Master Your Next Move Quotes

“If you are leading a turnaround and need to assemble a team quickly, it can make sense to hire capable people you know and trust. But in less-urgent situations, the reflex to bring in people you know can easily be interpreted to mean you’re dissatisfied with the level of talent in your new organization. If you need to replace people on your team, the first place to look is one level below. The second best option is to hire people from the outside—just not from your old organization(s).”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“first, don’t get caught in the low-hanging fruit trap—focusing all your energies on achieving small tactical victories that don’t contribute to the overall campaign. Yes, early wins should help you create change in the short term; but they should also help you lay the foundation for achieving longer-term goals. Second, it always pays to find out what your boss considers “early wins.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“you must begin “with the end in mind,” as the author Stephen Covey so aptly put it in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.1 In this case, the desired goal is to secure some early wins that will help you build the momentum for change in the business. You’ll need to identify three or four areas in which you have a good chance of realizing rapid improvements—think of them as your “centers of gravity.” The best candidates are business problems that you can get to relatively quickly, that won’t require too much money or other resources to fix, and whose solution will yield very visible operational or financial gains.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“Finally, you can use the information you collect during this first-cut prioritization and planning process to sketch out an early road map. The map will give you focus, help you understand how to deploy resources and talent most efficiently,”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“Third, based on your first-cut conclusions about strategic priorities, identify a few ways to achieve early wins and build momentum.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“Second, develop some hypotheses about the key drivers of your business.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“First, make the most of the high-level information you do have. What do the numbers say about your business? Which parts of the organization are doing well, and which aren’t? Which products and services are making money, and which aren’t? Competitive intelligence may also be limited, but you should still be able to figure out who’s winning in your market or adjacent ones, who’s losing, and which of your rivals’ business models and best practices might be worth emulating.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“They become overly fixated on wringing insights out of data that just aren’t there, or setting up entirely new information systems, rather than focusing on the information at their disposal and what it really suggests about strategic priorities.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“A better way for new managers to build a team is to focus everyone on a series of short-range goals designed to begin to build the business. Not only does this approach provide an early rallying point for the group, but it also gives the leader invaluable feedback about team members: how they respond to this management approach will speak volumes about their capabilities. As you do this, though, be careful about raising expectations too high. The truth is, you’ll almost certainly want to make some changes to the team. So it doesn’t make sense to encourage deep bonds until you are reasonably confident that the core group is in place. At that point, your team-building efforts will have much more meaning, hopefully heartened by some early wins for the group to celebrate.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“Before Entry Read internal and external perspectives on the market and consumers. You won’t become an expert, but that’s OK; awareness is what you’re after. Identify local consultants who can brief you on the state of the market and the competitive environment. Learn the language—it’s not about fluency; it’s about respect. Develop some hypotheses about the business situation you are entering. – Use the STARS model to talk with your new boss and other stakeholders about the situation. – Assess the leadership team—is it functioning well, and does it comprise a good mix of new and veteran, or local and expatriate, talent? – Assess the overall organization using any available corporate performance and talent-pool data. – If possible, talk to some team members to gather their insights and test some of your early hypotheses. After Entry Your first day, first week, and first month are absolutely critical. Without the following four-phase plan, you risk getting drawn into fighting fires rather than proactively leading change. Diagnose the situation and align the leadership team around some early priorities. Establish strategic direction and align the organization around it. Repair critical processes and strive for execution consistency. Develop local leadership talent to lay the foundation for your eventual exit.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“Finally, take the time to develop a written plan for your entry into the company. (For guidelines on how to do this, see the box “Preparing to Enter a New Country.”) Share it with your new direct reports, regional HR staffers, and your boss so they’ll understand where you’re coming from and how you intend to lead change at the organization. Doing so can help facilitate buy-in from these critical groups and dramatically accelerate your ability to learn about the situation and identify the critical changes you’ll need to make. Additionally, this written commitment will help you and your people stay focused when there are challenges or setbacks.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“Even in the worst business environments, finding some good to build on will lift your team and give them some confidence to deal with the real issues. To avoid this trap, you should start by asking questions, not making statements—even if you’re pretty sure you know what the central issues are. Let the members of the organization validate (or disprove) your theories. Don’t worry about setting up your office; go to the front lines right away, wherever they are. Talk to salespeople and others in the field, and really listen. If you start doing this on day one, the word will quickly spread across the organization. People want to believe in their leaders, and seeing them up close makes a material difference.