The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels

by Michael D. Watkins

Transition failures happen when new leaders either misunderstand the essential demands of the situation or lack the skill and flexibility to adapt to them.

Every leader who makes this leap encounters similar challenges, such as the need to let go of reliance on functional expertise. (The transition from frontline supervisor to manager of managers represents a similar challenge at a lower level.

the overriding goal in a transition is to build momentum by creating virtuous cycles that build credibility and by avoiding getting caught in vicious cycles that damage credibility.

Leadership is about leverage. The new leader is, after all, just one person. To be successful, she will have to mobilize the energy of many others in her organization. Her vision, her expertise, her drive can serve as a seed crystal in the new organization, one that will grow exponentially into new and more productive patterns of behavior.

transitions are a crucible for leadership development and should be managed accordingly.

This proposition emphatically does not mean—as it does at too many companies—throwing good people into the deep end to see if they sink or swim. Like swimming, transitioning is a teachable skill.

However, the failure rate for new leaders who enter organizations from the outside is high. Studies have found that more than 40 to 50 percent of senior outside hires fail to achieve desired results.8

They attribute the high failure rate of outside hires to several barriers to making a successful transition, notably the following: Executives from outside the company are not as familiar with the organizational structure and the existence of informal networks of information and communication. Outside hires are not familiar with the corporate culture and therefore have greater difficulty assimilating. New people are unknown to the organization and therefore do not have the same credibility as someone who is promoted from within. A long tradition of hiring from within makes it difficult for organizations to adjust to senior-level managers who are viewed as outsiders.

In a group of thirty, the responses to both questions typically total more than 150 transitions! Then I ask how many participants have received training or coaching from their organization in how to make transitions, and the answer is essentially none.

She should have focused on mentally promoting herself into the new position, a fundamental challenge for new leaders. “Promoting yourself” does not mean self-serving grandstanding or hiring a PR firm. It means preparing yourself mentally to move into your new role by letting go of the past and embracing the imperatives of the new situation to give yourself a running start.

You can do a lot to compensate for your vulnerabilities. Three basic tools are self-discipline, team building, and advice and counsel.

Having to start learning again can evoke long-buried and unnerving feelings of incompetence and vulnerability, especially if you suffer any early setbacks. You may find yourself mentally revisiting a juncture in your career when you had less confidence. Perhaps you will make some early missteps and experience failure for the first time in ages. So you unconsciously begin to gravitate toward areas where you feel competent and people who reinforce your feelings of self-worth.