Michael D.

Watkins Some Impressionistic takes from the book The First 90 Days
( Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders)

by Ramki
ramaddster@gmail.com

About Michael D. Watkins

Michael D. Watkins A Harvard business school professor and in this book first 90 days he presents a road map for taking charge in a management job. The first days are critical because small difference in your actions can have a huge impact on long-term results . Leaders at all levels are very vulnerable in their first few months in a new job because they lack in-depth knowledge of the challenges theyll face and what it will take to succeed with their new company. Failure to create momentum in the first 90 days virtually guarantees an uphill battle for the rest of an executives tenure. The first 90 days will equip you with strategies and tools to get up speed faster & achieve more sooner. This summary will show you how to diagnose your situation & understand its challenges & opportunities. You will also learn how to assess your strengths & weaknesses , how to quickly establish priorities, and how to manage key relationships that help you to succeed. Happy reading !!!

Welcome & Introductions

Name + Affiliation What brings you here today ? What do you do to prepare for a new role ?

The Challenge for first 90 days

Opportunity Clean slate Honeymoon Period Free License to Question Risk Savior Syndrome Having the answers Too much/Too Soon

The Big Idea

You have 90 days to prove that you are an asset to the Organization upon entering a new job or getting promoted to a higher position within the same Organization. With such a short span of time to Prove your worth & value time becomes a high-priced resource. A Leader transition causes the so-called ripple effect

First Challenge- Promote Yourself

Promoting yourself in no way means self-serving, grandstanding or advertising. Let it all Sink in Transition of authority also means transition of habits & responsibilities. The ways to promote yourself are Establish a clear breakpoint Hit the ground running Assess your vulnerabilities Watch out for strengths Relearn how to learn Rework your network Watch out for people who want to hold you back

First Challenge- Promote Yourself

Define the role Stop & then Start Be specific with milestones Finding success means preparing yourself to fail It takes a tribe

A New job requires A new approach

Douglas Ivester was promoted to CEO at Coca-Cola in 1997 after working as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at the company. In 1999, after a series of blunders that eroded the confidence of Cokes Board of Directors, Ivester resigned. To outside observers, Ivester appeared to be the perfect candidate for the job. An accountant by training, Ivester was unable to make the leap from COO to CEO because his extraordinary attention to detail, which had been a virtue in his previous jobs in finance and operations, proved to be a hindrance in his new position. Ivester could not free himself from day-today operations enough to take on the strategic, visionary roles of an effective CEO. The cause of Ivesters failure wasnt what he couldnt do, but what he couldnt let go of. An impressive career came to a deeply disappointing conclusion because he persisted in focusing on what he felt most competent doing instead of focusing on what the CEO position required.

Assess your Vulnerabilities

You have been offered your position because the people who hired you think you have got what it takes to succeed. But it can be disastrous to rely too much on the skills & knowledge that made you successful in the past. Evaluate your problem preferences the type of problems you prefer to work on. Everybody likes doing some thing more than others, but doing so is like exercising your right arm & ignoring the left arm . Creating this type of imbalance leaves you vulnerable in situations that call on you to be ambidextrous. Develop self-discipline, team building and get advice and counsel. Find people in the new organization who are skilful and learn from them.

Second Challenge -Accelerate Your Learning

All Leaders feel the need for an action imperative. What do you want and need to know ? One of the hardest things you will have to learn about as a leader is the organizational culture. Lack of learning may seem unimportant, but must be kept to a minimum to form better decisions & possess better control of the responsibilities Change is a cycle. Adapt or alter to cultures you will discover

Defining your Learning Agenda

Define your learning agenda is the starting point. This establishes your learning priorities & consists of a focussed set of questions that will guide your inquiry. As you learn more , you will make conclusions about what is going on & why ? During your transition you will learn from various types of hard data Financial, operating reports, strategic & function plans etc. Talk to people and spend time with the team Identify the promising sources will make your learning more complete & efficient.

Adopting Structured Learning Methods

Once you have an idea of what you need to learn and where to seek it, the next step is to understand the best way to learn. When diagnosing a new organization, start by meeting with your direct reports one-on-one and ask them these five questions: What are the biggest challenges the organization is facing (or will face) in the near future? Why is the organization facing (or going to face) these challenges? What are the most promising unexploited opportunities for growth? What would need to happen for the organization to exploit the potential of these opportunities? If you were me, what would you focus on?

Second Challenge- Accelerate your learning

Learn with a purpose Analyse your early wins/losses Schedule your learning Become the teacher Be the student Know your learning style

Third Challenge -Match Strategy to Situation

Diagnosing the Business Situation There are four major situations for any organization Start-up Require to build and enforce systems from scratch. You have got to assemble the capabilities people, funding , technology needed to get a new business, product or project off the ground . Turn-around Situations that require a quick mind and fast action. You take a unit or a group that is in trouble & work to get it back on track. Realignments Call for critical thinking and convincing people that something will go wrong. Challenge is to revitalize a unit, product, process or project that is drifting into trouble. Reinvent the business.

Third Challenge -Match Strategy to Situation

Sustaining success Call for the ability to fix small problems before they morph into big ones. Responsible for preserving the vitality of a successful organization & taking it to the next level. Keep motivating the people by inventing new challenges. The approach or strategy you will employ to succeed differs from situation to situation. Different situations have different problems & opportunities Let the situation be your guide

Understanding the History

How much emphasis will you place on learning as opposed to doing ? How much emphasis will you place on offense as opposed to defence ? What should you do to get some early wins ?

Third Challenge -Match Strategy to Situation

Typical Challenges Behaviours no longer contribute to high performance Change is not seen as necessary Commitment to the new reality Typical opportunities Areas of strength The positive side of the change

Secure Early Wins

Fourth Challenge-Secure Early Wins

Securing an early win is similar to the action imperative with the exception that the action follows in the wake of an educated thought when securing early win. Early wins are processes or systems you can change rapidly & improve outright What must you prioritize when deciding what to change early into your transition ? Carefully analyse your organizations situation Get your people to bring about the changes

Fourth Challenge-Secure Early Wins

Focus With everything you want to accomplish, its easy to fall into the trap of creating endless to do lists. The problem with this is that the longer the list, the more paralyzing it becomes. Secondly, with a long list, it is too easy to just pick the easy wins and allow the resulting adrenaline rush of checking things off fool you into believing you are making progress. Instead, focus on no more than the 3 or 4 most critical wins to be secured. As you secure these early wins, move on to the next most critical. Clarity An essential part of focus, ensure that you are properly identifying what constitutes a critical win. When evaluating the areas on which to focus, ask yourself: Does this build momentum? Is it meaningful to other team members? Is it important to leadership? Is this something on which I can build future wins?

Fourth Challenge-Secure Early Wins

Behaviours If a win requires you to behave in a way that will be seen negatively, it isnt really a win. In fact, your early win may be something as simple as changing behaviours. It is a given that your ability to achieve the longer term goals are dependent on making behavioural changes today. Successfully adapting a new behaviour will definitely build confidence and create momentum. Behaviours become habits and habits drive results. Accountability Dont be secretive about your long-term goals or your short-term focus. Be very public about what you are going to do and why you are doing it. Give permission (and set the expectation) for those around you to check in on your progress. Of course, if you are truly committed, you wont make them ask, you will selfreport. I would challenge you to be just as public about your progress and setbacks as you were about your original commitment .

Negotiate Success

Fifth Challenge- Negotiate Success

It is impossible to succeed at everything you set out to do & accomplish all your goals within a 90- day period. Negotiating success is all about communicating with your boss in a way that sets your guidelines & allows you flexibility for reaching your goals. Communicating effectively with your boss to negotiate success will often take the form of 5 dialogues The situation conversation, The expectations conversation, The style conversation, The resources conversations, and Personal development conversation.

Fifth Challenge- Negotiate Success

The Situation Conversation Aims to reach a unanimous agreement about the organizations situation & where it should go, The Expectations Conversation Include sharing both you and your bosss expectations about the job on hand. The Style Conversation Different leaders have different ways of achieving success so find out what your bosss style is & try to align yourself with it . The Resources Conversation The resources you will need & ask for must be in tune with the Organization's situation The Personal Development Conversation Ask you boss for feedback on issues you feel will affect your personal development

Fifth Challenge- Negotiate Success

Some things you DO want to do: Do take 100% responsibility Assume it will always be up to you to communicate to your boss, to request time on her calendar, to request the support you need. If you have a boss who meets you halfway, then consider it a bonus. Do clarify completely and often Check in regularly to make sure both sides understand if circumstances have changed expectations (e.g., the definition of success). At any point in time, both sides should have the same definition, although it may very well be different than the original definition. Do please the boss Be sure you know what are the highest priorities for the boss and aim for early and tangible results in those areas. Identify three things that are critical to the boss and be sure to give an update on them every time you interact.

Fifth Challenge- Negotiate Success

Some things you DONT want to do: Dont blame others Be sure to negotiate success based on those things within your control. Blaming those who came before or even those who are still there is wasted time. That isnt to say that poor performance should be tolerated, but leave that to other conversations. When discussing your own success/failure, you have to own it. Dont not communicate A little bit of freedom is liberating, but too much can be devastating. Just because whomever you are accountable to isnt pushing for regular communication, that doesnt mean it isnt absolutely necessary. You are responsible for your success and you need to be the one pushing conversations to ensure everyone is still on the same page about expectations and progress.

Fifth Challenge- Negotiate Success

Some things you DONT want to do:
Dont surprise Nobody likes to be the bearer of bad news, but bad news delivered too late is even worse. As I heard one leader say recently, You can tell me the good news whenever you get the chance; you have to make time to tell me the bad news right away.

Dont show up with only a problem Your boss is there to help solve problems, but help is the operative word. Spend some time thinking about possible solutions to take along with your problem. The eventual conversation will be much more effective as a result.

Achieve Alignment

Sixth Challenge- Achieve Alignment

The higher up the Corporate ladder you are, the bigger your responsibility is to improve the organizations overall structure. To achieve goals, all the systems & units in the organization must be working together in a concerned effort. Five elements must be in sync for an organization to work Strategy, Structure, Systems, Skills & Culture All elements must undergo change, all at the same time

Sixth Challenge- Achieve Alignment

Some key misalignments to watch for: Skills and strategy misalignment Lets assume you have set a strategy of becoming more profitable by only working on larger accounts. However, if you dont educate yourself and the rest of the team on the issues important to those larger accounts, your skills will never develop to the point of supporting the strategy. Systems and strategy misalignment Imagine your strategy is to be more accountable to your clients by more proactively reporting on the results you have delivered. If you dont establish an effective way to compile and report the information for those customers, your systems will fail to support your strategy. There are countless other examples, but hopefully you can see why the alignment is so critical. If you are regularly frustrated in your efforts to get yourself and those around you to adopt more productive behaviours, step back and ask whether organizational misalignments might be creating the problem.

Build Your Team

Seventh Challenge- Build Your Team

When you assume a position of leadership a team is already in place for you to direct. To begin assessing your team, create a list of criteria you will want to consider when you evaluate your direct reports. Come up with a plan to restructure your team. Review how you want your team to work. Establish a way to measure & reward both individual & group performance.

Create Coalitions

Eighth Challenge- Create Coalitions

Your success depends on the support of people outside your direct line of command (and it almost always does), it is critical for you to create coalitions in order to get the necessary things done. Building your influence among your colleagues is important to get backing for new ideas and goals. While it is natural to focus on those individuals in your silo (above and below you in the reporting chain), remember that your silo is a part of a larger organization and building those horizontal connections is important. This is ignored in our industry, which is ripe with silos. There are silos separating P&C from benefits, silos separating one production team from another, and silos separating sales from service. If you are going to be a change agent within your agency, it is critical to force yourself out of your natural silo and work to build support and conversations around new ideas and initiatives throughout the whole agency. Your co-workers will always appreciate having the opportunity to be a part of a new solution. Not provided that opportunity, don't be surprised when they fight against a new directive for which they had no input, even if they will directly benefit. Besides, good ideas become great ideas when enhanced with the benefit of multiple perspectives.

