Transitioning into a new leadership role comes with many challenges and much uncertainty. Is it better to quickly make your mark by vocalizing your opinions and taking bold actions, or to quietly observe and gradually introduce changes?
In The First 90 Days, Michael Watkins, a former Harvard Business School professor, says whether you thrive or falter in your new role depends on your actions early on. Watkins says your priority should be demonstrating your trustworthiness and competence.
Drawing on his extensive experience as a leadership development consultant, Watkins provides a roadmap for making your job transition smooth and rewarding. By following his advice, you can avoid common pitfalls, ease into your new role with confidence, and create positive momentum for your career and the company. In this guide, we’ll cover the five main topics that make up Watkins's roadmap:
Throughout the guide, we’ll consider how other business leaders’ perspectives on management compare with Watkins's—including ideas from Gino Wickman in Traction and Julie Zhuo in The Making of a Manager. We’ll also link Watkins's principles to additional tools and strategies you can use to make your transition as successful as possible.
When you transition into a new leadership role, you should take time to gather key information about your new company. According to Watkins, this knowledge will form the foundation for your future success. In this section, we’ll first discuss what information you should gather and how. Then, we’ll discuss why gathering this information is important.
When collecting information, start by creating a list of questions about your company’s past, present, and future: its previous and current goals, its performance, and its future ambitions. As you create your list, make sure your questions address not just strategic elements such as operational capabilities, target audience, and marketing approaches, but also the company’s history, people, and culture. Especially if you’re entering a new company (versus being promoted within the same company), Watkins says it’s important to learn about the culture so you’re familiar with the company’s values and communication dynamics.
(Shortform note: Research confirms that new leaders should seek strategic and cultural information, as Watkins recommends. Although many companies think they do a good job of bringing new executives into the organization, they often fall short. In a global survey of senior executives who transitioned into new roles, more than two-thirds claimed they hadn’t received meaningful support and guidance during onboarding. 69% of those interviewed were left with a poor understanding of strategic basics about the company, while 65% reported a poor cultural fit. When new leaders are equipped with critical strategic and cultural information, they can build momentum and reduce the time it takes to reach full performance from six months to four.)
Once you have your initial list of questions, Watkins recommends identifying the best sources of knowledge that you can tap into with a minimal outlay of time. Seek out information from multiple perspectives both inside and outside the company, which will give you a more comprehensive understanding of your company. Here are some sources that you can reference:
There are a number of methods you can use to gather information, and Watkins suggests using a combination of methods that match your particular needs. Consider the following options:
(Shortform note: If you opt for employee surveys as an information-gathering tool, be sure to take into consideration survey-taking fatigue, which occurs when employees don’t complete a survey because it takes too much time. To increase responsiveness and reduce fatigue, ask just one or two simple questions, then put the employees’ suggestions into action after the survey so they understand their input is essential.)
How to Get People to Share Information You Need
Watkins identifies multiple sources of valuable information that you can tap into as you enter your new position, but he arguably makes some assumptions about your level of preparedness to access and decipher that information. While many new leaders have a robust technical skill set from working as high-performing individual contributors, they may lack “soft skills''—such as communication, problem solving, and critical thinking—and other knowledge essential to get accurate information and then interpret that information.
Consider how comfortable you are approaching customers or staff members. How will you get them to open up to you so you’re getting useful, accurate information? When you reach out to suppliers or analysts, what questions will you ask? Do you know how to interpret financial statements?
To fill gaps in skills and knowledge, many leaders go through external manager training programs. These programs focus on soft skills like empathy, self-awareness, navigating change, and relating to former co-workers. They also provide knowledge training in areas like analyzing financial reports and understanding supply chain cycles. Some companies pay for their new leaders to go through these programs, so it’s worthwhile to explore this option to ensure you’re as prepared as possible to seek out and interpret information.
Excellent soft skills, in particular, will give you a huge advantage in your new role. Then, when you meet people in many of the ways Watkins recommends—in one-on-one interviews, in group settings like focus groups, formally in interviews, or informally in company tours—you can quickly cut through discomfort. Some business leaders recommend that you prepare a short introduction that gives people a sense of who you are as well as your intentions. This short “pitch” can help you win people over and improve your chances of getting key information from them. To create your new-leader pitch, include these elements:
A statement of excitement—Start on a positive note to relay your enthusiasm and relatability, such as “I’m excited to get to know you” or “I’m looking forward to working together.”
Your big-picture goals given to you by the company—These are the goals you were hired to accomplish. By sharing these, you claim legitimacy and power: “I’m here to achieve X goals and make sure we deliver outstanding support to our clients.”
An invitation to offer input—Extend a hand of collaboration that shows your interest in their thoughts: “I’m really looking forward to your ideas on how we can improve our services.”
You can expand upon those three elements to get a more complete picture of circumstances relevant to you—for example, “While we’re talking, I’d love to hear about any concerns you have or challenges you’ve encountered related to this problem I’ve been hired to solve.” This will further clarify your commitment and openness, which will make people more inclined to share valuable information. As Watkins says, the more informed you are about dynamics in your company, the better prepared you’ll be to meet the challenges in your new role.
Why are the information-gathering strategies above so important? Watkins asserts that gathering information will help you identify gaps between your company’s vision or strategic plan and its current capabilities. For example, your company might want to develop new technology that makes products last twice as long, but it may lack the engineering talent needed for that. Or it might want to double the size of its sales team to meet increasing demand, but it doesn’t have a recruitment plan in place.
(Shortform note: Many companies lay out ambitious strategic plans but don’t build capabilities development into those plans, which leaves the companies with no realistic way to achieve their lofty goals. If you identify such a gap in your company through your information-gathering, business leaders recommend that you link each strategic priority to the capabilities needed to drive that opportunity. Then, identify opportunities for teams to create or strengthen those capabilities while actually executing some aspect of the strategy. This ensures that capability development is woven into your organization’s growth, instead of being a hope or an afterthought.)
Additionally, being familiar with your company’s history, structure, capabilities, and goals will help you make better decisions. As Watkins says, you might be tempted to make your mark right away by making rapid, sweeping changes, but that approach often backfires. Only with careful thought and research can you ensure your decisions align with the company’s needs, thereby paving the way for long-term success.
(Shortform note: While gathering enough information to make sound decisions prevents rash choices that don’t align with company needs, it can also be time-consuming. This can be frustrating for leaders who want (or need) to make progress quickly. So, how can you speed up decisions while still maintaining decision quality? One option is to delegate decision-making power to the employees closest to the decision at hand. For example, you may delegate responsibility for deciding on the next quarter’s marketing strategy to the most experienced members of your marketing team. These employees will likely already have the knowledge required to make a swift yet strong choice.)
Research Suggests You Must Take Control of Your Onboarding Process
As Watkins says, proactively gathering information is pivotal to ensuring a successful transition into your new leadership role. If you’re not clear about your company’s strategy, capabilities, history, and culture, you may fall victim to a failed transition that can derail your career ambitions and negatively affect others in the company.
When leaders struggle through transitions, the consequences are huge. Aside from the negative impact on leaders’ lives and careers, direct reports are 20% more likely to be disengaged or to leave the company, and their performance is 15% lower than it would be with high-performing leaders. Further, a failed transition costs an estimated 213% of the leader’s annual salary.
What’s behind failed transitions? The main reason is that leaders have trouble navigating organizational politics, with 68% of new leaders reporting issues related to politics, culture, and people. This data underscores Watkins's assertion that leaders must self-manage their transitions and gather the information they need to succeed—particularly information about culture.
When leaders transition successfully, their teams almost always succeed. Research shows that nine out of 10 teams whose leader had a successful transition meet their three-year performance goals.
Now that you know why gathering information is important when you take on a new leadership role, let’s look at how to use that information to match your leadership style to your company’s needs. Watkins says to begin by using your gathered information to identify your company’s stage of development. In this section, we’ll first examine the five main stages of business development that Watkins describes. Then, we’ll discuss the two main leadership styles you can apply to match your company’s needs.
Watkins says understanding the current stage of your company’s business development is essential to build a successful strategy. The five most common stages are:
According to Watkins, if you enter a new company that’s just getting started, you’ll need to acquire the necessary talent and resources to succeed, including finances and equipment. You’ll also need to create and implement effective systems and set a clear direction for growth.
(Shortform note: As Watkins says, accumulating the right resources and knowledge—including a clear sense of your direction and systems that push you in that direction—is essential in new companies. According to research, 90% of new companies that fail do so primarily due to their leaders’ bad choices or lack of preparedness, rather than “bad luck'' or unfavorable market conditions. Especially early on, it’s particularly important to be adaptable, as much of your time will be spent tweaking your products, services, and strategies based on the initial feedback from customers.)
Watkins argues that saving a company in serious trouble requires quick, bold action and tough personnel changes. Although team members may feel defeated and pessimistic, they usually acknowledge the need for a new direction, which will make it easier for you to implement change.
(Shortform note: When you’re implementing large-scale change to save a business, one often-overlooked area to change is the mindsets of your workers. As Watkins says, workers may see the need for change, but it’s up to you to guide them to adopt not just new ways of doing things but also new ways of thinking that support future growth. Often this involves ingraining the value of creative problem solving, sharing knowledge with colleagues, and taking personal ownership of business outcomes.)
Managing a company experiencing rapid growth requires you to recruit, hire, and integrate many new employees and establish processes that accommodate and facilitate growth, Watkins notes. Although scaling up is hard work, team members tend to be highly engaged and therefore more likely to support your efforts to reach a new level of success.
(Shortform note: To scale up personnel effectively, hire 10 to 20% more staff than you need for teams with traditionally high turnover. Also, build ramp-up time into your hiring plan, as it takes months for new hires to perform at their peak potential. It may also take a while to refine your growth-supporting processes. Finally, to keep your new team members engaged and supportive, set new hires clear goals. Make these goals public to keep each team member accountable.) )
According to Watkins, if you are tasked with reinvigorating a once-successful organization that’s now experiencing a downturn, you’ll need to restructure the organization and reinvigorate employees. One challenge is that some employees may not be convinced that change is necessary.
(Shortform note: To overcome employees’ resistance to change, experts recommend taking steps to engage employees to see what their concerns regarding change are and possibly alleviate them. Company-wide emails and intranets are great tools to help employees understand why change is important and ensure they have a way to ask questions and express concerns. By proactively addressing “What’s in it for me?” in your communication, you can help employees see the benefits of change.)
