekly headache, the Monday meeting runs too long, and you want feedback sooner rather than in reviews. I've written those down.
I've put a half hour with each of you in the calendar over the next two weeks. We'll keep the Monday meeting for now and I'll come back to you on how to shorten it.
Three questions I couldn't answer today; I'll have answers by next Monday."
End on time. Ending early is fine. Running over in your first meeting tells everyone how your meetings will go.
After the meeting: the follow-up and the first two weeks
The same day, send a short recap:
Subject: Thanks for today, and what's next
Thanks for your time today. What I heard: (1) the release process eats hours every week, (2) Monday's meeting runs long, (3) you'd like feedback sooner.
Open questions I owe you answers on by Monday: the Q1 headcount, the training budget, the Friday office rule.
Your one-on-one with me is in your calendar. If you'd rather tell me anything in writing, just reply.
Then, over the next two weeks:
- Days 1–10: hold every one-on-one. Use our one on one questions to ask employees for the first one; the "first one-on-one" set is written for exactly this.
- Within a week: answer the open questions, even with "no news yet".
- Within two weeks: fix one small thing the team raised. Not the biggest problem, the one you can actually fix: a meeting that can be shorter, a tool login, a report nobody reads. Tell them you did it and that it came from them.
- At the next team meeting: read back what you heard from the cards or one-on-ones, without names, and say what you'll do about it and when.
From then on, the regular meeting takes over. Our guide on how to run an effective team meeting has a 30-minute weekly agenda, how to open and close, and how to handle the talker and the silence.
If your first team meeting is remote
- Cameras on, yours first. Ask for it in the invite, kindly: "If you can, cameras on for this one; it helps me put faces to names."
- Call on people by name in the round, in a set order you say up front, so nobody talks over each other or waits in silence.
- Use the chat for questions. Say: "If you'd rather type a question, drop it in the chat, and I'll read them out." Quiet people use it.
- Keep it to 30–40 minutes. Video tires people faster.
- If the team is split between office and home, have everyone join on their own laptop, even those in the office, so the remote people aren't watching a room.
- Across time zones, pick a time inside everyone's working day, or hold it twice and say so.
Mistakes new managers make in their first team meeting
- Arriving with a plan. Ideas are fine; announcing them in week one tells the team you didn't need them.
- Talking for 30 of the 45 minutes. Nerves make people over-explain their background. Write it down, time it, cut it.
- Criticising how things were done before. Even if it was bad. Somebody in the room built it.
- Promising things you can't deliver. "No changes this year" or "I'll get you all raises" will come back.
- Pretending to know. "I don't know yet, I'll find out by Friday" earns more trust than a guess.
- Treating your old friends differently if you were promoted from the team: inside jokes, looking at them for support, going to lunch with them right after.
- No follow-up. Asking for problems and then never mentioning them again does more harm than not asking.
- Putting off the one-on-ones. The group meeting sets the tone; the one-on-ones are where you actually learn. Book them before the meeting ends.
Every new manager leans one way: some over-plan, some over-reassure, some avoid the awkward question. The free leadership style quiz takes about 2 minutes and names your style, with the conversations it tends to put off.
Questions about your first team meeting
When should a new manager hold the first team meeting?
In your first week, ideally in the first two or three days. Wait longer and the team fills the silence with guesses. If your start was announced suddenly, a short hello on day one and the full meeting later that week works well.
How long should the first team meeting be?
30 minutes for a small team, 45 for eight or more. Keep it under an hour; anything longer turns into you talking.
Should I hold one-on-ones before or after the first team meeting?
After, for most teams, so nobody feels they heard the news second-hand. The exception: if someone applied for your job, have a short private word with them just before the group meeting, so they don't hear your opening for the first time in front of everyone.
What should I not say in my first team meeting?
Anything about changes you haven't confirmed, any criticism of the previous manager or past decisions, and any promise about pay, jobs or reorganisation. Also skip "My door is always open" unless you'll actually make the time.
What if nobody says anything when I ask questions?
Wait a full ten seconds; it feels long, but someone usually speaks. If nobody does, say "That's fine, it's a lot to ask on day one," hand out cards or a short anonymous form with the same question, and promise to read back what you hear next week.
Should I bring food?
It's a nice touch and costs little, if it fits the culture. It won't make up for a meeting where you talk the whole time.
Next: take the free leadership style quiz to see what kind of new manager you are and which first-month conversations you'll find hardest, or browse all our guides for new managers.
Sources
- Claire Lew, "How to run your first meeting as a new manager", Signal v. Noise, 2018: https://signalvnoise.com/svn3/how-to-run-your-first-meeting-as-a-new-manager/
- Michael D. Watkins, The First 90 Days, Harvard Business Review Press, 2003 (updated 2013).
- Workleap, "How to run your first meeting with your staff as a new manager": https://workleap.com/blog/new-manager-first-staff-meeting