Your first 60 days as a leader
Set and sell your vision
Richard Hall
Objectives
At the end of this book, you will understand that the people you meet in these first 60 days, and how you start your relationship with them, will shape your future career. In addition, you will be able to apply discipline and focus to making this honeymoon really fruitful.
Introduction
Nothing beats ‘new improved’, a breakthrough, anything, but especially the thrill of a new job. My main aim? To help you turn that thrill into a brilliant fast success – and to be thrilled by the whole learning process.
Well, congratulations! Wow! It is a new job. It is a big job. You have all the thrill of anticipation… but… but… When you start this new job as leader or as a senior executive, you will want to create the right impression and set your agenda for change. They did not hire you to do this job and just stand there and look good.
They want a new mind, one opening up new opportunities and, in those critical first 60 days, you can nail it or you can blow it.
Here is how to nail it. 60 days – that is 600 Game of Thrones episodes or 300 two-hour meetings or three blocks of four working weeks, allowing you to conduct:
- a thorough investigation
- a spirited series of discussions
- an opportunity to create a plan for change.
Oh, and one other thing. In those 60 days, you will also have to do the day job. What I call ‘learn and earn’. The former is what you need to do to create the future, the latter is what you must do now to lead your team through the present.
Yes, busy times. Good luck!
- Understand what needs doing. Always understand the brief. Understand what the people who hired you want, expect and what their timescale of expectation is. Do not discover the brief is different from what you thought you had signed up to two months after you have arrived.
- Making the right first impressions. In a world of speed dating, fast food and speed reading, first impressions are very important. On being asked why they were so hasty in drawing conclusions about people, a friend said to me, ‘It saves so much time.’ Whilst we strongly advise you to avoid being hasty in drawing your own conclusions on first meeting people, do not think they will do the same to you. That first firm handshake, smile and look into their eyes will count.
- Are you a new broom or a recycled brush? You may have been hired from outside. So you are a new broom, a fresh pair of eyes (or maybe even a sharp new scythe). Alternatively, you may have been promoted. So, you know a lot already. But, your colleagues know about you, too. You are part of the problem that you have been hired to fix. Consider the different approaches of two recent CEOs at a huge company called Tesco. Philip Clarke, a Tesco-lifer promoted from within, and Dave Lewis, hired from Unilever. Philip Clarke, like David Moyes, who lasted just a year at Manchester United as manager, was strongly endorsed by their predecessor. But, for both of them, their reluctance to change the product radically enough proved fatal.
- Get at those sacred cows (but be very careful). You will encounter sacred cows and we know what you will want to do to them. But, take it easy. Those cows can wait until you completely understand why those cows are so sacred and sacred to whom.
- See the bigger picture. Small things appeal to our curiosity; that is the nature of human beings. We can get fixated on detail when we need to keep a broader perspective. When you get promoted to do a bigger job or hired in to do a new one, you are expected to see things through a wide-angle lens, not just through a microscope.
Overview
A new job needs a sense of refreshment and insight. You will probably never have asked so many questions or met so many new people who will be eyeing you and trying to work out what you are like. This is a time to dream. To wonder what could really be achieved. But, you still have to hit those budget numbers. Sales are no respecter of your being new. And there is a distinction between being promoted from within and hired from the outside, but you still need to ask the same questions. How can you make things work better?
POTENTIAL PITFALL
If you are an internal appointment, make sure you change perceptions of yourself, so you are seen as your own person and a new/bigger version of you, not the same old with a crown.
Those questions you need to ask are the ones we should all be asking anyway but, as the turmoil of day-to-day work intensifies, and the lament ‘I’m so busy I can’t think’ grows more poignant, they do not get asked enough.
So, welcome to being that new broom or that recycled brush. Welcome, and time to do things.
It is time for change; time for new energy. In other words: question time.
There are three things driving our agenda:
1. Ask lots of people lots of intelligent questions
- Why the Toyota ‘5 whys’ works: Toyota used to say it was not until you asked the same question five times that you got to the truth. Do not try it the whole time because you are liable to be hit if you do, just for being so annoying. But do interrogate and be constantly in a non-stop questioning mode.
