Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@jonbrouse

jonbrouse/First 90 Days.md

Last active August 4, 2021 16:42
Show Gist options
  • Save jonbrouse/30b595edfe6cb5e16ac1566d2ed6a938 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save jonbrouse/30b595edfe6cb5e16ac1566d2ed6a938 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Download ZIP
The First 90 Days.md
Raw
First 90 Days.md

The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies For New Leaders At All Levels

If you have just been promoted to a new leadership position (or expect to be soon), then this book is for you.

The book outlines ten strategies that will shorten the time it takes you to reach what Watkins calls the breakeven point: the point at which your organization needs you as much as you need the job.

Table of Contents

Promote Yourself

  • Make a mental break from your old job.
  • Hit the ground running
    • Begin by thinking about your first day in the new job. What do you want to do by the end of that day? Then move to the first week. Then focus on the end of the first month, the second month, and finally the three-month mark. These plans will be sketchy, but the simple act of beginning to plan will help clear your head.
  • Assess your vulnerabilities
    • Assess your problem preferences - the kinds of problems toward which you naturally gravitate.
      • Rank your interest in each type of problem separately, on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 10 (very much). Keep in mind that you are being asked about your intrinsic interests, not your skills or experience.
      • Transfer your rankings from table 1-1 to the corresponding cells in table 1-2. Then sum the three columns and the five rows.
      • If one column total is noticeably lower than the others, it represents a potential blind spot for you. If you score high on technical and low on cultural or political, for example, you may be at risk of overlooking the human side of the organizational equation.
    • Categories of problems
      • Technical problems encompass strategies, markets, technologies, and processes.
      • Political problems concern power and politics in the organization.
      • Cultural problems involve values, norms, and guiding assumptions.
    • Three basic tools to compensate for your vulnerabilities are self-discipline, team building, and advice and counsel.
  • Prepare to take charge in the new one.
  • Don't assume that what has made you successful so far will continue to do so.
  • The dangers of sticking with what you know, working hard at doing it, and failing miserably are very real.

Accelerate Your Learning

  • Climb the learning curve as fast as you can in your new organization.
  • Understand markets, products, technologies, systems, and structures, as well as its culture and politics.
  • It feels like drinking from a fire hose. So you have to be systematic and focused about deciding what you need to learn.

Match Strategy to Situation

  • There are no universal rules for success in transitions.
  • You need to diagnose the business situation accurately and clarify its challenges and opportunities.
  • The author identifies four very different situations:
    • launching a start-up
    • leading a turnaround
    • devising a realignment
    • sustaining a high-performing unit.
  • You need to know what your unique situation looks like before you develop your action plan.

Secure Early Wins

  • Early victories build your credibility and create momentum.
  • They create virtuous cycles that leverage organizational energy.
  • In the first few weeks, you need to identify opportunities to build personal credibility.
  • In the first 90 days, you need to identify ways to create value and improve business results.

Negotiate Success

  • You need to figure out how to build a productive working relationship with your new boss and manage his or her expectations.
  • No other relationship is more important. This means having a series of critical talks about the situation, expectations, style, resources, and your personal development.
  • Crucially, it means developing and gaining consensus on your 90-day plan.

Achieve Alignment

  • The higher you rise in an organization, the more you have to play the role of organizational architect.
  • This means figuring out whether the organization's strategy is sound, bringing its structure into alignment with its strategy, and developing the systems and skills bases necessary to realize strategic intent.

Build Your Team

  • If you are inheriting a team, you will need to evaluate its members.
  • Perhaps you need to restructure it to better meet demands of the situation.
  • Your willingness to make tough early personnel calls and your capacity to select the right people for the right positions are among the most important drivers of success during your transition.

Create coalitions

  • Your success will depend on your ability to influence people outside your direct line of control.
  • Supportive alliances, both internal and external, will be necessary to achieve your goals.

Keep Your Balance

  • The risks of losing perspective, getting isolated, and making bad calls are ever present during transitions.
  • The right advice-and-counsel network is an indispensable resource

Expedite Everyone

  • Finally, you need to help everyone else - direct reports, bosses, and peers - accelerate their own transitions.
  • The quicker you can get your new direct reports up to speed, the more you will help your own performance.

This book is not only relevant on the individual level. This transition process for new managers happens so often that it should be handled with more professionalism by (big) organizations. Whereas we as managers try to work actively with introduction programmes and training for new employees, then many managers must face their transition challenge alone. It shouldn't be like that. The "sink or swim" approach should be doomed.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment