Summary of The First 90 Days Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter by MICHAEL WATKINS

Imagine stepping into a new leadership role. The excitement is palpable, but so is the pressure. You’re expected to deliver results quickly, navigate unfamiliar terrain, and build credibility with a new team. Whether you’re a first-time manager or a seasoned executive, this is the challenge Michael Watkins addresses in “The First 90 Days.” This book offers a practical and insightful guide for anyone transitioning into a new role. It isn’t about magically transforming you into a perfect leader overnight; it’s about providing a structured approach to accelerating your learning curve and maximizing your impact during those crucial initial months.

Key Concepts

The Transition Framework

Watkins argues that transitions, not promotions, are the ultimate test of leadership. He introduces a structured framework for navigating these transitions, emphasizing the importance of proactive planning and self-management. This framework revolves around diagnosing the situation, adapting your approach, and accelerating your transition. “The First 90 Days” urges readers to resist the urge to jump in and fix things immediately. Instead, it encourages a more deliberate approach, focusing on learning and building relationships before implementing significant changes. For example, a new CEO might be tempted to immediately restructure the organization. However, Watkins suggests taking time to understand the existing organizational culture and power dynamics before making such drastic changes. Watkins explains that premature action can backfire and erode credibility. Understanding this inherent risk is the first step towards mitigating it.

STARS Model

A central component of Watkins’ framework is the STARS model: Start-up, Turnaround, Realignment, and Sustaining Success. This model recognizes that not all transitions are the same. Taking over a struggling business unit, a start-up, or inheriting a high-performing team requires different approaches. By identifying the type of situation you’re facing, you can tailor your 90-day plan accordingly. For instance, in a turnaround situation, rapid assessment and decisive action are paramount. Conversely, in a sustaining success scenario, the focus shifts towards building relationships and understanding the existing culture before introducing changes.

Learning and Adapting

“The First 90 Days” emphasizes the crucial role of continuous learning and adaptation. Watkins encourages readers to embrace a “beginner’s mind” and actively seek feedback. He provides practical tools for accelerating learning, such as conducting informational interviews, observing team dynamics, and seeking mentorship. This approach is particularly effective when leaders take time to meet with employees across all levels of the organization, listening to their perspectives and concerns. Such systematic learning not only provides valuable insights into the company culture but also demonstrates a commitment to collaboration and open communication.

Remember: simply displaying a genuine desire to learn and understand translates into increased credibility and influence. - Michael Watkins

The faster you learn, the faster you can add value. This emphasis on learning isn’t just about acquiring knowledge; it’s about developing a deeper understanding of the organizational context, its challenges, and its opportunities.

Negotiating Success

Building a productive relationship with your new boss requires proactive negotiation, as illustrated by Michael Chen’s promotion to CIO. Despite warnings about his new boss’s tough management style, Chen strategically negotiated a 90-day framework - requesting 30 days for diagnosis before presenting an action plan. By providing regular updates, delivering a strong plan, achieving early wins, and directly addressing style differences while focusing on results, Chen built a successful relationship over time. This demonstrates how proactively shaping expectations and securing resources upfront, rather than reactively accepting the situation, is critical since your boss controls resources, interprets your actions, and significantly impacts your success.

Building Relationships

Watkins emphasizes the critical importance of building strong relationships early in a leadership transition, advocating for proactive engagement with key stakeholders both inside and outside the organization through tools like stakeholder mapping and clear expectation setting. He illustrates this through two compelling cases: Alexia Belenko, whose transition to a regional marketing role at MedDev struggled due to insufficient coalition building despite her technical expertise, highlighting how relationship capital and influence through persuasion are crucial when working without direct authority; and Liam Geffen, who successfully transformed a troubled business unit through careful stakeholder assessment and team restructuring, demonstrating that effective relationship building goes beyond likability to establish the trust and credibility essential for leadership success. Through these examples, Watkins shows that building strong relationships is fundamental to successful leadership transitions, requiring both strategic planning and interpersonal skills to navigate organizational dynamics effectively.