ASSESS YOURSELF
Are you asking enough questions? Assess whether you are a question machine. If not, you are not doing your new job.
- Ask people, ‘What would you change if you could?’ Quite often, we carry on driving over the same pothole time after time, swearing as we do so each time, rather than either fixing it or choosing another route. Asking this question: ‘What would you change if you had free choice?’ will liberate the brain. It assumes the absence of obstacles and clarifies what could be done.
- What would you wish for? (This is magic-wand time.) Yes, even if everything is good, what would you add or alter to make it brilliant as opposed to just good? Invite people to dream of possibilities and be positive and constructive as opposed to critical, dismissive and uninterested.
TIP
Get people you meet to disclose their most positive dreams for the future. Get them to imagine what the best could be like. You will be inspired as will they.
- Imagine yours was another market to the one it is. Encourage people to shift perspectives. By seeing things from a different viewpoint, you may find new opportunities. Imagine, for example, how Apple, Aldi, P&G or Lego might tackle your problems.
2. Listen hard, assess the real truths and the most critical issues
- Listen – hear – understand. Your ears will serve you well over the next few weeks. Whatever your normal mode of behaviour is, now is the time to listen carefully, hear what is really being said to you and understand what is really going on – quite often people do not say exactly what they mean because they do not want to land someone else in trouble. Just take nothing at face value.
- Watch your body language. You do not have to be an expert in body language to understand how a person really feels about things. Observe the way they look at you, cross their arms, shuffle and look confident (or not) and you will begin to understand if there are issues that you might need to know more about. Also, look at the way all the people in your team behave together. What they say and how they feel will not be the same, necessarily.
- See the whites of their eyes. Nicola Horlick, an investment fund manager, said she wanted to meet the CEOs of all those companies in which she invested so she could see the whites of their eyes. It is harder to lie face to face, she reasoned, rather than on the phone or in print. Anyway, when you meet them, you will know if you want them looking after your money.
TIP
Whenever you can, travel to see people – yes, a physical meeting. Seeing the whites of their eyes. Meet people because you will learn more from them when you do.
3. Pull everything together into a simple, inspiring vision and action plan
This is the plan that you start to sell to the key stakeholders prior to making a brilliant presentation about it.
- You want insights, ideas, discoveries. Picasso said, ‘Amateurs borrow; professionals steal.’ Wherever you can, get new ideas. Be a force for innovation and ideas. Do not worry where they come from, just keep filling the air with new thoughts and ideas.
- How can you reframe the business? Same old, same old is seldom the right answer. Although, be careful, just sometimes it might be the solution. Tom Peters, the management guru, used to talk about the virtues of ‘creative destruction’. But be very careful. Make sure you pull up the weeds and not the flowers.
- What can you simplify? Whatever you do, keep wondering how to find better, easier and more intelligent ways of doing what you do. Simplification is the quickest way of improving a business. It will also be very popular with people around you. Complex processes are like old plumbing – liable to leak.
TIP
The greatest change you will make to your business is to insist on simplifying things. It worked for Apple. Start by cutting out jargon and acronyms. Then, radically reduce the number of approval points in a business.
- Take nothing for granted. ‘At face value’ is the most chilling expression in business because nothing is a given. Work hard at trying to discover and learn about the truth. Make sure that everyone on your watch knows there is no blame-game and that everything is on the table. And, one other thing: ‘at face value’ is not good enough.
4. Get the day-to-day management job done, too
The process of learning and moving towards a new and better way of running the business – your way – must be accompanied by the pragmatic reality of running the business as it is – sales, marketing, HR issues, legal issues, cash management, the P&L and performance. You are an architect, for sure, but you are also a judge, surgeon, fireman and counsellor.
There are three keys here:
- Delegate – apart from anything else, you want to see how the people you have inherited actually do their work. Until you have good reasons to change your view, show that you trust your team to deliver. Show them that you are there to help them.
- Meetings should be happenings – this is your chance to show everyone the sort of meetings that you like – short, clear, decisive and inclusive. Meetings that make things happen.
