The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins
The First 90 Days is required reading for new leaders at numerous organizations. The primary reason being is this book is all about leadership transition; creating and executing on a successful plan to transition new leaders into their role. In the first few pages the book quickly highlights this notion and speaks to transition acceleration versus failure prevention, as well as what Watkins calls The Breakeven Point. To paraphrase what the breakeven point is, Watkins explains it is a critical point in which a new leader stops being a drain on company resources and begins contributing value. He goes on to explain that 210 CEO's were polled and their thinking is the average breakeven point should be around 6 months. Hence the term transition acceleration; which means the process by which new …show more content…
Many organizations bring in new leaders and literally throw them a set of keys with a proverbial, "Go for it" expectation. What these organizations fail to realize is that they've more than likely doomed that new leader to failure (sustained underperformance can be worse than starting over) and wasted untold amounts of resources. On top of recruitment and salary, wage and benefit spend, these resources include but are not limited to; poor performing direct reports of the new leader who have a much more significant likelihood of leaving the organization, missed new business opportunities, new product or service line delays, as well as disgruntled to poorly performing peers of the new, struggling leader. Successful transitions are essential for high performing organizations to stay high performing. The book highlights these insights very well and lays out a plan for anyone transitioning into a new role, whether or not it is a promotion within their same company or being hired into a new
The First 90 Days is required reading for new leaders at numerous organizations. The primary reason being is this book is all about leadership transition; creating and executing on a successful plan to transition new leaders into their role. In the first few pages the book quickly highlights this notion and speaks to transition acceleration versus failure prevention, as well as what Watkins calls The Breakeven Point. To paraphrase what the breakeven point is, Watkins explains it is a critical point in which a new leader stops being a drain on company resources and begins contributing value. He goes on to explain that 210 CEO's were polled and their thinking is the average breakeven point should be around 6 months. Hence the term transition acceleration; which means the process by which new …show more content…
Many organizations bring in new leaders and literally throw them a set of keys with a proverbial, "Go for it" expectation. What these organizations fail to realize is that they've more than likely doomed that new leader to failure (sustained underperformance can be worse than starting over) and wasted untold amounts of resources. On top of recruitment and salary, wage and benefit spend, these resources include but are not limited to; poor performing direct reports of the new leader who have a much more significant likelihood of leaving the organization, missed new business opportunities, new product or service line delays, as well as disgruntled to poorly performing peers of the new, struggling leader. Successful transitions are essential for high performing organizations to stay high performing. The book highlights these insights very well and lays out a plan for anyone transitioning into a new role, whether or not it is a promotion within their same company or being hired into a new