When you enter a thriving organization, Watkins states you’ll need to build upon current success by thoughtfully innovating. This will prevent the organization from becoming stagnant and ensure it’s poised to offer products and services aligned with customers’ changing demands. However, you’ll need to safeguard against the risk of taking on too much too soon.
(Shortform note: Other business experts expand upon Watkins's observations, saying there are two key things to consider when deciding whether and how to innovate in a flourishing company. First, consider how technology is evolving and how you can use new technologies to connect with consumers and deliver positive experiences. Second, evaluate how consumers are spending money—both what they’re buying and what forms of payment they’re using. This will tell you whether your products, services, and payment options are still relevant or require change. To avoid taking on too much innovation, experts recommend adopting a set 80/20 formula: Allocate 80% of your resources to existing practices and 20% to innovation.)
Once you’ve identified your company’s stage of development, use that information to determine an appropriate leadership style. Watkins describes two main leadership styles. First, a “sergeant” (Watkins calls this a “hero”) takes a commanding approach, making rapid decisions and taking aggressive action to move a company in a new direction. When people are experiencing an uncertain or dismal outlook, they tend to respond well to sergeants. Therefore, this leadership style is especially effective when employees are feeling insecure or unsettled, as in struggling and new companies.
Second, a “diplomat” (Watkins calls this a “steward”) takes a more consensus-building approach and uses more indirect influencing tactics when making decisions. According to Watkins, diplomats take time to nurture understanding among employees about why change must happen—and the important role they play in facilitating that change. This leadership style is most effective when people are skeptical or fearful of change, as in once-dominant companies needing a reboot and flourishing companies.
As Watkins says, you may be naturally inclined to one style over the other, but it’s important to adapt to your company’s needs. A struggling company in need of drastic change would not be served well by the diplomat approach, just as a once-dominant company in need of a reboot would likely perform poorly under a sergeant’s attempt to swoop in and aggressively disrupt the status quo. Also, you can accommodate for your weaknesses by making sure your leadership team has a mix of natural sergeants and diplomats, thereby ensuring your company can advance under any circumstances.
The Changing Demands of Leadership
Recent changes in the business landscape are requiring leaders to shift away from the sergeant approach that Watkins describes and toward a more diplomat style. One reason for this shift is that industries are becoming increasingly complex and fast-changing, which makes it hard for one person to have all the answers. Another reason is that today’s workers want to be engaged in deciding what direction to take, not simply be handed a vision they have no part in creating. Studies show that 60% of workers will consider leaving a position if they feel their work isn’t captivating enough.
Thus, more business leaders are operating as coaches, facilitators, and catalysts rather than solution generators, recognizing the need to engage workers in determining new strategic directions. However, getting workers engaged doesn’t happen without skill, effort, and focused attention. Watkins doesn’t elaborate on how to be an effective diplomatic leader, but one essential step is building trusting relationships with your team. As Daniel Coyle describes in The Culture Code, trust must be present for team members to contribute ideas freely. If your workplace lacks trust, team members will become insecure, questioning the importance of their work and their place in the organization.
Not surprisingly, given the complexity of business today, many leaders feel poorly equipped to excel in their ever-expanding roles and lead their organization into the future. To address this confidence gap, many companies are embracing “complementary leadership,” which involves having leaders share their responsibilities with other leaders who have complementary skill sets—a strategy Watkins suggests. Research has found that leaders who use complementary leadership see a 60% increase in their teams’ performance and a 40% increase in their own performance.
By now, you know how to choose a leadership style that matches your company’s stage of development. Now, let’s examine another critical step you must take when you begin a new leadership role: building strong relationships. According to Watkins, there are two key interpersonal dynamics that will fundamentally impact the transition into your new role: your relationship with your boss and your relationship with your team.
Watkins says it’s important to invest time building a strong relationship with your new boss because your boss evaluates your performance and is the gateway to your career advancement. Make sure you’re both aligned on expectations for your role by initiating a conversation about what success looks like—both short-term and long-term. Rather than passively participating in these early conversations, Watkins recommends proactively negotiating with your boss to set realistic goals and secure adequate resources. For example, connect the dots for your boss clearly by explaining, “If you want X, I will need Y.”
(Shortform note: To increase your chances of setting realistic goals and getting what you need from your boss, experts offer some tips for “negotiating up.” First, frame the conversation as an effort to solve a mutual problem or achieve a mutual goal. Focus on how your request addresses a critical need (and meets expectations for your role). Second, come ready with several options for how an issue might be addressed, clarify the pros and cons of each option, and offer a recommendation. Third, listen to your boss’s responses and ask questions for a deeper understanding of their perspective. Lastly, if your boss says now isn’t a good time, ask when you can revisit the conversation or whether you should talk with another leader.)
In addition to conversations about your role, Watkins says it’s equally important to clarify how you and your boss will work together. Gather information from other team members for initial insights into your boss’s management style. Furthermore, consider asking your boss directly how they like to communicate and when to include them in your decision-making processes.
(Shortform note: As you gather information about how your boss prefers to work, you may want to identify their work “personality type,” which significantly impacts how they manage. For example, an “advancer” focuses on action and results rather than building relationships and often comes across as arrogant or impatient. To facilitate a smooth relationship with an advancer boss, speed up your efforts and bring forward solutions to potential problems. In contrast, a “harmonizer” prioritizes a happy and productive work climate above all else. To manage your relationship with a harmonizer boss, do your part to maintain harmony among the team and frame your ideas around team or customer safety, happiness, and stability.)
As you start work, keep lines of communication with your boss open in case expectations and needs shift over time, advises Watkins. At the end of your first 90 days, consider scheduling a conversation with your boss that focuses on how things are going so far in your role—what’s going well and what could be improved. This will help you stay aligned on priorities and next steps, which will support your development and the company’s success.
(Shortform note: Although Watkins recommends checking in with your boss after the first 90 days, that may be too long to wait. Other business leaders recommend weekly or biweekly check-ins. More frequent check-ins, they say, help your boss stay informed about your accomplishments and obstacles in real time. This will enable them to secure needed resources and advocate for you with more senior leaders in the company. You can deliver updates via detailed emails or brief emails with bulleted highlights, or in person. Be sure to ask your boss which method of communication works best for them so it occurs as a contribution rather than a burden.)
Tips to “Manage Up” Successfully
Although Watkins doesn’t use the term, many business leaders describe the practice of proactively building a strong relationship with your boss as “managing up.” The goal, as Watkins says, is to adapt your behavior to your boss’s work style, make their job (and your job) easier, and add value for your boss and your company.
Here are some ways to manage up effectively that Watkins doesn’t mention:
Celebrate your boss’s success. Make an effort to get to know your boss on a personal level, including their career goals. Ask how you can support them in their goals and find ways to acknowledge their successes.
Help your boss manage pressure. If you notice your boss dealing with extra stress, offer to help them run a meeting or take on a task to reduce their workload.
Support them with new technologies. If you have greater technical capability than your boss, offer to help them learn tools that will improve their efficiency.
Give your boss feedback. When your boss does something that facilitates teamwork and boosts morale, give them positive feedback to reinforce that behavior. If they make mistakes, give them respectful critical feedback to help them improve.
Practice common courtesy. Simple practices—like saying good morning to your boss and colleagues and using a friendly tone in verbal and written communications—show respect and help foster a positive workplace environment.
Demonstrate a positive attitude. Accept compliments graciously, praise others genuinely, and express positivity.
Avoid gossip. Be loyal to your boss and steer clear of office drama. Comment only on the good in others.
Given the amount of control your boss has over your career trajectory, engage them early and often to build good rapport, align your expectations, coordinate strategy, and monitor progress. As Watkins says, doing so will enhance your job satisfaction and the company’s success.
In your first 90 days, Watkins says you must build a team with the talent you need to achieve great outcomes, as you can’t achieve much on your own. Start by evaluating your current team members to determine whether you need to make any staffing changes. To do so, identify the key qualities you need for each role and assess to what extent each team member possesses these qualities.
(Shortform note: Business leaders use many different tools and techniques to perform the employee evaluations that Watkins describes. In Traction, Gino Wickman shares a useful tool for assessing how well employees match your company’s needs. To use Wickman’s method, rate each employee on how they demonstrate each quality: Give them a plus (+) if they are strong in a quality and display it consistently, a plus/minus (+/-) if they’re average and occasionally display the quality, and a minus (-) if they’re weak and rarely display the quality. Assess each employee against the minimum acceptable standards you’ve established. This is a simple and effective way to help clarify staffing decisions and cut down on subjective biases.)
Once your evaluations are complete, Watkins says to categorize each employee based on whether they should stay in their current role, move into a different role, or leave the company.
(Shortform note: Deciding whether to fire, move, or keep someone has potentially serious consequences for both the person and the company, so it’s important to do your due diligence when making these decisions. Human resources experts suggest asking yourself key questions such as “When I imagine the perfect team, is this person on it?” and “If this employee wanted to resign, would I fight to keep them?” Also, avoid quickly writing someone off as a poor performer. Instead, dig deeper to see what’s causing their performance to suffer. You might discover the employee is unsure of their responsibilities or never received necessary training. In that case, it might be worthwhile to retain and develop them.)
As you categorize employees, keep in mind that firing employees can be time-consuming and complex due to legal requirements and the emotional impact on the team. Therefore, Watkins says, always consider alternatives such as lowering an individual’s level of responsibility or shifting them into a different role where they may be more effective.
(Shortform note: Although Watkins seems to imply that lowering someone’s responsibilities or moving them (rather than firing them) will protect you from legal implications and protect employees’ emotions, that’s not necessarily true. Legally, an employee may still accuse you of discriminatory intent if you reassign them or significantly alter their role. Therefore—assuming you have valid professional reasons for reassigning an employee—protect yourself by carefully documenting issues related to employee conduct violations or performance issues as they emerge. Also, minimize the emotional toll of reassignments by providing comprehensive support to reassigned employees, including family support, cultural training, and new site orientations.)
As you move through your evaluations of team members, consider how you’ll approach leading your team. Watkins recommends gathering information about how your predecessor conducted meetings and communicated so that you can identify areas for improvement. Changes to consider include adjusting the frequency or length of meetings and how decisions are communicated.
(Shortform note: While Watkins focuses on avoiding the negative aspects of your predecessor’s approach, you can arguably have just as big an effect by emulating what they did right. Emulating your predecessor’s positive qualities can help you maintain productivity and morale on your team. So, as you meet with your team, be sure to ask them what worked well with the previous manager. This demonstrates your desire to be a good leader and will help you determine the best way to work with your team moving forward.)
