{"id":7753,"date":"2022-06-12T18:11:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T01:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knowyourteam.com\/blog\/?p=7753"},"modified":"2025-02-28T11:07:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T19:07:44","slug":"21-questions-to-ask-when-taking-over-a-new-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2022\/06\/12\/21-questions-to-ask-when-taking-over-a-new-team\/","title":{"rendered":"21 questions to ask when taking over a new team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a new leader, get your bearings with these critical questions to ask when taking over a new team.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"questions<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A new leader recently asked me, “What are the important questions to ask when taking over a new team?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His voice revealed simultaneous excitement and nervousness: His direct supervisor had handed him the reigns to a role he’d been eager to fulfill \u2013 but it was a new team after all, one that he knew nothing about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newness and the unknown are inextricably linked. When you’re new, there are bound to be things you don’t know. As a new leader, you inherit routines and and ways of doing things you’re unfamiliar with. You’re the outsider amidst a group of people who’ve all worked together for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How are you supposed to navigate and lead a new team given these challenges?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than let anxiety grip you and hastily project a guise of competence \u2013 embrace the unknown for what it is, and commit to clarifying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dedicate yourself to figuring out the right questions to ask when taking over a new team. Questions will be your light into dusty corners, unearth helpful insights under long-overturned stones. With the right questions, you’ll gain both the confidence and context necessary to be successful as a new leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are the 21 questions to ask when taking over a new team that we’ve found to be most effective in our research in training over 30,000+ leaders over the past decade-plus here at Canopy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally, you’ll want to ask these questions in a 1:1 setting, so you can provide a sense of safety for your team members when they answer and also so you have the opportunity to dive deeper in the follow-up questions, as it makes sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, you do not want to just unload all the questions at once — there’s 21 of them after all, which would be overwhelming to ask in one go (and not to mention end up being a 3 hour meeting for the both of you).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, I suggest splitting up the 21 questions across 3 – 4 distinct one-on-one meetings<\/a> that each focus on a particular area. Here is how it might look…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\nLooking for more detailed guidance on one-on-one meetings?<\/strong>\nMake sure to check out our 1:1 module in Canopy.\n<\/div>\n
\nLearn more<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The 21 key questions to ask when taking over a new team:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The First 1:1 Meeting – Trust-building<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Try these 3 questions to ask when taking over a new team in your first one-on-one meeting:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n