The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins Page B
Authors: Michael Watkins
Tags: Business & Economics, Leadership, Management, Decision-Making & Problem Solving, Success in business, Executive ability, Structural Adjustment, Strategic planning
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process of behavior change.
What behaviors do people in your organization consistently display that undermine the potential for high performance?
Take a look at table 4-1 , which lists some common but problematic behavior patterns, and then summarize your thoughts about the behaviors you would like to change.
Table 4-1: Problematic Behavior Patterns
Lack of . . .
Symptoms
Focus
The group can’t clearly define its priorities, or it has too many
priorities.
Resources are spread too thin, leading to frequent crises and
firefighting.
People are rewarded for their ability to put out fires, not for
devising enduring solutions.
Discipline
People exhibit great variation in their levels of performance.
Employees don’t understand the negative consequences of
inconsistency.
People make excuses when they fail to meet commitments.
Innovation
The group uses internal benchmarks to measure performance.
Improvements in products and processes unfold slowly and
incrementally.
Employees are rewarded for maintaining stable performance, not
for pushing the envelope.
Teamwork
Team members compete with one another and protect turf rather
than working together to achieve collective goals.
People are rewarded for creating fiefdoms.
Sense of urgency
Team members ignore the needs of external and internal
customers.
Complacency reigns, revealed in beliefs such as “We’re the best
and always have been” and “It doesn’t matter if we respond
immediately; it won’t make any difference.”
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.
Securing Early Wins
Armed with an understanding of your A-item priorities and objectives for behavior change, you can proceed to create detailed plans for how you will secure early wins during your first 90 days and beyond. You should think about what you need to do in two phases: building credibility in the first 30 days and deciding where you will focus your energy to achieve early performance improvements in the following 60 days.
Building Credibility
In your first few weeks in your new job, you cannot hope to have a measurable impact on performance, but you can score small victories and signal that things are changing. Your objective at this early stage is to build personal credibility.
Because your earliest actions will have a disproportionate influence on how you are perceived, think through how you will get “connected” to your new organization. What messages do you want to get across about who you are and what you represent? What are the best ways to convey those messages?
Identify your key audiences—direct reports, other employees, key outside constituencies—and craft a few messages tailored to each. These need not be about what you plan to do; that’s premature. They should focus instead on who you are, the values and goals you represent, your style, and how you plan to conduct business.
Think about modes of engagement too. How will you introduce yourself? Should your first meetings with direct reports be one-on-one or in a group? Will these meetings be informal get-to-know-you sessions or will they immediately focus on business issues and assessment? What other channels, such as e-mail and video, will you use to introduce yourself more widely? Will you have early meetings at other locations where your organization has facilities?
As you make progress in getting connected, identify and act as quickly as you can to remove minor but persistent irritants in your new organization. Focus on strained external relationships and begin to repair them. Cut out redundant meetings, shorten excessively long ones, or improve physical-space problems. All this helps you to build personal credibility early on.
When you arrive, people will rapidly begin to assess you and your capabilities. Your credibility, or lack of it, will depend on how people in the organization would answer the following questions
What behaviors do people in your organization consistently display that undermine the potential for high performance?
Take a look at table 4-1 , which lists some common but problematic behavior patterns, and then summarize your thoughts about the behaviors you would like to change.
Table 4-1: Problematic Behavior Patterns
Lack of . . .
Symptoms
Focus
The group can’t clearly define its priorities, or it has too many
priorities.
Resources are spread too thin, leading to frequent crises and
firefighting.
People are rewarded for their ability to put out fires, not for
devising enduring solutions.
Discipline
People exhibit great variation in their levels of performance.
Employees don’t understand the negative consequences of
inconsistency.
People make excuses when they fail to meet commitments.
Innovation
The group uses internal benchmarks to measure performance.
Improvements in products and processes unfold slowly and
incrementally.
Employees are rewarded for maintaining stable performance, not
for pushing the envelope.
Teamwork
Team members compete with one another and protect turf rather
than working together to achieve collective goals.
People are rewarded for creating fiefdoms.
Sense of urgency
Team members ignore the needs of external and internal
customers.
Complacency reigns, revealed in beliefs such as “We’re the best
and always have been” and “It doesn’t matter if we respond
immediately; it won’t make any difference.”
This document was created by an unregistered ChmMagic, please go to http://www.bisenter.com to register it. Thanks
.
Securing Early Wins
Armed with an understanding of your A-item priorities and objectives for behavior change, you can proceed to create detailed plans for how you will secure early wins during your first 90 days and beyond. You should think about what you need to do in two phases: building credibility in the first 30 days and deciding where you will focus your energy to achieve early performance improvements in the following 60 days.
Building Credibility
In your first few weeks in your new job, you cannot hope to have a measurable impact on performance, but you can score small victories and signal that things are changing. Your objective at this early stage is to build personal credibility.
Because your earliest actions will have a disproportionate influence on how you are perceived, think through how you will get “connected” to your new organization. What messages do you want to get across about who you are and what you represent? What are the best ways to convey those messages?
Identify your key audiences—direct reports, other employees, key outside constituencies—and craft a few messages tailored to each. These need not be about what you plan to do; that’s premature. They should focus instead on who you are, the values and goals you represent, your style, and how you plan to conduct business.
Think about modes of engagement too. How will you introduce yourself? Should your first meetings with direct reports be one-on-one or in a group? Will these meetings be informal get-to-know-you sessions or will they immediately focus on business issues and assessment? What other channels, such as e-mail and video, will you use to introduce yourself more widely? Will you have early meetings at other locations where your organization has facilities?
As you make progress in getting connected, identify and act as quickly as you can to remove minor but persistent irritants in your new organization. Focus on strained external relationships and begin to repair them. Cut out redundant meetings, shorten excessively long ones, or improve physical-space problems. All this helps you to build personal credibility early on.
When you arrive, people will rapidly begin to assess you and your capabilities. Your credibility, or lack of it, will depend on how people in the organization would answer the following questions
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