According to Watkins, another key factor to consider is how you’ll hold your team accountable. Begin by identifying small goals that feed into big-picture goals. Then, let each team member know what goals they’re responsible for and what specific outcomes you expect them to deliver.
(Shortform note: Whereas Watkins focuses on getting employees to do what you want and need, other business leaders focus more on the importance of supporting employees in achieving their career goals. According to Julie Zhuo in The Making of a Manager, to be an effective manager, you must learn about your team members’ priorities and aspirations. This helps build trust, supports collaboration, and increases productivity. When your team knows you have their best interests in mind, they’ll be motivated to perform well. Therefore, consider helping your team create professional development plans that include their short- and long-term career goals along with strategies to help them achieve those goals.)
After establishing goals, determine how you’ll motivate people to perform well. Watkins identifies three main motivational tools:
1) Financial rewards such as bonuses—Incentivize and reward people for excellent performance based on metrics you can quantify, such as an employee’s number of completed sales or average time to resolve customer complaints.
2) Non-financial rewards such as recognition, professional development opportunities, or promotion—These can also function as powerful incentives for excellent performance, either on their own or in combination with financial rewards.
3) Inspirational motivation based on a meaningful vision—Connect people with the contribution they’re making to society. For example: “You’re helping older people live happy, independent lives.”
Research on the Effectiveness of Motivational Tools
As Watkins says, motivating your team members is a key part of building strong relationships and ensuring excellent performance. Let’s examine what research says about the three main motivational strategies he identifies.
For performance-based financial incentives, research shows that while these incentives may motivate workers to be more productive, they can also have negative effects. One drawback is that financial rewards may be inconsistent. For example, if a company performs well one year, it may be able to reward workers with sizable bonuses. But, if the company performs poorly the following year, it might not be able to pay bonuses even though employees worked just as hard. This inconsistency can hurt morale. Also, financial incentives can lead to burnout if employees are rewarded for putting in extra hours.
Non-financial performance-based rewards, such as recognition, promotion, or flexibility in work hours, can effectively boost workers’ self-confidence, satisfaction, and levels of motivation, according to research. Also, companies with solid non-financial incentive plans are better positioned to attract and retain top talent. Implementing non-financial rewards into your incentive scheme is a relatively easy and cost-effective way to motivate your team to perform. Yet, despite the proven effectiveness of this approach, one study revealed that only one-third of workers strongly agreed that they’d received recognition and praise for their work during the prior week.
What about motivating people with a compelling vision? Research shows that workers who find meaning in their company’s vision have engagement levels of 68%, compared to an average of 40%. Therefore, using a vision to inspire your team members is a smart business move regardless of other incentives you include, as more engaged employees are more productive and effective.
Ultimately, while there’s no “right” answer about which incentives to use, it’s important to consider the pros and cons of different approaches so you keep motivation levels high, as Watkins recommends.
By now, you know how to build strong relationships with your boss and team members. Next, let’s examine another area Watkins says you must focus on during your first 90 days: achieving initial successes that support your long-term vision and goals. First, we’ll discuss how to choose initial successes to pursue. Then, we’ll cover how to gain support for your initial success projects by creating strategic alliances.
As Watkins says, securing initial successes will help you earn the trust and support of your team and your boss. How can you identify suitable initial successes to pursue? According to Watkins, your initial success projects should create team-wide (and company-wide) value quickly and cost-effectively. They should also fit your boss’s priorities and expectations for your role.
One example of an initial success project is to introduce a new communication platform and train all staff to use it by a specific date. Or, you might aim to secure five new corporate clients within the next six weeks. If you need more personnel, you might aim to hire 10 new salespeople by the end of the quarter.
Traps to Avoid When Pursuing Initial Successes
Achieving initial successes can boost your reputation, as Watkins says. However, if you’re not careful with how you approach these wins, you could fall into some traps that derail your goals and compromise your ability to lead. Let’s examine five common traps to avoid as you pursue initial successes:
Trap #1: Getting bogged down in details. In your quest to prove yourself, you may bury yourself in details that don’t ultimately matter or that you should be delegating to others. If you don’t involve your team and stay focused on the best way to add value to the company, as Watkins advises, you can waste precious time and resources.
Trap #2: Reacting poorly to critical feedback. If you view any critique as a personal attack, you’ll quickly alienate your team and take much longer to improve areas of weakness.
Trap #3: Being aggressive with others. If you’re too convinced of your competence and the merit of your plans, you may intimidate—rather than energize—your team.
Trap #4: Making assumptions. If you push to implement a plan too quickly—based on what’s worked for you in the past—you might overlook critical information unique to your company’s current circumstances.
Trap #5: Micromanaging. Given what’s at stake for you, you may second-guess your team members’ capabilities and commitment, putting your lack of trust on display and damaging morale.
So, how can you avoid these pitfalls and pick good initial success projects? The key, as Watkins suggests, is choosing wins that benefit the wider team and align with your boss’s priorities. Ultimately, an initial success should translate into cost reduction, revenue growth, or some other tangible business outcome. Also, it must feature substantive contributions from members of the team and evoke a sense of pride among contributors.
Here’s a diagnostic tool for picking initial successes. The tool includes Watkins’s suggestions as well as a few more, such as whether a project will give you an opportunity to learn the strengths and weaknesses of people on your team.
Once you define which initial successes you’re going to pursue, the next step is to build support for moving the project forward. As Watkins says, even the best leaders can’t do much on their own. Therefore, as you prepare to execute your initial success projects, you need to build alliances with key individuals who influence the outcomes you aim to achieve.
Which people should you pursue as allies? Watkins says powerful allies demonstrate unique expertise, display a strong sense of loyalty, and control needed information or resources. During meetings or other work functions, observe team members and identify individuals who are well positioned to support and advance your goals. Try to bring those who exert substantial social influence on board as early as possible, as they can serve as ambassadors to secure support from others.
(Shortform note: Throughout the book, Watkins focuses on what potential allies can offer you: expertise, loyalty, information, and so on. However, in a 2019 article published in Harvard Business Review, he also discusses the critical importance of understanding what others are trying to accomplish and how you can help them. Reciprocity, he claims, is the most reliable way to build enduring allies. But what should you give back to your allies? In Never Eat Alone, entrepreneur Keith Ferrazzi recommends offering your services or expertise, perhaps to support them in advancing a key project or helping them prepare for an upcoming promotion opportunity.)
Once you’re clear about who you’re going to pursue as allies, Watkins says you must work hard to gain their support. Even if someone is currently opposed to your vision, never assume that they can’t be persuaded. Try to find areas of common ground and soothe their concerns.
(Shortform note: What’s the most effective way to persuade someone to back your agenda? Research shows you can increase your chances by using particular language techniques. For example, successful arguments use the phrases “for example” and “for instance” more often, as providing specific examples of why your project is important can help clarify its validity. Also, hedging—using language like “it could be the case”—is linked with more persuasive arguments. Additionally, using calmer language and providing longer replies tend to be more convincing.)
Now that you know how to take steps toward achieving initial successes, let’s look at how to manage stress as you transition into your new leadership role. As a new leader, you face tremendous pressure to produce positive outcomes quickly. According to Watkins, if your stress level becomes too high, your work performance will suffer, which will undermine your success overall (and your well-being). In this section, we’ll first review some key warning signs that stress is getting out of hand. Then, we’ll share some of Watkins's tips for keeping your stress in check.
Watkins says it’s important to stay attuned to the range of emotional reactions that arise within you during the transition. If you feel burdened by negative emotions—or if you feel like you’re not being effective in your role—stress can easily spiral out of control. Consider whether you’re experiencing any of the following:
If you’re experiencing any of these stressors, it’s time to take corrective action. Otherwise, Watkins says, your work performance will diminish, and your stress will negatively impact other areas of your life.
Employee Burnout Is on the Rise
The symptoms that Watkins describes—isolation, procrastination, rigidity, and resentment—are all signs of employee burnout. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), burnout is a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” The WHO identifies the main symptoms of burnout as:
Feelings of exhaustion
Negative feelings toward one’s career
Diminished professional productivity
According to research, 52% of all workers are feeling burned out, up 9% in the past two years. Managers are slightly more likely to experience burnout than workers (26% of managers versus 24% of workers). The consequences of burnout are severe: Burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day and 2.6 times as likely to be actively seeking a new job. In the US, 550 million workdays are lost due to stress on the job. Also, burnout results in lower levels of confidence in teams and reduced employee engagement, which negatively affects job satisfaction, employee retention, customer relationships, and overall success.
Given these consequences, it’s paramount that you stay alert to signs you’re succumbing to excessive stress. As Watkins says, this awareness is critical to safeguard your professional success and your wellbeing.
According to Watkins, you must establish healthy practices to maintain a positive mindset, mitigate stress, and ultimately transition successfully into your new role. Here are some routines you can use to keep yourself in a healthy, productive state:
Build and nurture supportive relationships. Trusted colleagues and mentors can diminish your sense of isolation and provide useful insights.
(Shortform note: Mental health professionals affirm the value of a strong support network for handling stress and feelings of isolation. According to research, mentoring reduces anxiety, increases self-confidence, and fosters feelings of hope—for both mentees and mentors. Even if you’re currently not experiencing high stress, you’re therefore wise to proactively take Watkins's advice to establish supportive relationships.)
Focus on the tasks that are most urgent and important. Avoid getting distracted by emails or superfluous meetings.
(Shortform note: Focusing on your most important tasks, as Watkins recommends, is a popular way to increase productivity that many business leaders endorse. For example, in The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss advises you to focus only on the minority of your efforts that generate the greatest return. This time-saving approach, known as the Pareto Principle, states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Therefore, you can generate great results even while significantly reducing your efforts.)
Block off time in your calendar to engage in moments of reflection. Consider challenges you’re facing, weigh possible solutions, and plan your next steps. This will help you make thoughtful decisions.
(Shortform note: Watkins recommends reflecting to improve decision-making: but what does reflection look like in practice? There are multiple methods of reflection, and which you choose depends on personal preference. You might prefer to reflect on paper, writing down your thoughts and ideas; in conversation with others; in conversation with yourself; or on a daily walk.)
Avoiding the tendency to overcommit. Don’t say yes to every request. Carefully assess whether each request is worthwhile.