Eighth Challenge- Create Coalitions

Influence provides a nest-egg opportunity Forming new relationships is important to strengthen the system support Learn what leverage may be used for convincing power & what competing forces may have to offer. Hone you ability to influence others & re-shape your teams perceptions of choice.

Keep Your Balance

Ninth Challenge- Keep Your Balance

Keep a balance between personal & professional life is an essential part of becoming a successful Leaders Three Pillars to form a solid foundation for balance Adopting Success Strategies Seeing each strategy yield positive results, you will feel more energy & confidence to take on more tasks Enforcing Personal Disciplines Keeping within strict boundaries of discipline helps one stay focussed & alert Building your support systems- Seek a good mix of people who can give you unbiased counsel both inside & outside your organization

Ninth Challenge- Keep Your Balance

To help stay focused on the proper areas and to keep a healthy perspective, it is critical to recognize and avoid the following traps. Riding off in all directions You can't hope to focus others if you fail to focus yourself. There are an infinite number of things you could do, but only a few that are critical. Focus on the critical. Undefended boundaries If you don't establish appropriate boundaries of what you are willing and not willing to do, those around you bosses, peers, direct reports won't know what is appropriate or inappropriate to bring to you. Brittleness The uncertainty of transition can cause you to over commit to a failing course of action. Know when to cut your losses. Isolation As you work through your transition, it is easier than ever to allow yourself to be isolated from the people you most need to help make your transition successful.

Ninth Challenge- Keep Your Balance

Work avoidance With a transition, some decisions take on a new level of importance. Because of our transition, we may have incomplete information. Consciously or unconsciously, this may lead you to avoid making the decision. Instead, take the bull by the horns and tackle the task at hand. Going over the top While a little stress is good for us, too much is, well, too much. Know your breaking point and be sure to stay on the healthy side of it.

Expedite Everyone

Tenth Challenge -Expedite Everyone

Organizations tend to border on dysfunction in the way they approach new roles for their people. The reality in most organizations is that people are thrown in to the "deep end" of new roles and responsibilities. Not only do most organizations not create a plan to help ensure success, in many instances survival seems to be a test in and of itself. The best companies are those who foster a healthy competition to reach the top, but who provide a level playing field complete with rules, regulations, and support. The key is to institutionalize the transition process, not just preventing those in new roles from failing, but for the organization to also find massive gains by moving everyone along the learning curve faster. Create a Common Language A common language makes everything make more sense. The needs for a common language are many, but the following areas of common language are required at a minimum: Type of transition Have ways of identifying and communicating the unique circumstances of the transition under way. (e.g., Is this a turnaround, realignment, start up, or is the goal to sustain a current success?)

Tenth Challenge -Expedite Everyone

Agenda for the types of learning required What are the technical, cultural, and political learning goals that are required? Progress Specifically with the new boss in the five areas of situation, expectations, style, resources, and personal development. Priorities and goals for behaviour change Priorities for strengthening their advice-and-counsel network

Tenth Challenge -Expedite Everyone

Survival of the Fittest Help your direct people & team with their own transitions. Create a 90- day transition program to reach break-even points faster. Create a common language Working with a team Bringing in people from outside Developing high potential leaders Strengthening succession planning Accelerating post-merger integration

Recap

Interested & Not interesting

Questions & Not answers

Expectations & Not promises

Reflections
Gain trust via Listening Gain respect via Values Gain buy-in via incorporating

Be Interested and Not Interesting

Team will be examining you through the lens of, How will this person affect me ?

Thanks
Your comments to ramaddster@gmail.com