- Decide to be decisive – the way in which you make decisions and assemble information will make an impression. Do not make hasty decisions. Listen, learn, think and then decide clearly.
Context
New is a strange place. New school, new house, new friends, new car… the word new is full of excitement and danger. The unknown is a bit stressful, but the process of learning rapidly is very invigorating in its own right. Here is how to maximise that invigoration and minimise stress.
Action 1: Read that job description of yours again
The key needs are all there.
Make sure you are clear about what the job is or what the company thinks the job is.
The first 60-day phase is one of discovery, planting seeds, establishing some rules, asserting your authority nicely, but firmly and clearly.
Prepare to be very tired. You are on a rapid learning curve.
Action 2: Make sure you look after yourself
When not working, make time for:
- exercise
- relaxation
- sleep
- thinking space.
But avoid being over-entertained (that is a nice way of saying do not eat and drink too much).
POTENTIAL PITFALL
The worst thing is for you to get knackered. Do not underestimate the intensity of the new role. When not working, sleep, relax and read something that is not work-related.
Action 3: Have a very good memory (and make very good notes)
You are going to smile a lot, listen a lot and talk quite a lot, too.
Even if you want to go alone into an office and read documents (you can do that late at night can’t you?), you know – don’t you? – that it is the people whom you meet and how you bond with and inspire them that will determine your success.
Being a boss is a different role (if you have not done it before). It is lonely and it is challenging.
It will be surprising if it does not change the way you think.
Here are some housekeeping tips that will make the job work better:
- Own your diary. Do not let your diary in the first 60 days be controlled by anyone but you. You have to leave thinking space and you have to do it your way.
- Learn the business. Whatever else you are doing, do not fail to focus on really grasping how this business works (not, at this stage, how it should work but how it actually works). Be able to explain, very simply, what the few fundamental issues are and what the levers that control its growth and sales trajectory really are. Understand the competitive landscape. And really understand your products. Try them. Talk about them. Think of their strengths and weaknesses. Become a critical champion of everything that your new company does.
ASSESS YOURSELF
Imagine are on Mastermind. Your specialist subject is your new company. You need to know everything: products, margins, people, history, successes, failures, P&L, etc.
- It is only about people. Martin Sorrell said: ‘All business is about marketing; all marketing is about people.’
So, it follows that the only thing in business that really makes a difference is how the people work together. Be a people person. Spend your time working with, working on and understanding this key asset.
- Sit quietly sometimes and just feel the vibes. Be the invisible watcher. It is amazing how people watching can teach you so much.
- Watch for the success characteristics. Speed, simplicity, self-confidence – the three S’s. Does your business resound with them? If not, what are you going to do about it? You could start by being the person who exudes all three of these characteristics yourself.
- Positive attitudes win. ‘Anything is possible,’ that is what the Saatchi brothers said when they founded the biggest and most vibrant advertising agency of the 1970s. This walk-on-water attitude is infectious in the best possible way. People will be keeping an eye on you to assess your mood. So, always look positive and as though it is great to be there in this great job in this great company.
Challenge
First of all, stay calm. Your demeanour at the outset will shape your whole relationship with your people, so look and sound confident. Focus on keeping the top and bottom line numbers on track. Do not overpromise. Stay and look calm and confident. The key challenge is in covering a lot of new ground fast and looking in control. But you can do it. Impress and have fun, too.
New executives and, especially, new leaders are vulnerable to being misunderstood during this brief window of exposure. You represent a threat, an opportunity and a challenge to people. They will not know quite what to make of you. Most of all, you stand for uncertainty.
POTENTIAL PITFALL
Do not try and please everyone. They will be testing you and just being nice to them will not work effectively by itself for you or them. Show them you are engaged. Focus on being seen there in order to fix things. Look very, very interested.
- Your body language is vital.
- Your energy levels are being assessed.
- Your temper is being checked.
- You may be tested by some to see what you are made of.
- Your boss will be paying special attention to their protégé’s performance.
- You are being cast in the lead role, pushed on stage before you have even learnt the part.