(Shortform note: Other business leaders offer more detail on how to assess requests, saying you should first gather enough information so you can make an informed decision about whether to accept or deny the request. Ask what your role would be in the project or task, what the possible benefits are, and the ideal deadline. Decline requests that are not allowed (go against company rules), cannot be done (are outside your skill set), or should not be done (given your other commitments). Accept requests that you can do well quickly and that offer significant potential benefits to you and/or the company.)
Professional transitions, such as shifting locations, moving internally to a new unit, or accepting a promotion, are becoming more and more common, as most individuals will experience an average of 13.5 major transitions for 18.2 years of work, or one transition every 1.3 years. Such transitions present great opportunities and also many challenges as a new role allows you to start fresh and have a strong impact but also exposes you to new and heightened scrutiny. Once opinions are formed about you, they’re hard to change. So starting off on the right foot is key. That’s why this book focuses on your first 90 days in a new role.
Those first three months present an opportunity for you to effectively and efficiently move towards the “break-even point.” The break-even point is the juncture at which you have given as much to a role or to a team as you have received from it. Your company has chosen to invest resources in hiring, onboarding, and training you. Your goal will be to return that investment as effectively and efficiently as possible.
The best way to do so is by creating virtuous cycles early on which support you in developing the trust of your team and bosses, building respect for your judgment, and creating a foundation for ongoing success in your role. To support you in developing these virtuous cycles, this book will discuss ten key principles (one per chapter) to apply in your first 90 days of a new role, including:
Throughout the book, we’ll also identify traps that you may face early on which can create vicious cycles and ultimately will undermine trust and credibility and create long-term barriers to accessing the resources and support that you need to achieve your goals. Examples of such traps include:
Ultimately, all job transitions present unique opportunities as well as challenges. This book will position you to effectively access the former while efficiently fending off the latter.
The first principle of creating a virtuous cycle in the first 90 days of a new role is to proactively prepare yourself for the transition. Do not rest on your laurels and assume that you can merely keep doing what you were doing before. Start by properly identifying the kind of transition that you are undergoing (promotion or entering a new company) and then confronting the unique challenges that you might face as a result.
Promotions represent a great recognition of and reward for your hard work. But you are also forging a new path and want to set yourself up to exceed the expectations of those who elevated you. Consider these key principles as you prepare for your new responsibilities:
Lateral moves into a new organization and culture carry their own unique set of challenges. At a new company, you’re not yet privy to the informal culture of communication and decision making, and this can create a credibility gap. To help your transition into a new company focus on these four things:
1. Business Orientation: Orient to the new company by holistically informing yourself about the many facets of the business. This is not limited to strategy and vision but should include concrete components such as brands and products, operating models, and talent management systems. Some ways that you can dig into these pieces include:
2. Stakeholder connections: Don’t lose sight of the many horizontal stakeholders of your work, including peers and other key constituencies impacted by your role. Invest in those relationships, not just the vertical relationships such as direct reports and bosses. Potential steps for developing those stakeholder connections include:
3. Aligning expectations: Don’t assume that the expectations articulated during the recruitment and interview process are etched in stone. It’s possible that during that process your role was framed to reflect a vision that would be most compelling to you. That vision was not necessarily false, but it may manifest differently on the ground. So remember to clarify and re-clarify expectations about your role both with your boss and with any other key actors that might contribute to your evaluation process. To help achieve this alignment consider scheduling a formal expectations check-in meeting with your boss early on (see Chapter 4 for more advice on this topic).
4. Adapting to the culture: Think of yourself as an anthropologist seeking to understand a new culture. What is culture? Culture represents a shared set of assumptions and values that inform communication, thinking, and behavior. Visually and superficially this may manifest through symbols (such as organizational logos), language (such as acronyms), or dress (don’t assume your company does casual Fridays just because your former company did). However, it will take time to develop an understanding of deeper cultural norms such as how recognition is doled out, what role team meetings play in the company’s ethos, and so on. Still more challenging will be gaining insight into the unstated assumptions that inform your company’s culture (such as how power is created and disseminated). Try these steps to learn more about the company’s culture early on:
As you seek to learn more about your company’s culture consider evaluating these facets:
Now that you understand the type of transition ahead of you and the unique challenges you may face, you must personally ready yourself for the move. Many individuals will mistakenly assume that their success up to this point is sufficient to propel their success in a new role, but this isn’t always the case.
Take, for example, Julia, who, after eight successful years in the marketing division of her company, was promoted to the role of launch manager for a new product. Unfortunately, Julia didn’t prepare for the fact that her new position would require a broader range of competencies such as delegation and an ability to fold distinct groups into the planning and decision-making processes. Relying on her previous tendency to micromanage, Julia alienated key members of her team and eventually was pushed out of the leadership role.
Julia’s experience reflects the importance of proactively planning and preparing for your new role. To make that transition more effective, consider applying these principles:
1) Psychologically make a break from your old job. There may be some overlap as you wrap up one job and prepare for another. For this reason, it’s important to mentally and symbolically reorient to the new role. Consider having a small celebration to officially demarcate the move. And set aside explicit time to mentally visualize and commit to the transition and to process the demands it will make of you.
2) Identify your “problem preferences”—these are the areas where you’re naturally inclined to step-in and get the work done. Maybe it’s one substantive area like marketing or finance. Such a tendency has probably resulted in a strong and clear development of skills related to that area.
But be careful not to become too adept in one area at the expense of others. Explicitly identify the tasks that you are drawn to and those you are not (e.g., relationships with customers, budgeting, employee morale, and so on). Similarly, evaluate whether you naturally orient yourself to certain substantive areas such as human resources, marketing, finance, operations, or research and development. Use this process to identify your potential blind spots and consider buttressing your areas of vulnerability by:
Finally, beware your strengths. Qualities that were strengths in your old role could be weaknesses in your new role. For example, your execution and substantive expertise in your last role may have been impeccable, but now you’ll be supervising individuals in that role and may have a tendency to micromanage their work because you think you could do it better.
It can be helpful to explicitly identify your “problem preferences” (or the spaces in which you are more naturally inclined to step in and get things done) before starting your new role. Review the boxes below and evaluate your interest in problem-solving within each area on a scale of 1 (no interest at all) to 10 (highly interested). Remember to focus on what you like to do, not on what you are good at. Then, tally the totals for each row and column to highlight any areas that might result in particularly low scores (thus representing potential blind spots) or high scores (areas you might regularly default to at the expense of other tasks).
| Technical | Political | Cultural | Total | |
| Human Resources | Evaluations of employees and of incentive structure
Score
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Employee wellbeing and morale
Score |
Equity/fairness
Score
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| Finance | Overseeing financial risk
Score
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Budgets
Score
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Managing costs
Score
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| Marketing | Product structuring
Score
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Customer satisfaction
Score
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Organizational customer focus
Score
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| Operations | Product quality management
Score
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Relationships with distributors and suppliers
Score
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Establishing norms of improvement
Score
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| Research and Development | Project Management Systems
Score
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Interdepartmental connections (e.g., between research and development, marketing, and operations)
Score
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Inter-team/unit cooperation
Score
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| Total |
Now that you have started your new job, the second principle for setting yourself up for success in your first 90 days will be to effectively and efficiently absorb as much information about the company as possible so that you can incorporate it into your plans moving forward. Failing to set aside time to accommodate this essential learning process will likely undercut your credibility and your long-term success.
Consider, for example, Chris, who accepted a lateral move from an established software services company to a smaller struggling software developer. Upon starting in his role, Chris quickly decided that the new company’s systems were totally ineffectual and would require a complete revamp in line with how his prior company had set things up. His efforts to fundamentally alter the company’s structure, however, surprisingly resulted in a decrease rather than increase in productivity. Chris’s mistake was in assuming that what worked in one company would also work in another and in failing to allocate time to understanding why things had been done in a particular way and which positive aspects of the new company’s work might be worth holding onto.
In order to avoid these same missteps in your new position, commit to developing a robust learning process early on. First, beware of certain roadblocks that may thwart your learning, such as:
Ultimately, it’s important to approach your learning process as an investment. You are building a path for developing actionable insights or knowledge that creates well-informed choices earlier on and establishes a foundation for reaching the break-even point more quickly. Remember that to achieve that insight you will want to learn both (1) effectively (by thoughtfully evaluating what is most important to learn and focusing your efforts accordingly) and (2) efficiently (by homing in on the best resources and extracting insights with minimal outputs of time and energy).
Start the learning process by drafting a “learning agenda” that will explicitly identify key questions to be answered and that will later inform your hypotheses for how to approach new plans of action. What questions should be included on the agenda? Consider categorizing questions into buckets, including:
Now that you have created a robust and prioritized set of questions to be answered, let’s reflect on where to turn for answers. First, remember that both hard data (financial reports, industry reports, employee surveys, and so on) and soft data (perspectives about cultural and political considerations gleaned through interpersonal data gathering) will be essential for gaining insights. To help you gather this data, consider using the following:
External resources such as:
Internal resources such as:
Now we know what to ask and whom to turn to. It may be tempting to dive right in, get meetings scheduled, or start perusing reports. But you want to engage with this process deliberately and efficiently. For this reason, it’s essential to create a “learning plan.” Distinct from the learning agenda, which articulated what you need to learn, a learning plan creates a map for how you’ll approach your learning. This plan involves an iterative process whereby you will:
1. Gather data
2. Analyze it
3. Create and test hypotheses for how to incorporate this learning into your new role
4. Repeat
We already discussed several ideas about possible resources for gathering data. But you want to approach those resources systematically to avoid getting skewed insights (for example, due to biases you develop from the first or last people you speak with) and to establish a consistent approach that efficiently maximizes your learning. Some possible structures to utilize in the data gathering process include:
Now, let’s break this learning plan down into explicit stages and goals for implementation during the first 30 days:
Before you begin your role:
Soon after starting:
By the end of the first month:
By creating your learning agenda and your learning plan you are appropriately taking responsibility for the success of your transition. Remember, however, to also ask for help from bosses, peers, and direct reports throughout your learning process.
Start off on the right foot by proactively developing insight into how your company is currently doing and use that insight to inform your goals for moving forward.
Interview three different external resources and three different internal resources about the status of your company using the SWOT framework. Jot down notes about how each resource categorizes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your company and highlight any areas where there is overlap while underlining answers that seem to be in tension with one another.
How does this information start to inform your understanding about some next best steps in your role?
