Aug
19
Book Review: The First 90 Days
Filed Under Leadership Resources
The First 90 Days a Harvard business Review book by Micheal Watkins provides a guide for leaders making a transition from one role into a new one. Transitions are one of the most difficult times for most leaders. This book is an essential guide for leaders in transition…
“Transition failures happen when new leaders either misunderstand the essential demands of the situation or the lack of skill and flexibility to adapt to them.”
Promote Yourself
“This doesn’t mean hiring your own publicist. It means making the mental break from your old job and preparing to take charge in the new one. Perhaps the biggest pitfall you face is assuming that what has made you successful to this point in your career will continue to do so. The dangers of sticking with what you know, working extremely hard at doing it, and failing miserably are very real.”
Accelerate Your Learning
“You need to climb the learning curve as fast as you can in your new organization. This means understanding its markets, products, technologies, systems and structures, as well as its culture and politics. Getting acquainted with the new organization can feel like drinking from a fire hose. You have to be systematic and focused about deciding what you need to learn and how you will learn it most effectively.”
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. Start-ups, for instance - of a new product, process, plant, or completely new business - share challenges quite different from those you would face while turning around a product, process, or plant in serious trouble. A clear diagnosis of the situation is an essential prerequisite for developing your action plan.”
Secure Early Wins
“Early wins build your credibility and create momentum. They create virtuous cycles that leverage the energy you are putting into the organization to create a pervasive sense that good things are happening. 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, improve business results, and get to the breakeven point more rapidly.”
Negotiate Success
“Because no other single relationship is more important, you need to figure out how to build a productive working relationship with you new boss and manage his or her expectations. This means carefully planning for a series of critical conversations about situation, expectations, style, resources, and your personal development. Critically, 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 skill bases necessary to realize strategic intent.”
Build Your Team
“If you are inheriting a team, you will need to evaluate its members and perhaps restructure it to better meet the 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 amongst the most important drivers of success during your transition. You will need to be both systematic and strategic in approaching your team building challenge.”
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. You should therefore start right away to identify those whose support is essential for your success, and to figure out how to line them up on your side.”
Keep Your Balance
“In the personal and profession tumult of a transition, you will have to work hard to maintain your equilibrium and preserve your ability to make good judgements. The risk of losing perspective, getting isolated, and making bad calls are ever present during transitions. There is much you can do to accelerate your personal transition and to gain more control over your work environment. The right advise-and-counsel network is an indispensable resource.”
Expedite Everyone
“Finally, you need to help everyone in your organization - 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. Beyond that, the benefits to the organization of systematically accelerating everyone’s transitions are potentially vast.”
In Conclusion….
Transitions need to be carefully managed as they are risky and prone to failure. This book is very well written and full of practice advice to guide leaders through the crucial first 90 days in their new roles. I found this book an extremely useful resource in a recent transitions that I made from a leadership position in one organization to another. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for some guidance and advice as they seek to develop their personal 90 day transition plans.
Technorati Tags: Book, Review, 90-days, 100-days, Plan, Career, Transition, Leadership, Management, Business, Change, HBR
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[...] the Harvard Business Review book "The First 90 Days" which I’ve previously reviewed here. Before jumping into a new role or hastily accepting that new leadership position take some time to [...]
[...] Another great book on effectively managing leadership transition which I reviewed on this blog here is the book The First 90 [...]