Look as though you love it! (That is a good start.)
- Make sure the business keeps on budget. However much you look to the future, you must make sure the present business is being looked after properly. From the day you start your new job, everything that happens is your fault.
- Do not over-promise (in fact, do not promise anything until you are sure you can fulfil it). It is easy to be so positive that you make a promise you cannot keep. Do not do this… ever.
- Do not draw premature conclusions. Psychologists like Daniel Kahneman have studied the tendency of people to make hasty decisions. Some think it looks dynamic. Others think it looks, well, decisive. In fact, it is just silly. Take all the time you have. Imagine a judge trying to make a fast judgement.
TIP
You have to make a decision. You are busy. Take your time. Do not rush. Stay calm. Look at the data. Consult. Listen to others. Do not dither but be thorough and then decide.
- Honeymoons are over fast. Sixty days is a long honeymoon. The first 15 days are the best. After that the champagne tends to stay in the fridge and the conversation tends to get a bit nitty-gritty. It is about then that the problems and grumbles start to emerge. Ok, not for long, but you take the point.
- Listen more than you talk. Your mouth is your biggest liability at this stage. Be good at making charming, positive, but somewhat non-committal, speeches. Always use at least one specific reference to a product, system or result in your new place to show you are paying attention.
- Be cheerful… you are a repair person not an executioner. It does not sound very glamorous being a repair person but, when the drains are blocked and someone from Dyno-Rod turns up, it is a very welcome sight.
TIP
Exude feel-good optimism. It is amazing how good it is for those around you. If you have the can-do attitude of a natural problem solver, you will get a lot more out of others.
- Ulterior motives and office politics. You are an honourable, honest, unpolitical person, but be prepared for people to be anxious about their own jobs and what you think of them. People expect the worst and suspect that everything that happens has a hidden meaning. Do not gossip – indiscretions now are betrayals later on. If you gossip, you should stop it now or fear for, and deserve, the worst. As leader, you are above such nonsense. Amazingly, many leaders are gossips. They are seldom any good at their job.
- Score an early goal. If your company can win a success early in your 60-day induction that will do more than almost anything else can do. It will get everyone in your team in the habit of winning with you. It will bond and excite.
Key development approach
People are all different. One size does not fit all. There are a lot of TIPs here. Not all will work for you but choose, say, ten that seem right and useful and apply them. Above all, remember everyone is looking at you to see what you are like and what you are likely to do. If nothing else, look confident, interested and as though you are really enjoying yourself.
So, here we get to the heart of it – the essential tools and techniques of having a great 60-day start. Never assume that this will be easy. But your task is to make it seem as though it is no problem for you.
However much you are struggling, conceal this and never let anyone say, ‘I don’t think they’re up to it’ and have any real basis of truth for saying this about you. Of course you will be up to it.
Just act, in the meantime, as though you know you are up to it now. It was Lord Denning – a well-known judge – who was advised early in his career: ‘People pay us for our certainties not for our doubts.’ Look certain not unsure.
An overview
Make sure you are seen as being fast – that is, fast in the speed at which you move, talk, think and react. But do not strive for unnecessary speed in deciding on a course of action. Be seen as thorough and painstaking but also show you are the sort of person who thrives on change and crisis.
POTENTIAL PITFALL
Avoid looking uncertain (even if you are feeling confused). Those who hired you were voting for confidence, progress and change – so do not disappoint those expectations.
By the way, expect there to be a crisis soon after you join. How do I know? Just that there always is. Always.
Look at the crises at Tesco that Dave Lewis found he was facing, but admire the macho way he grasped a lot of nasty nettles. Be clear (like he was) that you are there to fix it, calmly – using all the resources of your team’s brilliance and experience. Lead, do not just do. The worst thing you can do is create a perception of being a leave-it-to-me leader – a perpetual action person, as opposed to a strategic thinker.
- Use that fresh pair of eyes of yours.
- Become a human camera.
- Notice everything. Be disciplined in the way you plan your time.
- But go everywhere that matters. Meet lots of people.
- Write everything down.