Another key principle for your first 90 days is to develop an accurate diagnosis of the stage of growth and development that your company is currently in. Once you are armed with that information, you’ll be able to more effectively answer two key questions including: (1) what kind of change will I be leading the charge on?, and (2) what is my personal style of enacting change as a leader?
STARS is an acronym used to describe five different business stages. It stands for:
We will learn a lot more about the nuances and implications of these five stages over the course of the book. But, as a general matter, they are defined as:
Beyond understanding the business dynamics at play in each of these five stages, it’s important also to recognize how they might each embody a different kind of organizational psychology. For example, start-ups may be energized but frantic, turnarounds may be defined by low morale, accelerated growth may require imposition of new disciplines, realignment may be plagued by denial, and sustaining success may require an infusion of new motivation for learning and growth.
Remember, too, that these stages are applicable regardless of the size or type of company that you are working for or transitioning into and also that several stages might be at issue simultaneously for your company or within your role.
Once you diagnose the STARS stage(s) that are applicable to your work, you can make a more informed decision about how to successfully manage needed change in your role.
Supporting Example
Karl Lewin worked at Global Foods and effectively oversaw a turnaround of the company’s European manufacturing operations. There, the company’s diffuse approach to growth (marked by too many acquisitions and poorly organized country-level operations) had led to a state of crisis. Karl recognized that urgent and decisive action would be necessary to save the company and quickly identified the need to centralize operations and close four of the most inefficient plants. He also made the tough but crucial decision to clean shop at the top of management and to make other painful but essential workforce cuts.
After his success in Europe, Karl was subsequently promoted to be the vice president of supply chains for the company’s core North American operations. There, Karl encountered a radically different STARS stage within the company. In contrast to the turnaround Karl had navigated in Europe, the North American group needed to navigate a realignment. It had achieved its basic goals, and there were no major capacity or productivity issues, but they were struggling with low customer satisfaction and general stagnation. As Karl evaluated the company’s status and the team, he encountered a disinterest in critically evaluating outputs or using any formalized tools to measure success. He realized that improved information gathering and sharing would be necessary so that the group could understand why change was needed and so that he could gain support in implementing that change.
This realignment situation in North America demanded an entirely different leadership approach from Karl than the turnaround that he had navigated in Europe. Rather than implementing change incisively through immediate action, Karl had to engage with a much more diffuse set of challenges that were etched into the psychology of the people and the company. Human resources changes were made more slowly and deliberately. Managers were not cleared out, but individuals without the vision or the skills needed to help the company grow were replaced, often through internal promotions.
Ultimately, Karl’s success in these two roles with disparate needs was grounded in his ability to effectively diagnose the STARS stage that was applicable and to adapt his leadership style accordingly.
Like Karl, you can use the STARS diagnosis to develop a greater understanding of how to manage your own leadership style. Two such styles that might be either helpful or counterproductive at different stages include:
It’s likely that you’ll have a natural predisposition towards one of these styles over the other, and it’s important to be honest with yourself about your inclinations and strengths. Take that awareness into your new role so that you can check your tendencies and adapt accordingly.
As you plan for what success looks like in your role, keep in mind that it might manifest a bit differently depending on what STARS stage you are operating in. For example, evaluating “success” in a realignment or sustaining success stage can be tricky because it’s often about subtle change or fending off problematic shifts. There must be a more sophisticated understanding of what was at issue in the past and how things could have worked out differently with different leadership.
Armed with knowledge about how important the STARS stages can be to supporting your success, conduct a diagnosis of how these stages might impact your work priorities in the first 90 days of a new role.
Below, list out the key aspects of your current projects and identify which STARS category each component likely falls into. For example, you may be building a team for a new product (which may manifest as more of a start-up phase) and also overseeing efforts to improve overall customer satisfaction (which could benefit from some realignment). Once you have identified each work component, allocate it a percentage out of 100, reflecting how much of a priority it should be in your first 90 days. Remember that your particular role or business might not have work elements at issue for all five stages.
Now, choose the three components of your work with the highest priority percentages and note, below, how each of their particular STARS stages will inform (1) your leadership approach and (2) how you define success.
This chapter discusses the fourth principle for your first 90 days: Negotiate success in your role by helping to define the playing field in a way that aligns with your needs and priorities. You may find yourself working with a difficult boss or a boss with a fundamentally different style from your own and thus need to take initiative in setting up the framework for your role.
Take, for example, Michael, who accepted a new job as Chief Information Officer in his unit but was told by coworkers that his new boss, Vaughan, would be impossible to please—especially because she was intensely action-oriented, whereas Michael was more of a planner. Still, Michael proactively approached his boss with a concrete plan of action for the first 90 days in his new role. Even when Vaughan tried to accelerate his plan, Michael pushed back with a clear rationale for his plan. Eventually, Michael gained Vaughan’s confidence and trust because he was able to deliver results, even though his process and style were different from Vaughan’s preferred approach.
There are several key principles for building a productive and beneficial relationship with your boss just like Michael did. For example, consider the following “Dos and Don’ts”:
Do:
By contrast, don’t:
Keeping these considerations in mind, start planning to formally engage your boss. There are five key conversations that you’ll want to deliberately approach and that will help to inform your 90 day plan: the STARS conversation, the expectations conversation, the resources conversation, the style conversation, and the personal development conversation.
How would your boss diagnose which STARS phases are applicable to your new role? How does that impact resourcing your role? Getting on the same page for this question will fundamentally inform the kind of support that you’ll need from your boss moving forward. For example,
What are the expectations (short and long term) for your role and how will you define success? Additionally, what processes or metrics will be used to evaluate your performance? Consider these key principles as you engage your boss:
Beyond your boss’s support, you’ll also need access to other resources. What do you already have access to and what will require your boss’s buy-in? This should be evaluated not just in terms of money or personnel but in time and energy. It’s important that this conversation occurs after you have already identified your STARS situation because each phase will demand different kinds of resources. For example:
Some resource requests may be simple and fit into the current structure and political climate. Other times, more substantial requests will need to be made, requiring you to put your neck out but also to secure allies and insights to build support. In order to gain that support consider (1) helping your boss understand how your resource requests will also benefit their priorities and interests or those of your peers, and (2) making your “ask” by laying the issues out in a menu form of “if you want this, I will need this” so that a clear link is established between expectations, your request, and what you’ll ultimately be able to deliver.
What is your boss’s style of communication and management? How often and through what medium will you check-in? When should he be consulted and when can you independently make a call?
First, diagnose your boss’s working style and begin to evaluate how it might interact with your own. For example, your boss’s tendency might be to micromanage while you flourish with some semblance of independence. Below are some tips to evaluate your boss’s style and then successfully navigate it:
What will your personal development at the company look like? Checking in after a few months provides some context to think through your role moving forward and how you can continue growing and improving. Where can you still improve? What has been successful thus far? Your boss will respect your proactive approach to gaining constructive feedback. Don’t forget to ask for feedback about soft skills too (political, interpersonal, and so on)—those can be just as important as technical abilities in new leadership roles.
These five conversations will set you up well to negotiate success in your new role. However, some additional factors might impact your approach, including:
1. Having multiple bosses. The same principles discussed above still apply, but you may need to prioritize one of the relationships over others depending on who has influence and power.
2. Working at a distance from your boss, which presents unique challenges such as a higher risk that you will miscommunicate or fall out of step without realizing it. If possible, try and schedule at least one face-to-face meeting early on.
Incorporate your strategy for negotiating success with your boss into your formal 90 day plan. Try creating three blocks of 30 days and schedule a check-in with your boss after each. After the first 30 days, you should have clarified a diagnosis of the STARS situation and identified key expectations and priorities. Use the next 30 days to continue evaluating and planning. The 60 day check-in might be a good time to have your conversation about resources or perhaps to discuss your initial team evaluation (as was discussed in Chapter 2).
Finally, consider applying all of these same principles to your relationship with your subordinates and direct reports. Transition others as you would want to be transitioned by scheduling the five conversations with your team and giving them time to prepare.
Implementing each of these steps for negotiating success can feel overwhelming. Create more structure and accountability by identifying explicit goals for a 30 and 60 day check in with yourself.
30 day check-in
60 day check-in
>90 day check-in
Your fifth principle for success in the first 90 days is to secure early wins that will prop up your credibility and provide an opportunity to invest in key relationships that will be essential for a successful overall transition. Of course, enacting change within a company will come in waves over time and each wave will present an opportunity to (1) learn more about your company, (2) design new changes, (3) build support for that change, (4) implement the change, and (5) evaluate the results. A strong leader will deepen this process during each new wave in order to achieve more effective results for the company. However, it’s important that you start by establishing early wins that will build a foundation for subsequent waves of change down the road.
How can you identify potential areas for early wins? Many people are tempted to jump on low-hanging fruit that will result in quick wins but that will not contribute to longer-term goals and will not help build momentum for the harder work that needs to be done. To avoid that temptation, be sure to:
1. Choose areas for early wins based on the expectations for your position and as laid out in prior conversations with your boss and stakeholders. Those expectations provide insight into the company’s business goals, which should be at the heart of your early wins.
2. Ask whether the possible early wins that you have identified will help introduce new patterns of behavior that will support a broader vision for change. For example, perhaps you have noticed a lack of focus (marked by no clear goals or a reactionary rather than proactive approach) among your team. Reflect on how your early wins might be able to change behaviors related to those patterns. Other behavioral patterns that might require improvement include:
However, it’s not enough to simply avoid low hanging fruit when identifying your early wins. Instead, use the following principles to ensure that you maximize the benefits of your chosen projects:
Once you identify a possible early win project, consider whether it’s feasible and primed for success by using the FOGLAMP evaluation tool:
Focus: What are the parameters of the project?
Oversight: Who will be in charge of overseeing the project?
Goals: What are necessary check-points and timelines for reaching them?
Leadership: Who will take point on leading the project and are they sufficiently trained to do so?
Abilities: What assortment of team members is needed to ensure the necessary skills and backgrounds are included?
Means: What resources will you need access to?
Process: Are there specific models or structures that will lead to success? Does the team need to be trained on them?
Beyond thinking about what kind of wins you want to achieve, consider also how your leadership style and reputation might impact the way those early wins are perceived and whether they foster or undermine your overall credibility.
For example, you may be in a position similar to that of Elena, who was promoted to head of customer service for her retail company and suddenly found herself managing her former peers (managers of the company’s call centers). Elena set a tone early on by clearly communicating the goals for her new position, creating regular meetings for feedback with each call center manager, and making several thoughtful human resources changes. Because Elena took these key steps, she was able to secure various early wins in both improving customer satisfaction and cementing respect for her new authority.
