- 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)