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“Get the family settled first. Make the most of your arrival. Make sure you are in compliance. Build the team by building the business. Take a fast first cut at strategic priorities. Don’t be a tourist.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“Onboarding Checklist How can you accelerate your learning about the history and culture of your new organization? Are there cultural interpreters who can help you understand the nuances? What do you need to do to strike the right balance between adapting to the culture versus trying to alter it? How can you avoid triggering a dangerous immune system attack? Who are the stakeholders—within your new organization and externally—who will have significant influence over whether you can move your agenda forward? What do they care about and why? What can you do to speed up your ability to build the right political “wiring” in the organization? Are there resources available to help you do this? How can you assure that expectations are in alignment with your boss? Your peers? Your direct reports? Other importance constituencies? Could the five-conversations framework help you do this? Are there other processes or resources in your new organization that could help speed up the onboarding process?”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“Accelerate the development of political connections. In effective onboarding processes, companies identify the full set of critical stakeholders and engage them before the executive formally joins the organization. Typically, a point person from HR touches base with the new hire’s boss, peers, and direct reports to create this list. This point person also may encourage and support the transitioning executive in setting up and conducting early meetings with these stakeholders.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“The style conversation – How can we best work together? – How do you prefer me to communicate with you? – What level of detail do you want concerning my organization or unit and the issues I’m confronting? – How do you prefer to make decisions? The situation conversation – How do you see the STARS situation in my organization as a whole? In important subcomponents? – On what do you base these assessments? – What’s your level of certainty? The expectations conversation – What am I expected to accomplish, and in what time frame? – What would constitute “early wins” for you? – What outcomes do I most need to avoid? The resources conversation – What financial and other resources are available to me? – What scope do I have to make changes in my team? – To what extent will you visibly support me in making the case for change? The course-adjustment conversation (this typically should begin not later than the ninety-day mark) – How are things going so far? – What am I doing well? – Do you have areas of concern? Creating”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“You can, however, try to negotiate the process of engagement early on—making it clear that you’d like time to diagnose the situation, present an assessment and plan, and then revisit expectations and time lines.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“It’s therefore essential for the onboarding leader to tease out all of the new boss’s aspirations and goals for the unit or company. Triangulation can be a useful technique for doing this: ask your boss the same question in three somewhat different ways, and see whether the answers vary. Testing comprehension can be another good tactic: during important conversations about expectations, summarize and share your understanding of critical takeaways from the discussion. You can do this verbally, as the session draws to a close, or in writing, in a follow-up e-mail.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“the third imperative for onboarding executives: ensure that you understand what the expectations for success are and that you can accept those goals.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“The danger comes when people think you have what political columnist George Will once described as “a learning curve as flat as Kansas.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“If you create the impression that you believe “there is no good here,” the organizational immune system will certainly kick in.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“Key is not to do things that cause you to be labeled as “dangerous.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“To do this, you’ll need to focus on three critical tasks very early in your tenure: adapting to the culture, making political connections, and aligning expectations.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“The first and most important step, then, is to understand what the culture is, at a macro level, and how it’s manifested in the particular organization or unit you’re joining.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“The second imperative for transitioning leaders, then, is to identify key stakeholders and begin to forge productive working relationships with them. Here, too, there are two traps to avoid: focusing on vertical relationships and mistaking titles for authority.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“Once you’ve figured out the “who” side of the equation, you’ll need to focus on the “what.” What agendas are key stakeholders most interested in pursuing? How do their interests line up with your own, and where are they in conflict? Why are these stakeholders pursuing these agendas?”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“The Stakeholder Checklist As you transition into a new business unit or company, you’ll need to identify those people inside and outside the organization who can help you push your agenda forward.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“four important career-development dimensions: Development in his core function and exposure to other functions. Understanding of the company’s range of businesses. Home country and international assignments. Business unit and corporate assignments.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“First off, they should build and use good competency models—definitions of the skills required of leaders at different levels—tuned to the company’s leadership pipeline. Done well, these will give you good guidance about what you need to go to the next level.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"

“They must also be expert in the principles of organizational design, business process improvement, and skills development and management.”
― Michael D. Watkins, Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction: The Essential Companion to "The First 90 Days"