Figure 3.1 The role of the leader in the First100assist™ leadership framework

SET A CLEAR DIRECTION

No one knows the right answer about the future. But a leader will have the courage to put stakes in the ground early on and say, ‘I don’t have all the answers either, but let’s go there.’ ‘There’ could be a new market, new products and services, or a total relaunch, or all of the aforementioned. The leader has the boldness to go for it. If ‘there’ is a very complicated ‘point B’ you could intuitively understand that getting there will be complicated too and resistance will occur. So you have to be very clear on the direction in your first 100 days, and very clear on why you are going ‘there’. The more clarity on the end point and the plan to get to the end point, then of course the easier the journey will be for everyone to get there.

BRING PEOPLE WITH YOU

Of course, if only the leader goes ‘there’, nothing much happens in terms of progress. The leader has to communicate his vision on ‘there’ to the people and motivate them to go on the journey.

Never underestimate how much you have to keep communicating your direction, and the reasons for your direction, to others. Even when you don’t know all the answers, keep communicating. And, of course, this is not one person trying to move a mountain. People will spontaneously follow you when they believe in your vision and feel like they have a stake in its success too.

DELIVER RESULTS

Reaching ‘there’ and the attempts to get ‘there’ will have been a good idea and a good plan only if results prove it. Otherwise, we all realise the leader made a big mistake on direction and we were foolish to follow. The delivery of the right results demonstrates the quality of the leader in terms of ability to set a clear direction and bring the people with them.

In your first 100 days – and beyond – keep in mind those three leadership tasks:

• Set a clear direction on where you want to be by the end of 100 days.
• Bring your people with you (boss, team, stakeholders, customers).
• Deliver the right results by the end of the first 100 days.

HOW TO LAUNCH YOUR FIRST 100 DAYS PLAN

You can make a fanfare launch of your first 100 days plan as soon as you arrive, but my advice is not to do that. Instead, it is best to arrive and ground yourself in the role for five to ten days to check what the experience is like on arrival, and to confirm and make any final tweaks to the plan.

For example, prior to arrival, you may not yet have met all the stakeholders, so your first 100 days plan may not have included all stakeholder expectations.

On arrival, I recommend the following steps:

• Share your draft first 100 days plan with your boss.
• Check and reconfirm priorities and expectations with your boss and key stakeholders.
• Meet your direct report team and get up to speed on their issues and perspectives.
• You could workshop the plan or key aspects of the plan with your team and get their feedback.
• Visit relevant work sites and offices and head office to get a sense of the culture.
• Seek out other recent new joiners for advice and support on how best to assimilate.
  • Finalise your first 100 days plan.
  • Whether or not you communicate your first 100 days plan to all role stakeholders is up to you. I recommend that you share it fully with your boss but, after that, you may choose tactically how much of the plan to share, and who with, depending on what is appropriate to your context.

How you communicate your first 100 days plan is also worth considering. Avail yourself of the full suite of communication architecture available: in person, roadshows, town halls, podcast, blogs, v-logs, email, position paper, and/or any other effective means for your context.

BE AUTHENTIC

A big buzzword in leadership right now is ‘authenticity’. Sounds great, but what does it really mean? Authenticity is about being true to your real character, playing to your strengths and accepting any shortcomings. It is about being yourself as a leader and not putting on an executive mask and performing the role of leader. For example, some people are very extrovert dynamic leaders, and some are more introverted and steady. Both approaches are fine. There is no ‘one way’. There is no ‘best style’.

For you, there is only ‘your way’. You got the job – so now have the confidence to do it your way. No one should try to fake a style that doesn’t suit them. Wearing an executive mask is very draining and may eventually lead to executive burnout. Know your own preferred leadership style and have the confidence to roll with it.

The idea that we all have to be extroverts with tons of charisma is now a dated view of the best leaders. We all know that the introverts or ambi-verts can do just as good a leadership job, if not better, than any noisy ‘charming’ extrovert. Of course, as leaders, we are always learning and improving our approach and you don’t want to stay stuck in a leadership style rut, but any development should be about evolving your true authentic style, rather than adopting or faking someone else’s approach.