- Be able to quote back what people said: time, place and facts. (By the way – never lose these notes.)
- Spend lots of time with your boss.
- Make sure you keep them up to speed with what you’re doing.
- And spend lots of time with your top team, too.
- Be visible; be accessible, but give yourself space and time to think.
TIP
Every second of these early days is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn. (But write it down, so you remember.) Quite soon, you will be the best informed person in the business.
Milk the honeymoon – it is your chance to learn and, even, sometimes to get people to be revealingly indiscreet (this will, of course, never be you). Create a major event at the end of 60 days to celebrate with your team, thank them for their support and share with them some inspiring, positive thinking about the future. Set yourself milestones that you are going to achieve – one milestone every two weeks. That is six milestones to be set in stone. And, finally, do not expect time off or an easy ride. This is the most intensive it will get in the job – as it should be – and, as the Beatles used to sing, it will feel like – ‘Eight Days a Week.’ Good luck!
Some important ways of winning
How long – create a strategic timetable
Set a very clear and simple timetable on day one, which comprises:
- meeting all the people;
- understanding all aspects of the business;
- seeing the real upsides and potential downsides in it;
- 60 days – 12 weeks – nail it or fail in it – be tough on yourself – make sure everyone knows what you are there to do.
Why and how – what is your initial journey for and how you plan to travel it?
You must plan these first 60 days carefully. Make it easy – split it into three 20-day blocks. Alongside these exploratory blocks of activity you will also be called on to do some ‘day work’. Do it smilingly, uncomplainingly, but delegate when you can. Your task is threefold:
- Make sure no balls are dropped by your team in this period.
- Make sure you make an impression.
- Be seen as smart, experienced, energetic and demanding (being demanding is good).
TIP
Be perceived as setting unreasonably high standards. Do not let anyone think you are a pushover or that less than world-class is good enough.
Why speed matters
The energy in a company and the speed at which it can react is what distinguishes winners from losers. Now here is the challenge.
Do not be the headless chicken rushing from place to place, always late and always flustered. In 60 days, convince your people there are three things they must be – faster, simpler and more self-confident.
But faster means measured speed; this is a half marathon, not a sprint; simpler means less process, less paper, easier to do (anyone who says they have lots of initiatives is not focussing on simplicity); self-confidence is not arrogance.
It is about showing the certainty that, by doing things right, you can all win and that nothing is impossible.
Do not multitask – you will implode if you do
Busy – of course you are. You will be concealing it well because the adrenalin is kicking in. But the chances are in what is a much bigger job more people will want some of your time, more issues will come up and more interruptions will fill your life.
In the worst situation of lapsing into multitasking, you will come to the end of a day having been so busy that you cannot think and will be exhausted.
But, in fact, you will not have thought much and you will not have achieved much, either.
So, spend 100 per cent of your attention on each thing you do and then move on to the next thing.
POTENTIAL PITFALL
A CEO once said to me that their job was to keep a lot of plates spinning. Do not become a neurotic juggler like they were. It never works.
Create a crisis – test your team
Psychologists have shown that the great thing about a crisis (like Dunkirk) is it motivates, focuses and bonds a team. Dr Johnson (he wrote the first Dictionary) said:
‘The prospect of imminent execution concentrates the mind wonderfully.’
Yes. Awaiting execution would be a crisis. In the USA, companies like GE got smart at asking how a competitor would most damage them. They expected it would be e-commerce, so they set up a division within each division called destroyyourowncompany.com. Thereby, they created a great defence mechanism against prospective attack.
Get your own team in crisis mode to see how they and you would deal with the totally unexpected.
Be a human camera
Selfies are fashionable right now, but you know what? They really work in capturing spontaneity. The best and most relaxed shots are done like this. Be unashamed in capturing the feel and look of the places and people you visit. You are not an automaton, nor are they. So, capture the humanity of the new role.
Prove you are a people-person.
Be a copious note-taker
I clasp my Moleskine wherever I go. I like the paper, the size, the feel of it. And I love being able to refer back and see every stray comment I make. However good a memory you have, you will not be able to retain everything. Great notes repay you when you read them over each week. Technology is not always the answer. A tablet is a less useful tool for doodling thoughts.
