B is for… Buddy

B is for… Buddy

Many companies will allocate new joiners a “Buddy”. If you have been offered a formal buddy – take it and make sure you use the opportunity to get to know your buddy and find out more about the company. If you have not been allocated you may want to find your self an informal buddy. We deal with each in turn.

Formal Buddy Scheme

Best case scenario a good buddy can be a valuable resource and friend. in most case a buddy will be a peer, someone you can ask stupid questions.

When you get a buddy allocation make sure you follow it up. Usually, the onus will be on you to drive the relationship. Make contact, have coffee and lunch and simply start by getting to know each other in the first instance. Ask questions, be curious and see how it goes.

While you can prepare a list of questions if you have them, a buddy can be better for a more informal peer to peer chat. After your initial contact and general getting to know each other a buddy can be a really good resource throughout your first 90 days (and beyond) and a friend to help you integrate into the company.

However, it is important to remember you can’t force a relationship, so you may not click, if this is the case, accept it. Be professional and courtious but note that you might need to also look for informal buddies to help you out.

Informal Buddies

If you don’t have an “allocated” buddy (and even if you do) you will usually find that friendly person willing to help you out, or buddy up so that you start to become work friends and develop a mutual relationship of helping each other out. You will probably find others around you that naturally fit around you in different roles as you begin to develop and grow your internal network – a buddy is just one of these.

Action point: Keep a list of “buddy questions” in your journal as these will pop into your head a random times of the day. So keep them together in one place.

This blog post is an extract from our upcoming “First 90 Days” prompt journal which is being published later this year. You can pre-order your copy.

If you are dropping by as part of the A to Z Challenge – don’t forget to leave a comment to say hi with a link to your blog. Do you have a buddy scheme at work? Do you think it works? Share in the comments.