If you also find yourself preparing to manage former peers, consider the following important principles for success:
More generally, all leaders will need to navigate the complex task of building credibility in their new role. Even before you formally start in that role, opinions will begin to form about your style and approach. Once opinions ossify, they can be very hard to change. Indeed, the phenomenon known as “confirmation bias”—where people will focus on information that confirms what they already believe and will ignore any evidence to the contrary—can easily take hold during the first stages of a new job. For that reason, it’s essential to inform the optics of your brand early on. What a successful brand looks like will vary for every role, but some general leadership traits that can help foster credibility include:
These traits can help inform a plan for how you want to introduce yourself to the company and your team. Different processes might support the dissemination of your unique brand. For example, one-on-one meetings with each direct report might be beneficial. Or maybe you’ll decide to travel to each office location to do introductions. Ultimately, however, if you are genuinely committed to learning about the ins and outs of the company, you are less likely to be perceived as a bulldog preparing to implement vast change without input and more likely to be seen as a thoughtful and engaged leader.
As you build your brand and engage in your learning process, keep an eye out for small “teachable moments” that allow you to create an example of how you will lead. These moments might be as simple as taking time to introduce yourself to the support staff or reacting calmly to small mistakes early on. Word will spread quickly about how you handle these seemingly insignificant encounters.
Once you have (1) identified important areas for early wins that align with your long term goals and (2) started building the credibility necessary to achieve them, you’ll need to implement a process for success. Effective implementation of a new project will require the following five elements:
It’s quite possible that you’ll be missing one of these components. But for each missing piece there is a corresponding action that you can take to resolve it. For example, if there is a:
While engaging in these steps may take time, this approach is preferable to forcing change from the top down and experiencing the negative repercussions later. However, in some circumstances (such as a turnaround), it may be less important to resolve the problems identified above because the need for change is stark, and the company is anxious to implement a plan.
Less concrete but just as important as the five elements referenced above will be recognizing if or when there is a lack of cultural support for the change that needs to be made. Changing a company’s culture can be very challenging and must be approached delicately so as to avoid a negative reaction from those attached to the status quo. Evaluate both the positive and negative aspects of the current culture and find ways to celebrate the former while also preparing to improve the latter.
Finally, as you move towards securing your early wins, beware any blind spots you have that could result in bombs going off which distract you and the team and undermine your hard work. Identify potential problematic areas early on by asking about:
Ultimately, it’s important to remember that your wins will come in stages. In the first 30 days you’ll want to achieve concrete wins that prop up your vision and build respect for your leadership style. However, as you move deeper into your role, you’ll start identifying second wave goals that are more challenging and perhaps go to issues around overall strategy, structure, or systems. Each subsequent wave will require learning, designing, building support, implementing, and evaluating results.
Before you commit to an early win project, make sure it’s the one that maximizes impact and progress towards your greater picture goals. Evaluate the relative strength of different possible early win projects by rating them using the questions below. The higher the score for a proposed early win, the better situated you may be to move forward with it.
How likely is it that this early win project will also support your longer-term goals? (Very likely to not likely at all). Why do you think that is true?
How likely is it that this early win project will also support needed behavioral or cultural change? (Very likely to not likely at all). What are some examples of such change that the project could support?
How strongly does this early win project align with the expectations articulated for my role? (Very strongly to not strongly at all). Which expectations align well?
How many of the needed resources for implementing this early win project do I already have access to or can I readily gain access to? (Most resources to very few resources). Write out examples of available resources, below.
The first five chapters have focused on ways in which you can begin to prepare for your own personal success in a new role. But the sixth principle to apply in your first 90 days is to understand that your success is inextricably linked with the overall success of your company and therefore you must contribute to the broader project of achieving alignment within your company. What is organizational “alignment”? There are four key components to how companies are designed, including:
If there are tensions between any of these facets, the business cannot thrive. Of course, being in a new role likely means that you cannot single-handedly or immediately alter core aspects of the company. Still, the first few months at a new job provide a great opportunity to diagnose any needed alignment shifts.
Consider the example of Hannah, who previously worked as a human resources consultant and was hired by a company in crisis to oversee necessary personnel changes. However, as Hannah learned more about the company’s struggles, it became clear that they could not be resolved simply by replacing key actors. Instead, Hannah recognized that the company’s structure (which was organized into units around different product lines), was discouraging cooperation and undermining the overall integration of customer services. Hannah gathered data that brought these tensions to light and eventually convinced her boss to restructure the business rather than overhaul leadership.
You can use the first 90 days in your new role to diagnose possible misalignments between the four core elements articulated above. Examples of common misalignments include:
As you identify possible spaces of misalignment and prepare to take action, remember that there is always cause and effect. So any changes that you make to one area should be done conscientiously and while considering the potential impact on other core elements of the business. Below are some tips to help you avoid creating problematic or unanticipated effects:
Now you are ready to start taking action towards achieving alignment in areas that are integral to your success. It’s important to approach this process methodically, by following these steps:
Start by clearly evaluating the strategic direction of your company, which is informed by mission, vision, and strategy. Mission is what you are seeking to accomplish, vision is why you think it’s a valuable goal, and strategy is how you’ll implement the steps and processes to achieve it. A few things to think about when evaluating strategic direction:
Ultimately, how to develop a sound strategic direction for a company is a topic for another day. However, for our purposes of evaluating alignment, it’s important to determine whether the various moving pieces mentioned above (customers, capital, capabilities, and commitments) cohere with one another, are adequate to support the company’s direction, and are being effectively implemented.
If there is coherence within your company’s direction, you’ll be able to follow a clear strand of logic between why various components of the business (such as goals, markets, products, technologies, and plans) are set up in a particular way and how they interact with one another. To aid the process of identifying that logic, look for and review documents that describe the mission, vision, and strategy for your company and then compare those descriptions to what is happening on the ground regarding budget, training, and so on.
Beyond ensuring coherence within your company’s strategic direction, you’ll also want to evaluate whether the current direction is adequate to achieve the articulated goals. Consider using the following tools to conduct such an evaluation:
Once you have a sense as to whether the current strategic direction is adequate, assess how effectively it’s being implemented. For example, if successful implementation requires certain skills, are employees being hired and trained accordingly? Or if teamwork is essential across groups, is collaboration happening as needed?
If you identify shortcomings either in the cohesion or the adequacy of your company’s strategic direction, then the direction itself will likely need to change. If, however, the problems are primarily at the implementation stage, then you can allocate resources to making improvements there.
Next, evaluate whether your company’s structure is sufficiently supporting its strategic direction. Structure is made up of: (1) Units (How workers are organized—e.g., by geography, function, product, and so on), (2) Coordination and integration (who reports to whom and how collaboration between units works), (3) Decision-making matrices and rules to align decisions with strategy, and (4) Performance evaluation processes+incentive structures.
Structural changes can be onerous and slow and so it’s important to evaluate carefully whether such changes are truly necessary. Try asking yourself:
You should also be prepared to make trade-offs in choosing a structure but make sure they are the right trade-offs for your company. Beware the following possible traps as you choose an appropriate structure:
In addition to the company’s structure, its processes and skills must also be aligned with the overall strategic direction. This can be done by:
1. Working backwards from your defined ends to help develop effective processes. For example, if innovation is essential, some leeway may be needed in the day-to-day to allow for creative processes. But that freedom may still benefit from the creation of key check-points and ongoing communication regarding progress made towards identified goals.
2. Analyzing whether your processes are focused on meeting your goals. For example, if you are tasked with customer satisfaction rather than product development, ensure that your processes emphasize and support that specific goal.
3. Aligning your processes with your company’s structure and the manner in which people and resources are organized. Consider whether your processes are:
4. Improving processes by developing a work-flow map (a diagram that explicitly spells out how certain tasks are achieved) and requesting feedback from the team to fill in the information and identify areas for improvement. This exercise has the added benefit of catalyzing collective learning and ensuring that team members have a good understanding of how they fit into the bigger whole.
5. Ensuring that processes are supported by the needed skill sets among employees. Such skill sets may include:
6. Conducting a thorough evaluation of where skills and knowledge currently sit so that you can identify both gaps that need to be filled with greater expertise or resources and capabilities that are being underutilized.
Consider also how the STARS stages of your company impact the order in which you’ll seek realignment. Strategy or process changes may need to happen first and inform other aspects depending on what stage you are in.
Finally, integrate further learning and insights as you progress. A deeper understanding of your team and how it operates will in turn create deeper knowledge to inform any strategy shifts moving forward. Ultimately, the value of your alignment evaluation process will be multifaceted. Not only does it help set the foundation for achieving longer term goals, but it’s also an opportunity to also start developing ideas about how you may be able to change culture.
Any change to your company’s strategic direction, structure, processes, or skills will have a wide spectrum of implications. Use this exercise to identify potentially undesirable consequences of a particular proposed change.
Using the box below, create “if/then” statements to help understand the broader consequences of trying to achieve alignment in a particular manner. For example, maybe you are seeking to create greater alignment between the company’s strategic direction and skills by hiring a new team of app developers. Work through the natural logic of such a choice. “If we hire more app developers, then we will need a bigger budget. If we need a bigger budget, we may have to siphon off funds from the marketing team. If we siphon off funds from the marketing team, the VP of Marketing will likely build a blocking alliance against the project” and so on. Write out these statements below to more effectively anticipate the impact of any given alignment change.
The seventh principle to apply when transitioning into your new role is to build the right team so that you can achieve the right goals. The first 90 days will be critical for assessing your current team members and identifying any needed role shifts or new hires. Human resources decisions can either set you up for a virtuous cycle that informs your long-term success, or for a vicious cycle that leaves you isolated and without needed support. To avoid the latter when building your team, consider the following potential traps:
Bearing these traps in mind, the first step to building your team is conducting an effective assessment.
The first 30 days in your new role are an important time to start gathering information about your team members. Some of that will happen organically through first impressions and access to prior performance reviews. However, it’s important not to rely on that information in lieu of a consistent, objective, and formal evaluation process.
Consider, for example, Liam, who inherited a team when he was appointed to lead a struggling business unit. As he reviewed the team’s previous annual performance evaluations, he began to get the sense that his predecessor had played favorites. Indeed, as he reviewed operating results and evaluated the team himself, it became clear that the performance metrics were not a reliable basis upon which to make personnel decisions. Instead, he opted into creating his own evaluation process which more effectively informed his HR decisions moving forward.
