“Before you accept the position, you interview everyone in your group, and you get them to sign on with you, or you sign them off — or you don’t take the position. ”

Maybe in an executive style management role this may be true, but in today’s market many more manager’s are working in small team oriented environments. Yeah I am sure there are still cube farms of Cobol programmers out there, but also there are emerging a lot of nimble start ups, agencies, and lean departments doing development.

The power differential between interviewing for a position to come onboard a team, is in opposition to the idea of interviewing a staff person to hire. It’s nearly impossible to be an effective manager if nobody likes you. Consequently, when a manager begins a new position it’s all about being accepted by the troops.

The blind date metaphor is not really a good fit. I am thinking more about a Band of Brothers type scenario here. To be effective in coming onboard a team in a management role, it’s essential to gain a cultural fit first before tackling problems or “signing off people”. Once you understand the dynamic your dealing with you can maybe start to recommend effective changes to the team.