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Whether challenged with taking on a startup, turning a business around, or inheriting a high-performing unit, a new leader's success or failure is determined within the first 90 days on the job. In this hands-on guide, Michael Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions, offers proven strategies for moving successfully into a new role at any point in one's career. "The First 90 Days" provides a framework for transition acceleration that will help leaders diagnose their situations, craft winning transition strategies, and take charge quickly. Practical examples illustrate how to learn about new organizations, build teams, create coalitions, secure early wins, and lay the foundation for longer-term success. In addition, Watkins provides strategies for avoiding the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter, and shows how individuals can protect themselves-emotionally as well as professionally-during what is often an intense and vulnerable period.Concise and actionable, this is the survival guide no new leader should be without. 'Few companies develop a systematic 'on-boarding' process for their new leaders, even though this is a critical function with major organizational implications. Michael Watkins' "The First 90 Days" provides a powerful framework and strategies that will enable new leaders to take charge quickly. It is an invaluable tool for that most vulnerable time-the transition' - Goli Darabi, Senior Vice President, Corporate Leadership & Succession Management, Fidelity Investments.'Every job - private - or public-sector, civilian or military - has its breakeven point, and everyone can accelerate their learning. Read this book at least twice: once before your next transition - before getting caught up in the whirl and blur of new faces, names, acronyms, and issues; then read it again after you've settled in, and consider how to accelerate transitions for your next new boss and for those who come to work for you' - Colonel Eli Alford, U.S. Army.'Watkins provides an excellent road map, telling us what all new leaders need to know and do to accelerate their learning and success in a new role. "The First 90 Days" should be incorporated into every company's leadership development strategy, so that anyone making a transition in an organization can get up to speed quicker and smarter' - Suzanne M. Danielle, Director of Global Leadership Development, Aventis. 'Michael Watkins has nailed a huge corporate problem and provided the solution in one fell swoop. The pressure on new leaders to hit the ground running has never been greater, and the likelihood and cost of failure is escalating. Watkins' timing with The First 90 Days is impeccable' - Gordon Curtis, Principal, Curtis Consulting.'"The First 90 Days" is a must-read for entrepreneurs. Anyone who's been the CEO of a start-up or early-stage company knows that you go through many 90-day leadership transitions in the course of a company's formative years. In this groundbreaking book, Michael Watkins provides crucial insights, as well as a toolkit of techniques, to enable you to accelerate through these transitions successfully' - Mike Kinkead, President and CEO, time BLASTER Corporation, serial entrepreneur, and Cofounder and Trustee, Massachusetts Software Council.
Good advice for the manager
| Customer Rating:   | Michael Watkins' "The First 90 Days" is ostensibly about improving a transition into a new leadership role and accelerating the typical 6.2 month break-even point of giving more value to the organization than received. Each chapter focuses on one of ten key transition strategies.
"Promote Yourself" and "Secure Early Wins" are all about the short-term but important goal of quickly establishing credibility. In "Accelerate Your Learning", Watkins goes about convincing us there are special, institutional and culture things we need to learn.
In "Match Strategy to Situation", the author expounds on an earlier proposition that failure is never just about the flaws of a new leader, but rather the adaptability of that leader's skills to the particular business situation. Watkins introduces the STaRS business lifecycle model which will be a continuing reference point throughout the rest of the book. The STaRS concept is really very simple - match strategy, actions, reactions, etc. to the business situation of the company and department. That situation will determine the degrees to which a leader dials various levers of control. While it is a simple concept, many often miss it, and enter into new roles with preconceived notions and habits from their previous role(s).
The "Negotiate Success" chapter is about managing your boss. There is very good advice here, beginning with taking 100% responsibility for the relationship. All of the insight here is applicable post-transition for an ongoing, successful relationship with your superior.
"Achieve Alignment" discusses balancing strategy, structure, systems, skills and culture. "Build Your Team" offers wisdom on the right moves to make upon inheriting the new team, but much of the advice will be invaluable for managing them for the duration. The chapter contains a model for a decision making strategy within the team, noting different types of decisions call for different styles.
