Excelling in a New Leadership Role & Your First 90 Days
This post is for you if you are stepping into your first leadership role or you are about to start any new leadership role
✅ Preparing to step into a leadership role
Picture this: You've been a star player in your field, outperforming expectations and consistently delivering results. Now, you're about to transition into a leadership role. How do you shift from being a "chief do-er" to an empowering leader?
🌍Set the Strategic Vision: As a leader, your job isn't to outperform everyone in every task. It's to set the direction for your team. What are the goals, and what is the best way to achieve them? How can you involve the team in this process?
🤝Engage Stakeholders: Building relationships outside your team is equally essential. How are you liaising with other departments, or even customers, to ensure your team's success? What do you need to do more / less of?
👷Be Adaptable: Challenges will come, often unexpectedly. When they do, how do you react? A leader’s role is not just to solve the problem but to empower the team to find solutions themselves.
Three things to Focus on in Your First Three Months
1️⃣ Understand Your Team: What are their skills, interests, and motivations? How can you best support them?
2️⃣ Build Trust: This doesn't happen overnight. How can you create an environment where everyone feels safe to speak up and contribute?
3️⃣ Face Impostor Syndrome: It’s normal to feel out of depth when stepping into a new role. How can you work on your self-awareness and confidence to overcome this?
In my next post we’ll explore how to make the first 90 days count.
✅ The first 90 days
⏳ Why Your First 90 Days Matter
Starting a new job isn't just exciting; it sets the tone for your long-term success in the company. Many agree that your first 90 days are crucial. A strong onboarding program from your employer, along with your own planning, helps build important relationships, transparency and effectiveness.
📝How to Plan for Success
📌 Step 1: Understand Your Objectives
What are you expected to deliver? Openly discuss with your manager:
How can you break this down to make it manageable and measurable? What are your early wins?
👥 Step 2: Know Your Stakeholders
Who are the key people you'll work with frequently? Who has power and influence? What can you learn from them that could shape your perspective or approach? Identify questions that help you understand organisational strengths, challenges, and opportunities.
🤝Step 3: Set up Conversations
Meet the stakeholders for 30-45 minutes each. What would you like from each of these conversations? What impression would you like to leave?
📊 Step 4: Synthesize Insights and Use your Fresh Eyes
What are you noticing as someone new to the business / team? Which are the recurring themes and perhaps even disparities from your conversations? Share these anonymised insights with the team; your fresh perspective is valuable.
🎯 Step 5: Define Your Action Plan
What are your four major goals for the coming months? To frame these effectively, employ the ACHIEVE model: Action-Oriented, Consequential, Hard not Herculean, Integrated, Explicit, Visualized, and Endpoint-focused.
✅ 5 Questions to Ask When Starting a New Role
Over to you... Where would you like to be at the end of your first 90 days?
How do you plan to set yourself up for success in a new role?
What steps are you most eager to take first?
Which steps might you find yourself avoiding?!
By actively engaging in these crucial early steps, you not only set yourself up for success but also contribute meaningfully to your new organisation. Here's to a successful, challenging and enjoyable journey ahead!
In my next post we’ll explore how overcoming imposter syndrome can positively influence your success.
Get in Touch for Tailored Coaching
If you're stepping into a new role, leadership coaching can be very effective in smoothing the transition and setting you up for success. Please contact me to schedule a complimentary call.
Kate Jennings