Conduct consistent and objective evaluations of your team and develop clear criteria for doing so, such as:
Other considerations and resources that might help you develop a consistent and objective evaluation process include:
As you assess each individual, consider how they perform in the above-discussed metrics but also plan on meeting with them one-by-one. The following steps will help you prepare for and implement these meetings:
1. Do your research first. Review performance evaluations, personnel history, and other appraisals. Develop knowledge about their technical background and experience.
2. Standardize your questions across meetings to include key points of inquiry such as:
3. During the meeting, observe both verbal and non verbal cues. For example, perhaps the employee has a strong reaction to certain issues or is reticent to take responsibility.
4. Test their judgment by spending sustained time with a given employee and observing whether they have good predictive abilities and can be strategic about preempting possible problems. But you might not be able to do this with every employee. Consider, instead, evaluating an employee’s judgment by asking specific questions about his or her hobbies. For example, who do they think will win an upcoming sports game or a debate? Why? Are they unwilling to opine? Do they have good rationale for their prediction? Were they ultimately right?
Beyond the one-on-one meetings, you’ll also want to evaluate the overall team dynamics and how they function as a unit. There are numerous ways to do so such as:
By the end of the first 30 days you should have completed your team assessments. Now, review each individual and categorize them as:
As you categorize each team member, however, always consider alternatives to replacement. Firing people can take a toll on your time and also on the company culture. Additionally, there may be legal requirements, documentation needed to sustain your decision, and so on. Alternatives to firing someone may include: (a) moving her to a new position that will be a better fit or at least less costly to you, (b) minimizing her impact by decreasing responsibilities and tasks—maybe she will leave on her own, or (c) considering whether she could be productive elsewhere in the company (without just making her someone else’s problem).
If you are still observing someone but think they may need to go, begin the process of discreetly identifying a possible replacement through internal options or an external search. And be sure to always maintain a tone of respect with all team members regardless of what category they might fall into.
Having good members team members is necessary but not sufficient for achieving your goals. How will roles be defined such that everyone is supporting the bigger picture? And how can you hold people accountable for their element of the equation? There are two categories of tools at your disposal as you motivate and align your team:
These are performance measurement systems and incentive structures that motivate people through fear, reward, loyalty, and authority. If you are planning on using these tools, consider the following key principles:
If you have agency to decide what weight to give these different elements of the equation, remember that the ratio of fixed compensation to performance based compensation should be informed by how directly you can measure the results of a given employee (the more directly, the more reasonable it is to compensate based on performance).
These tools motivate people through positive and aspirational notions about what you can accomplish together. Creating an inspiring vision is essential and you can do so effectively by:
Offsite planning can also be a good tool for strategizing and coalescing around a shared vision. Essential to any offsite meeting, however, is a good facilitator (which may or may not be you depending on the goals and your skill sets). Be realistic about what you can achieve in one meeting, and remember that you can always have more sessions. Make sure that the session has a clear purpose such as:
Finally, as you evaluate what combination of push and pull factors will be most beneficial in the process of aligning your team, remember that different team members may be incentivized by different tools so be prepared to employ them accordingly. Additionally, don’t forget to fold-in the STARS stages to your approach. For example, turnarounds are innately fueled by push factors because everyone is keenly aware that drastic action is needed to save the company.
Your team has been assessed, shaped, and aligned. Now, how will you lead it? What will the day-to-day processes and mechanisms of communication and planning be? Consider these factors as you plan your leadership approach:
First, it’s important to develop an understanding of current team processes by talking to members about how things have been done historically and reviewing meeting agendas and minutes. You’ll want to ask key questions such as:
Second, you will also want to identify areas that need improvement and think through an implementation and communication plan for those changes. For example, are meetings currently too inclusive and nothing gets done? Or are they too exclusive and lack key input?
Third, reflect on the different ways that decisions can get made. For example, they can be made unilaterally and some scenarios might benefit from you making a hard decision yourself. By contrast, you could try and achieve unanimous consent for a particular decision. However, between those two extremes are two other possible decision making models including:
Don’t assume that consult-decide is preferable when you are in a crunch just because it would be faster. You could end up doing even more work on the back-end trying to rationalize your decision to others. Beware, also, of the action imperative here—you’re antsy to get things done in your new role and thus might skip over essential processes. Use these considerations to evaluate which approach might be right in a given scenario:
Also, don’t forget about how your STARS stage might inform your approach. Startups and turnarounds are well situated for consult and decide because concrete decisions need to be made to get things off the ground and people are looking for a direction. By contrast, realignment and sustaining success often come with a firmly established team that might respond poorly to consult and decide.
It’s okay if you have a preference for one style of decision making over the other but don’t get too attached—it’s important to try and also build your skills in the other approaches. Consider articulating your approach explicitly to the team so that people have clear expectations and feel like a thoughtful process was put in place regardless of the substantive outcome. Be careful not to create a hollow process, however. People will see right through faux consensus building. Once you feel more confident, you may be able to alternate between the approaches without creating confusion or instability in the team.
Some teams face unique challenges because they are not operating in a shared physical space. A few pointers for leading a virtual team include:
You can begin to identify top priorities for evaluating your team by assigning values to different criteria such as competence, judgment, energy, focus, relationships, and trust. As you assign a value to the different evaluation criteria, be sure to (1) check your biases, and (2) consider how the STARS stages might influence which traits need to be prioritized within your team. Consider also that different values may be pertinent to different job types or categories. For example, what you are looking for in your customer service team may be distinct from what is important in your financial development group. Iterate this exercise as many times as needed.
What are the most important criteria for evaluating your team members? After each criteria, explain how it supports your goals and the current STARS stage of your company or team. Put an asterisk next to any criteria that you deem non-negotiable and explain why it’s a threshold requirement.
Everyone needs alliances and support as they transition—especially into a new company, which is why you’ll want to implement the eighth principle for success: build alliances that help support your long-term goals. Remember your early wins? Consider who you’ll need in your corner to achieve them. Remember also that having an alliance doesn’t mean having unanimous support. Focus on who you really need to get on board and allocate your time and energy there. Identify early on where you might face push back or blockage—include a strategy for winning those people over in your plan. Below are the steps to take in order to effectively build your alliances.
In order to build your alliances, you’ll need to learn more about the landscape of your company.
Who do you need help from? What role do they play in achieving your objectives? At what stage will you need to get them on board? Consider creating a chart mapping out each of these players. After you have identified the various individuals with power in your company, evaluate which ones you need on board for each specific goal. What combination of these players would constitute a winning alliance? What constitutes a “blocking alliance”? Think proactively about why they might be opposed to your plan/agenda and how you can assuage their concerns.
You should be thoughtful not only about who has the power to help or hurt, but also about how they make decisions and who influences them. Sometimes those channels of persuasion are informal but provide key insight into how information and decision making flows within the structure of the company. Identifying those channels may take time but consider the following options for gaining key insight sooner rather than later:
1. Notice how and where your business engages with outside actors such as other companies, suppliers, or various stakeholders. Such engagements will likely highlight key focal points where important members of your company come together.
2. Use both formal meetings and informal interactions as opportunities to identify power dynamics within and between teams. Who carries authority and who is trusted/respected to provide opinions and insight? People might have influence for different reasons, such as:
3. Look out for “power coalitions” which are sub groups that align to achieve certain goals or to protect certain interests. See if your agenda aligns with these groups, but be careful not to undermine your goals by getting caught in political tensions between distinct power coalitions.
A diagram can help you visualize how each of these pieces interact. Put your winning alliance at the center of the diagram and around the alliance note other individuals with power. Use arrows to indicate how those individuals might exert influence over your winning alliance.
Within these network diagrams you can also begin to code for people who support, oppose, or are undecided on your goals by highlighting them with different colors. A few things to consider as you categorize individuals on your map:
1. Supporters should not be taken for granted. You should regularly engage them to confirm and deepen their buy-in.
2. Remember that supporters may also come from surprising places. Perhaps you disagree with an individual in other areas but you share interests regarding one particular goal—alliances of convenience can be beneficial for everyone. Don’t discount anyone and think capaciously about who you can bring on board.
3. If you are trying to identify more supporters, consider people who (1) have a similar vision for the company as you, (2) are also new, or (3) generally have a reputation for being open-minded or creative thinkers.
4. Never assume someone will oppose you and always seek to understand the basis for opposition so that you can identify any possible effective counter arguments. Converting someone from being opposed to being on board could set a powerful tone. Consider also how can you help someone meet their goals down the road if they jump on board with you now? Some common reasons individuals may be opposed to change are:
5. In between the supporters and the opposition are the persuadables. Perhaps they are agnostic, not yet informed, or waiting to decide. Here you have an opportunity to:
Your networking map might be quite expansive. Accordingly, it’s important to allocate your energy efficiently and to prioritize engaging with the most pivotal people. Evaluate what fundamentally motivates those individuals (recognition, power, personal growth, and so on). Consider also what internal and external pressures they are subject to. Are there driving forces that align with your own? Or are there situational reasons that are restraining their ability or desire to get on board? Don’t just assume that someone is opposed because they are self-interested or uncooperative. Evaluate the context in which they operate to see if there is anything you can influence or change. Also consider whether opposition may be grounded in concerns about effective implementation. Is there a way you can do a test round? Or slowly build confidence?
Now that you know who to focus on, you can employ distinct tools to effectively exert your influence. Examples include:
Consultation: Solicit feedback about your plan and engage authentically with concerns that may arise. Reflect back points that people have made so that they feel heard and valued in the process.
Framing: Approach your framing of the issue on an individualized basis. Each conversation should be informed by that individual’s particular background, position, and style. For example, some people might respond well to arguments grounded in hard data and facts (logical or “logos” arguments). Other people might be moved by a framing related to key principles and values (ethos driven arguments). Or, finally, you might want to tap into emotional motivators such as an inspiring vision (pathos arguments).
Choice-shaping: Think about ways you can affect how people perceive their alternatives. For example, if people are worried that your project will be too expansive or will set a bad precedent, consider explaining how it will be circumscribed in order to avoid creating a slippery slope. Propositions that are perceived as win-lose are tricky to sell. Evaluate how you might be able to create more nuance around the issue so that there are more opportunities for others to see the benefits.
