- Tags:: #📚Books, [[My engineering management principles, values, and practices]]
- Author:: [[Michael D. Watkins]] (leadership guru)
- Liked:: #4/5
- Link:: [The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded (hbr.org)](https://hbr.org/books/watkins)
- Source date:: [[2013-05-14]]
- Read date:: [[2022-07-11]]
- Cover::
![[cover_the_first_90.png|100]]
## Why did I want to read it?
Because I thought it would be helpful as a I enter as Engineering Manager of an existing team in Nextail.
## What did I get out of it?
### Introduction
Transitions are "unpleasant", but common:
>...transitions are also periods of acute vulnerability, because vou lack established working relationships and a detailed understanding of vour new role (...) Opinions of your effectiveness begin to form surprisingly quickly, (p.11)
>This totals 13.5 major transitions per leader, or one every 1,3 years (...) some of these transitions likely happened in parallel. (p. 12)
The goal is to reach the break-even point quickly:
![[A7B2FE01-0712-41BA-B0ED-F77E9757625F.jpeg]]
The break-even point is 6.2 months on average (according to a 200 CEO survey) and the author claims you can reduce it by 40% according to "independent research" (in two companies: a Fortune 100 in health-care, and a Fortune 500 in financial services).
#### Things that don´t work well (p. 14)
A misunderstood bias for action (reminds me of [[✍️ Refusing to stand on the shoulders of giants]]), without observing:
- Sticking with what you know.
- Coming in with "the" answer.
- Falling prey to the "action imperative."
- Attempting to do too much.
- Setting unrealistic expectations.
- Engaging in the wrong type of learning (overfocus on the technical, neglecting cultural and political).
- Neglecting horizontal relationships.
And so you enter a vicious cycle:
![[20B449FA-65CE-4F3E-B31C-D2D526E07960.jpeg|500]]
#### Things that work (p. 19)
- Prepare yourself: mental break from previous job and interiorizing that [[🦜 What got you here won't get you there]] in the new job.
- Accelerate your learning: actively choosing what and how to learn about the new place.
- Match your strategy to the situation: a successful transition in a startup is not the same than a business that is struggling or maintaining success on a large comp.
- Secure early wins: in the first few weeks, for credibility and momentum.
- Negotiate success (with your boss).
>No other relationship is more important (...). Developing and gaining consensus on your 90 day plan.
- Achieve alignment.
- Build your team. And if you inherit a team, evaluate, align and mobilize.
- Create coalitions.
>Your success depends on your ability to influence people outside your direct line of control.
- Keep your balance. So you don't become crazy and make bad calls.
- Accelerate everyone: the rest are also transitioning with you.
So you end up in a virtuous cycle:
![[3917DC2F-3CCF-4B30-A204-CB24229AFC17.jpeg]]
>Failure is never only about the flaws of the new leader. Indeed, all the failed leaders I studied had achieved significant successes in the past. Nor is it only about a no-win situation in which not even a superhuman leader could have carried the day (p. 17)