TIP
Be a copious note-taker and a copious thank-you-note sender. When someone gives you golden insights, write a note to say, ‘Thanks – I learnt so much from you.’
Spend time with your boss and his stakeholders
Your boss is likely to have been the key in appointing you, although, in the current complexities of business, it is possible you will be in a matrix organisation with two or three bosses and a number of non-executive directors and important shareholders to keep happy.
Even if you are not quite that far up the greasy pole, you will have a significant number of opinionated, experienced and vocal people to meet and explain yourself to.
Do not be frustrated by this. Give it time. Prepare carefully. Be charming and be careful. Do not get nudged into a corner to give special attention to a pet project of theirs. Be discreet. Listen to what they say, which often will throw light on why things are as they are and what mistakes your predecessor made or was blamed for.
Remember that your boss and their opinion of you is critical to your life, whether that always seems fair or not.
Spend enough time with your direct reports
You cannot do it all. Indeed, your success will be determined by how well you get others to do things. You must build a team you trust, respect and believe has the talent to do what you are going to ask it to do.
In some cases I know of, a new boss has pretty well cleared out all his old, inherited team; in others, I know by listening, conferring and spending time with them that a disengaged top-team has become a top-performing one.
The decisions you make about your team are much like those that a top football coach has to make. It is hard not to be or feel personal, but do not.
This is a game of human chess. Think very hard about moving the pieces into the right position or you will live to regret getting it wrong. Here is where being empathetic, calm and helpful will pay long-term dividends.
ASSESS YOURSELF
You have 60 days to shuffle, prune, promote and hire your top team. On day 10, assess your options and, every 10 days thereafter, reassess and see how many of those actions that you know are needed you have actually made.
Meet all your key suppliers
That is just good manners. They are your partners, not just your suppliers. Make sure they understand this distinction. Make sure you get their support. Besides which, they will be a brilliant source of information about you and your market. Ask them to think creatively about how they can help to improve your business.
Meet all your key customers
Without your customers you do not have a business. Get appointments in your diary early on with your top six to ten customers. Be very clear that this is not a time for you to negotiate terms or discuss the relationship in detail, but for you to inform yourself about your business with the help of your most important partners. In my experience, they will enjoy and appreciate the chance for them to talk whilst you listen.
POTENTIAL PITFALL
Spend a lot of time talking to customers. They will be the first to tell you what is right and wrong. Too few leaders in business spend enough time with them.
How you run and allow meetings to be run is critical
Meetings are not my favourite way of spending my time. This is, mostly, because they are, generally, so badly run and longwinded. (I particularly like the observation about Bill Clinton who apparently loved meetings so much he tried to avoid finishing them.) So, why do meetings go wrong?
There are five reasons:
- No one knows why they are happening. This is due to a failure to decide on what the overall aim of the group is – why are you meeting at all? It is usually worth stating this at the outset: ‘The purpose of our meeting is to…’
- They go on too long. An overlong agenda or one that has not been thought through is catastrophic. Before any meeting, go through all the agenda items carefully to see why they are there and whether a decision or action is required on each.
- No one knows who is accountable. There is a need for each item on the agenda to be owned by someone in the meeting, so they are accountable for reporting back on progress at the next meeting.
- No one does enough homework. People busking the meeting through not having read the papers is the fastest way to create confusion. An effective way of avoiding this is to stop the meeting, so the culprit can catch up with their homework (I would love to say ‘in the corner’ but that’s going too far).
- They are full of gobbledegook and sloppiness. Bad briefing papers are a disaster. Remove an item from the agenda if it is clear that the briefing has been inadequate or misleading.
TIP
Get everyone relaxed enough to make a useful contribution. If meetings are not there to make you all work more successfully together, why have them?
Identify what your half dozen key milestones are
You have 60 days or 12 working weeks, so how about six milestones? This will force you to have covered six key must do’s in your learning process – for example:
- People.
- Sales and marketing.