Social influence: We care about the opinions of others that we respect. Is there a key person you can get on board first who will then be influential to the decision-making process of others? Consider also that people like to make choices that are consistent with their values and belief systems, uphold their prior commitments, repay obligations, and preserve their image/reputation.
Incrementalism: People are less likely to be scared off by change if it’s viewed in small approachable steps. How can you map out those steps for them? A good place to start might be by engaging in a team-wide diagnostic activity. The more people agree on the problem, the more likely they are to commit to work towards a step-by-step solution.
Sequencing: Be strategic about the order in which you bring different individuals on board. Allocating energy on the front-end to convincing one integral ally could be key to building momentum towards greater coalition building.
Action-forcing events: Scheduling meetings and creating deadlines can help prevent stalling or avoidance that may be undermining progress and ultimate success. Psychologically, these concrete check-points will also create momentum and build accountability for people to commit to next steps.
Ultimately, the most important thing to remember is that alliances will be needed when implementing any changes. If you jump towards proposed changes and solutions without simultaneously doing the work to bring necessary actors on board, your efforts may well be fruitless.
For example, when Alexia was promoted to vice president of marketing for three regions, she enthusiastically conducted a thorough review of current practices and determined that a fundamental restructuring was needed to execute a better balance between the centralization and decentralization of marketing decisions. However, what Alexia failed to recognize was that the various actors implicated in her plan (including her multiple bosses and various country managers) would likely have conflicting interests in building such a restructuring. Without proactively managing those interests, Alexia would never achieve the necessary consensus to move forward.
As you start to plan a strategy for building out your alliances, keep track of the moving pieces and players by using the exercise, below.
Identify five individuals that are uniquely situated to impact (either positively or negatively) your early win project. For each individual, write down your assessment of the following considerations: (1) what their current stance is on your project, (2) what externally drives them (e.g., certain board members, media coverage, and so on), (3) what internally drives them (e.g., wants to be promoted this year), and (4) potential strategies for influencing their perspective (e.g., will be influenced by another actor or responds well to incremental change). Use these notes to inform your next steps in building your winning alliances and fending off any blocking alliances.
Remember that professional transitions are stressful and overwhelming not only because of the potential implications for your career but because your personal life will be impacted as well. Accordingly, it’s important to implement the ninth principle for success in your first 90 days: manage yourself by supporting your psychological transition and the transition of your family.
During your professional transition, you might be losing access to your normal support network, and your family might be undergoing significant changes as well. And yet, you will likely also have greater responsibility than before.
These issues were all at play for Stephen when he accepted a new position at his firm’s unit in Canada. Not only would his family be moving from New York to Toronto, his children would need to change schools in the middle of the year, his wife would need to find new clients for her freelance work, and Stephen would need to build a new professional network while proving himself in his new role. Without a plan for managing these moving pieces, Stephen risked reaching a stage of burnout that would undermine his ability to be successful overall.
By choosing to proactively manage all aspects of your job transition, you can fend off potential burnout and build a positive foundation for you and your family.
Start by taking stock of how you are feeling by using the structured reflection guide outlined below:
How do you feel so far? On a scale of high to low do you feel:
Based on these observations, try to identify the biggest challenges or obstacles you face moving forward. Are those impediments informed primarily by situational considerations? Or are they perhaps a reflection of something within your own control? For example, consider the following possible personal weaknesses you may have that are undermining your ability to transition effectively:
Any one of these tendencies, or several of them in tandem, can contribute to a heightened sense of stress. It’s well documented that a healthy amount of stress can be essential for propelling action. However, as stress levels increase, you’ll eventually reach a point where your performance is either undermined or you burn out completely.
First, adopt 90 day strategies by applying learning from the previous 8 chapters to build a foundation of success and confidence that will help provide a path forward in the face of personal stressors that arise during transition. If or when you identify a new stressor, see if you can categorize the source of that stress within one of the eight principles discussed up to this point. Then return to that chapter and ensure that you are employing the tools discussed.
Second, develop personal disciplines or regular habits that will help ensure your success. Some examples include:
Third, build your support systems by getting the basics lined up. Establish goals, processes, and routines to get your office up and running effectively so that you have a good foundation to work from. Remember also to allocate energies to getting your personal life stabilized as much as possible. Consider the following for facilitating a smooth familial transition:
Fourth, build and sustain your personal support network for advice and counsel. Include relationships both inside and outside of your organization that can serve as:
Create a blend of qualities within your network such as:
Ultimately, it’s important to focus on the day-to-day. By managing the small choices that you make you are also managing the way that momentum builds and which direction it points you in over the long-term.
Avoiding or shying away from your areas of weakness or growth will only come back to bite you later on as your new role demands more leadership and responsibility. However, by acknowledging these shortcomings head-on, you can fend-off the possibility of erecting your own roadblocks to success.
Focus on one personal weakness which might make the job transition difficult (refer back to the list of examples in Chapter 9 or identify one of your own). Recall a time when that personal difficulty previously manifested itself and write down the effects that it had on you and those around you.
What does that example tell you about how your suboptimal behavior might rear its head again in the future? Are there any steps you can take to avoid or recognize catalysts for that behavior before it results in negative consequences for your current job transition?
Independent research has shown that the nine principles reviewed thus far can help decrease the time for you to reach the break-even point by up to 40%. But not only do you benefit from investing in a smooth transition into your new role, so does your company. A successful leadership transition can help businesses by speeding up project implementation and creating competitive advantages. But a poor leadership transition can cost a company millions of dollars and substantially slow growth. For that reason, implement the tenth principle for success in your first 90 days: help develop strong acceleration (or transition) systems that can be implemented not only at the top leadership levels but across all team members. Indeed, you can use the 90 day model described here to transition employees at all levels and improve teamwork, relationships, and outputs.
Consider these key design principles for implementing a successful acceleration model:
All companies are undergoing many transitions simultaneously. Take a step back and identify where acceleration is most needed and where it would most benefit the company. Gather data about transition frequencies such as where and when there will be movement in the company such as onboardings, inboardings, promotions, or lateral changes.
One way to organize this information is to create a “transition heat map” which identifies all movement, where it’s happening, what kind it is, and the level it’s happening at. This can be done by identifying each unit and the types of transitions that might affect it. Then, use four common transition categories (onboarding, promotion, geographic moves, lateral moves) and indicate whether such transitions are likely to be of high, medium, or low intensity in a given group. Use this map to identify and plan for acceleration priorities.
Your company may already be engaged in certain practices that undermine the goal of an effective acceleration process. Identify and target those failures, which may include:
Evaluate the Efficacy of Current Acceleration Processes
The following questions will help you gain a more sophisticated understanding of how your company is currently executing support during transitions:
A “common core model” means that consistent framing, tools, and visions are used for all transitions within the company. Such an approach gives employees the language and knowledge they need to understand the essential transition concepts discussed earlier in this book (e.g., understanding the STARS stages, planning conversations with your boss, securing alliances, and so on).
Be deliberate about what type of support to deliver and at what point in the transition such support would be most effective. Early on, for example, the emphasis may be on supporting accelerated technical, cultural, and political learning. Later support, however, may be oriented to broader topics such as strategic vision and securing early wins. If support for all of the above is offered simultaneously, it may be too overwhelming. Similarly, if the support is not offered at the proper time, it may be ignored because it does not feel pertinent to the current transition stage. Remember too that the preparation for a new job begins well before the first day of work. Consider, therefore, what resources (e.g., access to data, reports, coaching support, and so on) you can offer to new leaders before their official transition.
Create structured tools to ensure that essential learning does not get lost in the shuffle. This could take the form of preset coaching meetings, regular cohort events, and so on. Get coaches on board as early as possible so that they can be part of the diagnostic process and thus have insight into the pieces at play.
Be aware of how different transition categories may demand specific kinds of support. For example, promotions include their own challenges as individuals are likely building up new skill sets while simultaneously changing their relationships with others, including how they interact and exert authority. Support resources should therefore be focused on developing self awareness around these questions and outlining personal development plans. By contrast, onboarding to a new company will often mean culture shock, focused relationship building, and appropriately aligning expectations. Consider uniquely applicable resources for those challenges such as connecting new hires to key stakeholders as they get a lay of the land.
It’s important to recognize that different investments of time and resources will be needed for different levels of leadership. Executives curry such influence that they will often merit highly individualized transition resources through, for example, robust coaching support. And while it might not be feasible to provide those same tools to leaders at other levels, you may still be able to provide them with key tools such as virtual workshops or self-guided materials. Regardless of the leadership level involved, it’s essential to assess the costs and benefits of different tools and then deliberately match them to different roles to maximize your return on investment.
Although it’s common for an entity like human resources to be taking the lead with job transitions, other individuals such as bosses, peers, and direct reports can provide essential support. However, it’s important to clarify expectations for everyone involved and help each actor understand how they will also benefit from promoting a smooth onboarding process.
Transition coaching versus development coaching
Your company may want to consider using professional coaching services as a resource for accelerating job transitions. Bear in mind, however, that the background and skills necessary for effective transition coaching are distinct from those seen in more common career development coaching. A transition coach will be helping a new hire evaluate not only his own competencies and goals but will also be assessing how they fit into the overall business framework of the new company or group. Additionally, a transition coach will focus on creating an actionable plan and strategy for success in the new hire as part of the greater group or business model, rather than focusing on the personal psychological or skill development of the one employee participating.
If recruitment and onboarding teams never work together or talk to each other, tensions and gaps are more likely to emerge. For example, the onboarding team may have excellent tools in place to support new hires in learning about the company culture, but if the recruitment team is not considering cultural fit in the hiring process, those tools may go to waste. Accordingly, communicating a shared vision across the hiring process is essential. Similarly, recruiters may have invaluable information (such as assessment results, interview notes, and so on) to inform the onboarding team’s approach. Don’t let that be a missed opportunity by siloing them. Encourage recruiters to gather important transition information from step one and then share it throughout the acceleration process.
Gathering more information about your company’s current acceleration processes may inspire you to create new and more effective approaches. Perhaps, for example, you have some questions or concerns about how training is conducted. Use this exercise to evaluate whether there is room for improvement moving forward.
Choose to focus on one acceleration process that you believe is failing within your company. Identify three individuals involved in that process and write five questions below that you can ask them to better understand the history of that approach, how it’s currently being implemented, and how it could be improved.
Armed with answers to your questions, consider whether you have any new proposals for implementing changes in the acceleration process reviewed. Write any such proposals in the box below. Be sure to explain how the proposal is informed and supported by insight gleaned from your interviews.