Hit the ground running

By Julian Rogers, Deputy Editor

The first few months in any new job can be a stressful and anxious time. While you are eager to demonstrate exactly why you were worthy of the role, and to give your colleagues a taste of the good things yet to come, you’re still finding your feet.

Every organization is different and it takes time to familiarise oneself with the people, structure and methods operating around you. But, for anyone embarking on a leadership role, this initial period is especially critical. As Michael Watkins, a Harvard Business School Professor, lays down in his international best-seller The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All levels, the first three months can make the difference between success and failure. HRM speaks to Watkins about how to make an impact early on and how HR executives can smooth the transition into a new job.

Picture the scene. You’ve arrived on the first day in your new job – a managerial role overseeing a few hundred staff. Armed with all the verve and vigour you can muster you are anxious to get to grips with the company’s culture, politics and structure whilst creating a good impression for your superiors and subordinates. With these sort of expectations hitting the ground running is a must – not just a desirable. The initial 90 days are when a company will be looking to their new individual to shine and deliver results. Failure to build momentum from the off and you will face an uphill struggle for the rest of your tenure. The opening line of Watkins’ book states firmly: “The President of the United States gets 100 days to prove himself; you get 90” – certainly food for thought for anyone looking to move up to the next rung of the corporate ladder.

In today’s corporate merry-go-round managers and executives are forever being promoted or transferred laterally to new positions. Often, however, too many over zealous managers burst into a new job and start making sweeping changes without allowing time to absorb the department’s operations. Enthusiasm is all well and good but it needs to be harnessed if you don’t want staff turning against you in your first week. And what worked before in your old job might not be applicable now. This one-size-fits-all approach can quickly send you down the road the failure, as Watkins explains. “One trap that people fall into is thinking that what has made them successful at their previous organization can be replicated at the new organization. Often they have been hired to develop these great ideas and the success elsewhere is what they need to replicate. It is not always possible to simply replicate what you have done elsewhere.” He adds: ”Also, the people within the new organization are not necessarily going to be that welcoming of it. If you come in with the answer and your mind made up, it can quickly alienate people in the organization.”

Watkins, who is also founder of leadership consultancy Genesis Advisers, certainly knows what he is talking about. His First 90 Days book has taken the business world storm since it was first published in 2003, shifting almost 250,000 copies – 10,000 of which flew off the shelves in first half of this month alone. In it, Watkins provides a strategic framework and guides new leaders through the potential minefield of a settling into a new job and includes examples of where managers have succeeded or failed in transitions. Three years of intensive research went into the book, including the study of dozens of leadership transitions at all levels. Watkins also quizzed senior HR professionals at Fortune 500 companies. The book has proved powerful tool for managers at all levels, but especially those crossing industries or different departments within an organization. “When I published the book I thought it would do fine, but it took off like a rocket,” says Watkins. “It is clearly one those things where there was an unmet need and it struck a raw nerve with people.”

Can you swim?
One startling finding Watkins unearthed when researching the book was the lack of training offered to new leaders, especially those entering the organization from the outside. In fact, in many companies the training is non-existent. Managers are introduced to their staff and new plush office before being left to fend for themselves. This ‘sink or swim’ attitude is ingrained in the culture of some companies, where dropping a manager in at the deep end when they arrive is perceived to be a good yardstick as to whether they can cope with the job. So does Watkins think that organizations could do more? “Absolutely. During my research I did find ‘sink or swim’ cultures or leadership through Darwinian evolution. They throw people into the deep end and see what happens – if they sink they think they are better off without them. If they swim they must be great leaders, is the thinking. These days you cannot afford to have this precious talent flounder away.”

This lack of training and communication in the first 90 days can spiral into a disaster for both the company and the individual. Within this period a manager will undoubtedly face a myriad of challenges that need to be tackled. This is a particularly hazardous period when alliances and first impressions are formed. In fact, Watkins describes getting acquainted with a new organization as being similar to “drinking from a fire hose”. He suggests that the best way to tackle the first 90 days is to split your goals into three 30-day blocks. Set yourself personal goals and meet with your staff and boss on a regular basis.

He also recommends new leaders score “early wins” to impress the boss and the people beneath you. These early wins can then used as a springboard to achieve bigger goals down the road. All too often however, new leaders want to stamp their authority on the job and be seem to making changes. In the book Watkins likens this behaviour to a virus, alienating potential supporters and provoking defensive reactions. “As the vicious cycle takes hold the organization’s immune system reacts and the virus is attacked by clumps of killer cells, encapsulated, and finally expelled,” he wrote. It seems a bit of control and common sense is needed. “It’s not magic, but it is surprising how often people come in and they feel this internal pressure to start pulling the trigger on things.”

The leader may also feel like a fish out water, especially if he or she has crossed over from another industry. It’s a steep learning curve, but one that the more experienced mangers are able to successfully negotiate. “The executive is quite vulnerable early on because they don’t have all the knowledge,” asserts Watkins. “This means that it is relatively easy to make mistakes. If you make those mistakes it can set up a vicious cycle. Also, you are entering a political structure, without much knowledge, experience or capital in that structure. There is an existing set of relationships and alliances there. You come in with a relationship bank account that has a zero balance and you have to start to build it up.” Being able to forge strong alliances with your staff and your boss can reap huge benefits in the long run. “If you are successful in building key relationships early, it can really propel you forward. If you start to alienate people it is very hard to turn that around. These are the factors that make that critical transition period so important.“

Adapt to change
While managers taking up a position within a different company can struggle to adapt initially, those promoted from within face different – but no means easier – challenges. Clear limits need to be made when dealing with former pears – especially those who may be resentful about your promotion. “It is tough in different ways,” argues Watkins. “Say you have been promoted to lead a group of former peers. That is a very tough transition because you are being put in a very different role and being asked to supervise people that used to be your peers. Some of them may not be all that happy about it. You have got to calibrate how much authority you need to use in the situation. You need to establish authority but you don’t want to become Napoleon.”