- Costs and budgets.
- Governance – boss and stakeholders.
- Innovation – competitors and development.
- Your vision of the future.
But you will have to put up with one reality of life, which is this. The more senior you are, the more stuff that you have to handle will be messy.
Just as you are settling down to have a cosy chat with your boss, a crisis with a major customer blows up. Have that cosy chat with your boss, but let your person with the customer say that you are available to have their undivided attention in one hour – and be on time.
ASSESS YOURSELF
Sometimes you will be distracted, but be honest with yourself about how it is really going. Every week, ask yourself, ‘How am I doing in relation to these milestones?’
Create a couple of events that are celebratory
Do not underestimate the importance of getting everyone together to applaud success. Google has a three-line whip on stopping work at 5 pm on Friday and getting everyone together for a beer, a speech or two and a welcome to any new member of staff. In their European HQ in Zurich, their BBQ is the biggest and most celebratory I have ever seen. There are burgers for billions.
Shortly after you arrive is a good opportunity for a relaxed getting-to-know-you session and, again, at the end of your first 60 days, when you can talk through the simple insights and visions of the future (if you are ready to do this – but do not do it, if you are not ready).
Take enough time off to keep yourself fresh and alert
Poor Horta Osório. He is the CEO of Lloyds and seems to have done a pretty good job. But, shortly after he started, he had to take time off, as he had a breakdown through overwork. Whatever else you do, look after your health, reserves and energy.
POTENTIAL PITFALL
Without exercise, fresh air, a decent diet and plenty of soothing sleep, you will snap. Think of yourself as being a beautifully crafted Swiss watch. Do not overwind yourself.
Success
There is so much to do. You need a blend of intelligence, curiosity, pragmatism and ambition to succeed. This is a world of high hopes and first impressions. Your biggest dangers will be trying to do too much and missing out on sleep, exercise and good food. This first 60 days is a half marathon, the whole marathon follows.
A word on success – so much of success in business is based around three things:
- Did you hit that number? Did you hit or exceed budget?
- Did your team work well? Did they develop and excel under your leadership?
- Did your boss approve? They and the stakeholders in the business must perceive you as leading the business commandingly and strategically.
The next bit is in ‘very small typeface’ because it is often the unspoken truth:
A lot of the things above are horseshit. Because, in truth, it is how you are perceived as doing, not always how you are actually doing that matters. This whole book is to help you be perceived as being better and doing better. No. I am not a cynic, just a realist. Do a great job. Learn. Lead. But, above all, polish the impression that you give people.
Back again. Six things to measure your success during this period are:
1. Have you reached all those milestones? I would be astonished if you had – met all of them that is – but, overall, are you on course? Are you scoring 70 per cent or better? And, most important of all, are you an honest self-assessor? That, most of all, will be your biggest asset in the future
2. Have you met everyone and understood what, why and how they do what they do? The biggest thrill you will have will be in meeting so many interesting people. They will (mostly) want to engage with you, sell you their ideas and their dreams. Your success will be in how well you have got them to open up, confide in you and be excited about the prospects for the business. As a leader, you will succeed through your people, not despite your people. These early meetings will be inspiring and exhausting. They will also be telling – are you able to get the best out of people? Your leader’s journey starts here.
3. Is your boss happy with you? Are they onside and supportive of your broad plans?
- Do you really understand what can and cannot be done?
- Do you know what the real sacred cows are?
- Have you got a clear fix on the potential political minefields?
Welcome to realpolitik – the pragmatic, not the idealistic, world of management. To do what you want to do, you must have the support of your boss. Do not risk guessing their mood. Get close. Impress them. Keep them involved. But never smother them. Practise brevity.
4. Have you made a real impact and has the impression you have left been positive? I have talked about the importance of the perception people have and their first impressions. Psychologists like Daniel Kahneman who wrote Thinking, Fast and Slow show how it is our unconscious mind, not our rational mind, that does most of the thinking. Initially, we come to a series of intuitive judgements or biases. That is why the first impressions we make matter so much. So:
- Do you make a positive and pleasant impression?