Stepping up to lead a new team is an opportunity to reflect on your leadership style and approach. Think about how you have led teams in the past:

• What were your greatest strengths when you led a team?
• What feedback did you get from the team and others on your areas for improvement?

Being authentic in a leading-your-team context includes knowing your strengths and limitations and assembling your team accordingly to support you on what you do well, and to fill the gap on what you’re not so good at. For example, you may be very good at strategy and structure, but maybe not so good at execution and delivery. Being authentic is about being very comfortable in your leadership skin, having great self-awareness and being humble enough to acknowledge when you need others to provide complementary skills.

BE INSPIRING

It’s incredibly motivating for your team members if you have purpose and passion for what you do, and are able to convey that passion to others in terms of how you speak, your tone of voice, and what new ideas you have. To be inspiring, you need to feel inspired first.

Do people generally want to hear what you have to say, or do you check to notice whether their eyes glaze over while you deliver overly long monologues on what all the issues and problems are? The best way to bond and engage with others is to ask them questions, and listen to their answers, and remember to pick up the conversational thread next time you meet them.

AVAIL YOURSELF OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL TOUCH-POINTS

When you think about how best to create the right kind of personal impact on others, keep in mind the small meetings and informal encounters that occupy most of an executive’s day, because of how powerfully such interactions influence perceptions. As well as formal touch-points such as one-to-one meetings and team workshops, take time out for informal touch-points such as lunch or travel time to check in with team members on how things are going, what are the bottlenecks, how can you help, and what don’t you know that you should know.

The leader–team bonding can happen via phone and online, but the bonding process happens a lot faster when people meet in person. Depending on geographic spread, try to meet each team member at least once during your first 100 days. The cost of flying them in, or you going out to a hub to meet more than one person, is a worthwhile investment.

USE DISCLOSURE

Disclosure can be a very powerful tactic for creating immediate and deep rapport with people on your team. For example, although you might have thought it would look like a weakness, if you admit that you are feeling daunted by the new role, people will be more likely to empathise with you and support you for success. If you seem too aloof and too arrogant to share your challenges with them, they are less likely to support you. Winning your team’s support in the first 100 days is vital for your success. Use disclosure to build mutual empathy.

HOW TO COPE WITH FEELING OVERWHELMED

Role beginnings can feel overwhelming. I keep repeating this because it’s true and it’s probably why you bought this book. Now that you are started in the role, you may feel like this is all going to be even more challenging than you first thought. Please know that everyone feels this way – it’s all part of the challenge of a new role transition. While it is important to acknowledge that the role transition will be challenging, it is also very important to keep everything in perspective.

To get perspective, step back. Take a break from the detail of what you are doing. If you feel particularly anxious, you may even need to lie down once in a while! Tap into your purpose and passion to see you through any of the turbulence of the early phase. If you can remember the ‘bigger why’ on why you are doing this, then the smaller details and discomforts will be more helpfully put in context of your higher goals and achievements.

Focusing on positive feelings has a powerful impact on reducing our stress levels. Instead of worrying what might go wrong, take one day at a time and trust that it will all turn out fine. In the face of challenges, cultivate your own set of useful self-soothing mantras. ‘Everything will be fine’, ‘No effort is wasted’, ‘A thousand-mile journey starts with a single step’ or ‘Rome was not built in a day’.

DON’T WASTE ENERGY ON THE NEGATIVE ‘WHAT IFS’

It is true to say that some executives tip into a state of panic and anxiety during the early phase, and they find it very hard to focus. If you feel like you are panicking, there is an interesting visual technique you can use. Imagine a fire and every time a ‘what if’ fear-based worry pops into your mind (‘what if I fail?’, ‘what if I can’t deliver?’, ‘what if people don’t rate me?’) visualise plucking it from your mind and putting it on the fire. Mimic taking it out of your head and burning it.

These what ifs are only negative imaginary problems about an event that has not actually happened and they are no use to you. Stay in the moment, focus your mind and energy on positive outcomes and don’t waste time and energy on the negative.