Securing Early Wins

Watkins emphasizes securing visible early wins to build momentum and credibility, as exemplified by Elena Lee’s successful transformation of a customer service organization. When promoted to head customer service, she strategically focused on quality improvement and cultural change, starting with clear communication of goals, implementing weekly performance reviews, and carefully managing personnel changes. She launched targeted initiatives like creating new metrics and processes through a team of promising managers. By focusing on a few key priorities and achieving wins in alignment with her desired cultural changes, Elena dramatically improved both customer satisfaction and employee morale within her first year. Watkins stresses that early wins must be achieved thoughtfully - by focusing on what matters to your boss, considering your organization’s culture and situation (STARS model), and pursuing improvements in ways that reinforce desired behaviors rather than undermining them.

Achieving Alignment

As a leader, you must act as an organizational architect, ensuring alignment between strategy, structure, systems, skills, and culture. Hannah Jaffey’s experience as a corporate VP of HR illustrates this principle perfectly. When she joined a company plagued by executive conflicts, she discovered that misaligned organizational structure and incentives were the root cause. Despite the CEO’s initial resistance and belief that personnel changes alone would solve the problems, Hannah persisted with her systematic diagnosis. She demonstrated how overlapping customer bases and incentives that discouraged cooperation were creating unnecessary conflicts and hurting performance. Through careful analysis and persuasion, she eventually convinced the CEO to implement a hybrid structure that better aligned with customer needs while maintaining operational efficiency. The transformation resulted in improved customer satisfaction, renewed growth, and clearer visibility into genuine personnel issues. This case demonstrates that no matter how charismatic a leader might be, they cannot succeed if fundamental organizational elements are misaligned. While major structural changes may not be possible in your first 90 days, conducting a thorough diagnosis of these alignments is crucial for identifying early wins and laying groundwork for deeper organizational changes.

Managing Yourself

Leadership transitions can be personally challenging, as illustrated by Stephen Erikson’s move from New York to Toronto for a senior position at a media company. Despite expecting a smooth transition between seemingly similar cultures, Stephen struggled to adapt to the different work style, while his family faced their own challenges with schools and relocation. The case demonstrates why Watkins emphasizes the critical importance of self-management during transitions. Leaders must recognize that transitions affect not just their work life but their entire family system. Stephen’s experience shows how personal stress, family dynamics, and work performance are deeply interconnected - his commuting and family tensions directly impacted his ability to connect with colleagues and perform effectively. Watkins emphasizes establishing strong support networks, maintaining work-life balance, and developing productive routines to navigate these challenges. The story illustrates that trying to “go it alone” during transitions can be devastating - leaders must proactively manage their energy, maintain perspective, and ensure both they and their families receive adequate support to succeed.

Conclusion

“The First 90 Days” provides a practical and invaluable framework for anyone navigating a leadership transition. It equips readers with actionable strategies for accelerating learning, building relationships, and achieving early wins. The book’s enduring relevance stems from its focus on timeless leadership principles: self-awareness, adaptability, and the importance of building strong relationships. By applying the principles and tools outlined in this book, leaders can navigate the challenges of transition with greater confidence and effectiveness, setting themselves up for long-term success.

Recommended Books

If you enjoyed “The First 90 Days” by Michael Watkins, you might also find these books valuable:

• “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” by Marshall Goldsmith
  A complementary guide that focuses on the behavioral changes leaders need to make when transitioning to higher levels of management.
• “Leading Change” by John P. Kotter
  Provides a detailed framework for implementing organizational change that builds on Watkins’ transition strategies.
• “The New Leader’s Playbook” by Ira Chaleff
  Offers additional insights into building relationships and navigating political dynamics during leadership transitions.

And for some reading outside of this topic:

• "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman
  This book explores the two systems of thinking that drive our decisions, offering valuable insights into cognitive biases and how they affect our judgment. It can be of interest to leaders who want to improve their decision-making skills and understand the psychology of influence.
• "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg
  This book examines the science of habit formation and how habits shape our lives, offering practical strategies for changing existing habits and building new ones. This can be relevant to leaders who want to improve their personal productivity and build effective team habits.