- Are you seen as honest and clear?
- Are you seen as fair, open-minded and cheerful?
- Are you perceived as a results person who aims high?
5. Do you have a one-page simple strategy, vision of success, strategic action plan that is workable and likely to meet the needs of the business in the medium term? No, obviously not on day one you do not but, if it is not your ambition to create this during the first 60 days, it should be. The problem most businesses have, and which most executives compound, is over-complication. There is a perverse intellectual urge we have to say ‘It isn’t as simple as that’. Often it is. Think about the following:
- What does our end consumer most want from us?
- In what respects do we meet or fail to meet this?
- Are we delivering the product in the most effective, efficient and simple way?
- Are all our people focussed on being the best team in the business, being innovative and setting out to improve everything we do?
- Do we know where we want to be in two years’ time – in one sentence?
6. Are you fit and ready to make things happen? It was all going so well, but the leader’s energy levels declined, they put on weight and, frankly, could not stand the stress. What an epitaph; do not let that be you. Watch three things:
- Sleep – are you getting enough? Are you sleeping deeply?
- Exercise – you do not have to be a triathlete, but are you walking enough or sitting behind a PC all day?
- Diet – are you eating healthily and regularly?
No, you do not need a nurse to look after you, but you may need a relentless bully in your mind making sure you look after yourself and spend those 60 days feeling great.
Summary
Here, in summary, are the top ten things you should do during your first 60 days, the things that, if you did nothing else, would be most useful and helpful.
- Get the brief clear and the timetable right.
- Get your team right.
- Remember, first impressions matter.
- Keep on asking ‘why’ and look at big picture.
- Dream of the future.
- Write it all down.
- Be positive and results-focussed.
- Insist on good manners.
- Stay close to your boss.
- Look after yourself.
These 60 days are really important. They are your chance to begin to make a mark and, most of all, to learn a huge amount very fast. So, work hard, write it all down, smile and have fun. And, of course, succeed.
Checklist
Do you understand what these first 60 days can give you and do you know how to get the most out of them? This is your chance now to revise.
- Getting yourself properly informed. Want to inform yourself on any given subject? What are the three best ways of doing this in a hurry? (Beware. We do not like rushing but do get the need for speed.) Click here to review.
- Anticipating debate, objections and resistance. You suddenly arrive from Jupiter or Pluto or from the marketing department. Who the hell is this? Will they greet you with open arms or will they be suspicious, frightened and hostile? How to win them over – do you know? Click here to review.
- Learning to listen. Are you able to sit there and silently encourage people to open up (‘Where are those bodies buried?’) and begin to engage with you? Do you know how to hear what that they are really saying? Click here to review.
- Covering all the stakeholders. Are you confident you understand the importance of how to involve and engage all the major stakeholders in your business? (If not, why are you doing this job?) Click here to review.
- Creating focus and energy. When it all seems a frenzy of stressful activity, do you know how to calm things down and refocus, yet, at the same time, maintain electric levels of dynamic energy? Click here to review.
- Doing business as usual is quite unusual. You need to do two things: manage the business in the here and now, hitting that number and (at the same time) lead it into the future. Do you know how to do both competently in this messy world in which we live? Click here to review.
- Are you looking after yourself? Are you overdoing it? Are you sleeping well, eating properly rather than snatching snacks and are you exercising and walking enough? Consider yourself as steward of a very special machine – are you treating that machine with enough respect? Click here to review.
- Are you making the right impression? Have you worked hard enough to charm, engage and impress the people you meet and whom you have to influence? This is not charm school, but it helps immeasurably if you make the right impression early on, does it not? Click here to review.
- Do you have an inspiring plan for the future forming in your mind? When you took this job, you must have had a strong sense of what you might do to change things for the better, yes? Are you visualising the areas of change that you are going to need to address? Are you thinking three years ahead when you leave work and the day-to-day issues recede? Click here to review.
- Do you know how to communicate engagingly? Do you know how to mix emotional with rational arguments so people are attracted to what you say? Do you realise the art of communicating well will be the difference between success and failure? Click here to review.