I’m a professor at Babson College, a small private school just outside of Boston that specializes in entrepreneurial leadership. I teach leadership skills to students and executives.
I got interested in the challenges of being new after moving to Japan on an international management assignment for Procter and Gamble, my previous employer. I spent five years in Japan and southeast Asia, and experienced both the excitement and anxiety that comes with being a newcomer to a foreign land. I also managed Japanese product development teams, and saw how important the first few days and weeks were to the ultimate success and satisfaction of new employees.
After returning to the United States, I went to graduate school at Stanford University and began studying the newcomer experience. Over the past twenty years I’ve interviewed lots of newcomers, asked some to keep diaries of their experiences, and conducted surveys in several organizations. Besides this book, I’ve also published several articles on newcomer on-boarding and employee orientation in journals like MIT/Sloan Management Review and the Journal of Organizational Behavior. Some of my research and ideas have been featured in the New York Times, National Public Radio, Fast Company, Fortune, Forbes, Success Magazine, Psychology Today, Harvard Management Update and other outlets.
I live in Millis, MA and enjoy learning new things, and my latest “projects” are kayaking, piano and Spanish. Originally I’m from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.