"Create Coalitions" counsels the manager to reach out beyond their reporting chain and build relationship capital before they need it. Every organization has its shadow structure of informal networks of influence and power. There is also good analysis on choice shaping, entanglement strategies and building momentum.
"Keep Your Balance" offers some final advice about balancing all the previous strategies and maintaining self-discipline both in your professional and personal life. Watkins then spends the last chapter or two advocating industry and organizational attention to the transition phase of leadership, but the value for the reader/manager is to consider how their new direct reports will manage their transition.
Most of the chapters contain a "common traps" section which I found really effective for identifying where I personally had wandered off the path of best practices. Sometimes defining what you should not do is more enlightening than the original advice of what you should do. Each chapter ends with an "acceleration checklist", which I first thought were summary questions typical of text books, but upon actually reading found they stimulate further thought. Most chapters also begin with a short case study, which while valuable for an introduction, could have been expounded upon and used more effectively.
Watkins' says this goal of the 90 day transition is to "build momentum by creating virtuous cycles that build credibility and avoiding getting caught in vicious cycles that damage credibility." But the advice and strategies put forth in his book go far beyond the initial entry into the role and are applicable to general, ongoing management and leadership. The main flaw of "The First 90 Days" is its dry, academic presentation. It's hard to get through and easy to get impatient and skim past some really good insight. Watkins may be a career professor, and may write like one as well, but his insight does reflect command over cultural and political nuances of leadership that one usually only discovers by living through it over a career.
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This is a solid resource, but don't buy it here
| Customer Rating: | We utilize this book in one of our leadership programs.
I would advise that you purchase it anywhere...except Amazon.
We made two attempts ordering a sizeable quantity of the book - both orders went astray. The first arrived nearly a month after the promised ship date. The second order has yet to arrive, 5 weeks later.
Yes, credit was prompty issued, once requested. But, if your relying on a product to help your business, you'll want to look at another business partner. |
Well Written
| Customer Rating: | | This is a well written guide with a quite a few useful tips. It is well worth the purchase price. |
Decent but Dry
| Customer Rating: | I purchased this book in concert with a promotion thinking it might be useful during my transition. While it was informative and on point, most of its lessons were obvious to any seasoned leader and frankly it was a very dry read.
If you are new to management or have not had much developmental time in improving your management skill this book will be valuable to you. Leadership ? I could recommend a number of better books for the first 90 days... |
Great Primer for Taking On a Management Job
| Customer Rating: | The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins is squarely aimed at the task of a manager coming in and dealing with a new team. Those first ninety days can really make or break a business relationship and it is well worth studying this information before you take on a new job.
Michael breaks down your task into these discreet steps: promote yourself, accelerate your learning, match your strategy to your situation, get early wins, negotiate success, achieve an alignment, build your team, create coalitions, keep your balance and expedite everyone. Each step gets its own discussion so you get a handle on how to succeed in each area.
New hires are often swamped with "learning things" - Michael helps you balance that learning with actually doing productive work. That way people feel energized by your being there and get a sense of your promise.
Even if you're moving up in the same organization or taking on new responsibilities a lot of these issues are still important. You want to maintain solid boundaries - otherwise you'll get angry and resentful at people taking advantage of you. You want to admit errors quickly so you're not thought of as rigid and undependable. You want to proactively deal with problems instead of avoiding them, manage your stress so you don't burn out, and have a support system to keep you going.
There are a few "real life" style examples in the book, but it primarily is laid out like a textbook to learn and study. While some might find this difficult to read, it is well worth treating a new job LIKE an important test you want to study for. You may not get a letter grade - but your job success is probably far more vital than any random chemistry exam ever was.
Yes, some of this might seem like "common sense" - but after all, many bosses fail. They just don't understand all the aspects of their job. It is well worth reading through this even if you know 8 out of 10 things listed. Getting a good handle on the remaining two might be the difference between success and failure.
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