One aspect that is distinctive to each organization is its culture. Moving across industries you are bound to come across distinct differences. This is exacerbated even further when moving to a new job abroad. For instance, the US tends to promote a more individualistic culture while the Japanese prefer staff to be more collectivistic. “From the research I have done, organizations have very distinct cultures” says Watkins. If you have grown up in one organizational culture and you don’t recognize the big difference you can get into trouble. An example would be how direct is discussion around top issues? Do people table top issues at work away at each other until they reach a conclusion? Are these issues raised in a group or one-on-one meetings? How is conflict managed? What is considered a win? It depends on the culture of the organization.” This is why many leaders take their time when it comes to adjusting to cultural differences.

My view
Steve Santini has been in his role as CTO of Bank of America Securities for just five months. He is an advocate of managers taking their time to adjust to the new role before making changes that they may come to regret. “When I took over this role I didn’t do a damn thing in the first 90 days in terms of organizational change. Because I had a long history with this organization as a user they expected me to manage slash and burn, and cut and change but I just sat back and watched. I think the key thing in the first 90 days is that you watch, learn and listen.” This is echoed by Watkins. “Take your time, slow yourself down.” He argues that some leader fall into the trap of what he calls the “the action imperative”. “The action imperative is where you feel that you need to come in and start doing things. Indeed, there may be something that you need to do but if you are too busy to learn you could end up in a death spiral. It wins points with people if you don’t come in with your mind made up and instead try to figure out how the company tries to do things.”

He continues: “As you learn things, be sure to articulate what you think is good and what you think represents some challenges. Sometimes people come in and they are so focussed on the problems that people start to think that there is anything good within the organization.” Restructuring departments and changing personnel in your first few weeks will probably win you few friends.” Also, organizations do not have a high tolerance for continual change, as Santini explains. “There is a certain amount of friction they can absorb before they start losing people. We actually changed a lot of roles because we identified that people had done the same job for too long. We are now starting to feel the effects of that because some people are flourishing but others are struggling to make the adjustment. However, I do believe that you have to give people new challenges. You won’t move the needle in terms of change without getting some new ideas in there.”

Jim Nelms, CIO of the World Bank, believes the first 90 days should be seen as a roadmap for future development. “The first 90 days are an assessment of where we are and what the horizon looks like from where we are to where we need to be. You are looking to pool ideas together and looking towards a roadmap.” Nelms continues: “ There are some very clever people at this bank that make us move in a more federated structure so there is a direction and much of the efforts converge and create a hole that was much greater than the sum of the parts. To come in second guess people who have been doing their jobs for any number of years would be folly because you would not be able to accomplish it.”

The cost of failure
The further you move up the chain of command, the more the pressure intensifies on leaders to succeed, as global drinks giant Coca-Cola found out to its cost in the late nineties. Douglas Ivester was promoted to CEO in 1997 after the sudden death of his predecessor Roberto Goizueta, who been at the helm since 1981. In just two years and a sting of mishaps the relationship between the company’s board of directors and Ivester had turned sour and he promptly resigned. Prior to his appointment Ivester had seemed the perfect choice to replace Goizueta. Named CFO at Coca-Cola at just 37 yeas of age, Ivester rose through the ranks to become President and COO. What contributed to his downfall was his inability to make the transition up to CEO. He refused to appoint someone to fill his old COO role and instead oversaw operations and his old department from his new position.

Insiders felt he was too hands-on instead of occupying a traditional CEO-like overview of the company. Then followed the mismanagement of a series of crises including contamination of Coke bottled in Belgium, the failed acquisition of Orangina and festering racial discrimination at the company’s HQ in Atlanta. Pressure on him snowballed and he was left with no option but to go. Once the dust had settled critics blamed his unwillingness to relinquish his previous role when he was given the top job. That failure left a nasty taste in the mouth for Coca-Cola’s board and blighted Ivester’s otherwise impressive résumé.

Ivester’s downfall highlights that managers at all levels, sometimes concentrate on the part of the business they used to be in charge of. If, for instance, you used to head up the marketing department but get promoted to launch a new business product, you may trip up. You could find yourself focusing too heavily on the marketing aspect instead of taking a complete overview of all aspects of the launch, including R&D, manufacturing, costings, and advertising. This insistence on micromanaging could leave you red-faced in front of your staff and have your superiors questioning your ability to do the job.

From reading the book it is clear how new leaders can easily fall into traps in that can send them careering down a slippery slope. But sales of the book illustrate that individuals and organizations alike are determined not to fall into these traps. One of the most important things to bubble to the surface is this need to get away from the ‘sink or swim’ attitude. More often that not it lowers an individual’s self esteem and lures them into making rash decisions and mistakes. Being left to your own devices is just not good enough, according to Watkins. “We don’t identify star swimmers by throwing children into the pool unprepared; we teach them to swim, coach them and let performance speak for itself.”