My client base is experiencing a season of transition. Several clients are starting new jobs at new organizations. Others have been promoted and are adapting to new responsibilities (and letting go of old ones). A few have picked up additional roles through a side hustle.
Even if your role hasn’t changed in years, I recommend looking at it with fresh eyes every few years and giving yourself a fresh “first 90 days.”
The First 90 Days
Michael D. Watkins has written the definitive book – The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter. This book was a fantastic resource for me through multiple promotions, and if you are stepping into a new role and you have the time, I highly recommend it.
If you don’t have the time, some excellent summaries are available. Better yet, this is a great use case for AI. Consider asking ChatGPT to generate an executive summary for you and then ask it to provide more detail about the areas you are interested in.
Here are a few areas that have always resonated with me, along with my suggestions.
Prepare Yourself
One of the biggest challenges of stepping into a new role is leaving behind your old one. The challenge is amplified if you are promoted to a new role within your existing organization. All your old responsibilities are still there, and often, you are asked to “transition” by doing both your old job and your new one simultaneously. If you find yourself in this situation, set a clear deadline for the transition to end and enforce that boundary.
As I went through promotions, I found it hard to see myself in the new role. I had to remind myself that some people only knew me as a vice president, even though I still remember being a software developer.
Accelerate Your Learning
Most leaders give themselves the first month to focus on learning. It’s common to set an expectation that you won’t make any significant changes until you’ve had a month to learn and digest.
Plan a learning tour. Identify the key stakeholder relationships in your new role and get 1:1 time with them to gather as much information as possible to accelerate your learning.
At the same time, I am mindful that everyone has an opinion, and I want to separate facts from stories. If someone tells me a particular employee should be fired, I ask why. Sometimes, they have compelling examples, and sometimes, the feedback can’t be supported by facts. Either way, I reserve judgment so I can make my own informed decisions.
Match Strategy to Situation
Watkins offers a simple framework to help identify how you approach your first 90 days – the STARS framework:
- Start-up
- Turnaround
- Accelerated Growth
- Realignment
- Sustaining Success
Sometimes, the situation is evident when you start. Sometimes, you may find that you were promised one situation, such as sustaining success, but you discover you’re in a different one, such as a turnaround.
Take time to assess the nature of your situation, as how you approach your first 90 days will vary. For example, if you’re jumping into a start-up situation, chances are you won’t have 30 days to patiently learn and assess before taking action.
Secure Early Wins
This one feels like stating the obvious, but I cannot stress it enough. How fast you move depends on your situation, and in most cases, you’ll want the first month to learn and digest before you take action. You will, however, want to achieve some early wins and make them visible to your boss. When I hired a leader, I expected a plan by the end of the first month. I remember one leader in particular who was still in “learning mode” after six weeks despite a robust onboarding plan. He was gone after his first 90 days.
I recommend building out a 90-day plan in whatever format you are comfortable with and refining it over the first month. I use a simple PowerPoint template to organize my plan—DM me or ask in the comments if you want a copy.
Now is not the time for humility. This is a time to promote yourself. Make sure your boss knows about those early wins as you achieve them.
Manage Yourself
Regarding a new role, here’s the advice I offer most frequently, which is rarely taken to heart. Manage your energy as you step into your new role. I’ve seen countless leaders live in a state of overwhelm, accepting 60-80-hour work weeks as the norm. I lived this life, and I was rewarded with brain fog in my forties. Living with this much stress, our brain is flooded with neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine. We think we are being productive by working so hard, and we don’t realize how much more productive we can be if we can get our brains operating in a “just right” state.*
There is a simple solution to this challenge – don’t set your bar at 80 hours a week as you start your new job. If you spend the first month working 80 hours a week, that’s the norm. You have trained your body and brain to operate that way and set that expectation with your colleagues. Research shows you’ll be even more productive if you set a healthier schedule.
A six-month study in the UK involving 61 companies explored this. They reduced a group of employees from five to four days a week without reducing pay. They found that business performance and productivity maintained or even went up. 92% of the companies decided to continue the changes once the study was over!
If your new role is with a new company, give yourself at least a week off between the old job and the next. I have a client who gave herself a month. If you have that luxury, I strongly recommend it. She could rest, recharge, and enter her new role energized and prepared.
Also, consider how you manage your energy as you wind down your old role. When I gave my 30-day notice at Ellucian, a trusted colleague gave me some very sage advice. He told me the next 30 days were not about how much more I could get done before I left. They were about ensuring I supported everyone around me who would be picking up those duties after I was gone.
Putting It Into Practice
Whether you are starting a new role at another organization, getting promoted at your current organization, or due for a fresh look at a role you have been in for years, a “First 90 Days” mindset can be impactful:
- Read The First 90 Days or a summary if time is scarce.
- Prepare yourself to embrace your new role and bring closure to your old one.
- Accelerate your learning by connecting with key stakeholders.
- Secure early wins, and don’t be shy about celebrating your success.
- Manage your energy by giving yourself time between roles, if possible, and starting with a steady, healthy pace.
I am an executive coach and life coach with software executive roots in higher education and EdTech. I coach because I love to help others accelerate their growth as leaders and humans. I frequently write about #management, #leadership, #coaching, #neuroscience, and #arete.
If you would like to learn more, schedule time with me.
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* I offer a workshop on the Neuroscience of Stress Management, where we explore these concepts in more detail. It’s a great way to help your team