The First 90 Days
Essay by review • March 7, 2011 • Research Paper • 459 Words (2 Pages) • 963 Views
Book Summary
The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
Author: Watkins, Michael
Conceptual concept:
* Promote yourself - to this point in your career will continue to do so.
* Accelerate your learning - be systematic and focused about deciding what you need to learn and how you will learn it most efficiently.
* Match strategy to situation
* Secure early wins - builds personal credibility, creates value, and proves results.
* Negotiate success
* Achieve alignment - The higher you go in an organization the more you must bring structure into alignment with strategy.
* Build your team
* Create coalitions
* Keep your balance
* Expedite everyone
STaRS Model
* Start up
- Psychology - excitement and confusion
- Challenges
◦ Building structures and systems from scratch
◦ Welding together a cohesive high performing team
◦ Making do with limited resources
- Opportunities
◦ Can do things right from the beginning
◦ People are energized
◦ No pre-existing rigid thinking
- Support needed
◦ Help getting needed resources quickly
◦ Clear, measurable goals
◦ Guidance at strategic breakpoints
◦ Help staying focused
- Decision making - Consult-and-decide
* Turnaround
- Psychology - despair
- Challenges
◦ Re-energizing demoralized stakeholders
◦ Handling time pressure, need for decisive impact
◦ Going deep enough with difficult choices
- Opportunities
◦ Everyone recognizes that changes necessary
◦ Acted constituencies may offer external support
◦ A little success goes a long way
- Support needed
◦ Same as start-up, plus
◦ Support for making and implementing tough calls
◦ Support for changing or correcting external image of the organization
◦ Help cutting deeply an early enough
- Decision making - Consult-and-decide
* Realignment
- Psychology - denial
- Challenges
◦ Dealing with deeply ingrained cultural norms that no longer contribute to high performance
◦ Convincing employees that change is necessary
◦ Restructuring the top team in refocusing the organization
- Opportunities
◦ The organization has significant pockets of strength
◦ People want to continue to see themselves as successful
- Support needed
◦ Same as start-ups, plus
◦ Help making the case for change
- Decision making - build consensus
* Sustaining success
- Psychology - complacency
- Challenges
◦ Playing good defense by avoiding decisions that cause problems
◦ Living in the shadow of a revered leader
◦ Finding ways to take the business to the next level
- Opportunities
◦ A strong team
◦ People are motivated to succeed
◦ Foundations for continued success may be in place
- Support needed
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