If, at any time during your transition, you feel out of control, take charge of the situation. Set clear boundaries. Have the courage to confront any difficult conversations. Remember that even when external events are setting the agenda, you always have ultimate control because you can control how you respond to events. Ask for help and appreciate any offers of help. Always be ready to take risks. Never let the fear paralyse you. Own your decisions and trade-offs. Who knows what the right answer is. Take your first step to begin and do your best.

LEARN FAST

The industry, market and organisation will keep on moving forward as usual, and there is no pause button to press whilst you get up to speed in the first month. So you have to be very committed and able to learn as fast as possible. This is why I suggested earlier that you negotiate extra latitude and time from loved ones so that, during the first 30 days, you are fully focused on narrowing content gaps and learning the ropes as fast as possible. Adopt a learning mindset. Be open, be humble, be curious, and ask questions.

BRING FORWARD A CLEAR VISION

Following on from what I mentioned regarding leading versus managing, the leader in the first 100 days has to bring forward a clear vision. Even if a vision has already been set by the predecessor, I always ask clients what is the point of having you in the job versus anybody else if you can’t add, build, refresh or reinvent the vision. So, what is your vision? To put it another way, when you leave the role, what do you want people to say is your legacy? It’s another way of starting with the end in mind – think about leaving the role, and what you want to have left behind. Then you can set out your vision.

HAVE NO FEAR (BE CONFIDENT)

I have noticed that everybody – regardless of seniority or experience – suffers a confidence dip in the first 30 days. This is natural, and I legitimise this feeling with clients. After all, they have never done this role before, so of course they would feel nervous. Confidence is very important, because you need to be able to make good decisions and not panic in the ‘overwhelmingness’ of the first 100 days. Fear is the great enemy of confidence. Fear paralyses performance. But please remember that fear is only imagining something that has not happened. Our thoughts create reality, so cancel all fear thoughts from your mind and replace them with confident thoughts. Choose to imagine a positive outcome instead of a negative one.

BE PATIENT WITH YOURSELF AND OTHERS

A leader in a new role is psyched up to perform and make changes as fast as possible, given their new authority and mandate. Unfortunately, resistance to change appears to be the status quo of even the best people and organisations. Be realistic that while you are in change mode your team and those around you may be suffering change fatigue and may be resistant to your ideas. Accept that resistance to change is the more likely situation to expect and devise strategies for overcoming these resistances. Try not to get frustrated by the slow pace of others. Accept that it is the human condition to resist change and at the same time do what you can to overcome it. Be patient and keep making progress.

DON’T BE AFRAID OF YOUR MISTAKES

We all make mistakes. That is never going to change. So reframe how you think about them. Regard mistakes as a rich source of learning which contribute to the sum of your total experience and wisdom. The important thing about mistakes is how you handle them – very often a mistake can be an opportunity to build a deeper relationship with others as you work together to find solutions. In the early stages, people may be very forgiving of early mistakes. In any case, you have to move forward with courage and without perfect information so it is inevitable that mistakes will be made – so just accept it, grow a thicker skin and don’t worry about it.

USE YOUR NEWNESS TO SPOT FRESH OPPORTUNITIES

One way to deliver early value to your boss and company is just by using your newness to spot fresh opportunities. Be alert to what you notice on arrival – what surprises you as good and not so good about the company strategy, the revenue generation or cost reduction opportunities, the culture, processes, values and behaviours. This could be a very valuable insight into changes you can make within your role or more widely as a leader of the firm. The first 100 days is a unique opportunity to notice and to have permission to point out any broken processes, cultural issues, value gaps, revenue generation opportunities, and of course, sharing ideas from your previous company or division.

Be careful how you go about doing this as you don’t want to come across as overly negative. Be constructive rather than critical. You have a shot at making a bigger impact if you write your observations up in a report rather than verbal criticism that may be unfairly perceived as negative attacks from the new guy. If you write your key observations down, and share them thoughtfully with your boss, then it can open up the discussion more constructively as to what can or cannot be changed.

Be careful not to state the obvious as if it is your unique insight. It is highly likely that some of what you notice is already well known. Trying to be too clever will backfire on you if everybody already knows what you are noticing. Some stuff in organisations always remains broken, but there may actually be a good reason – it is too difficult or expensive to fix. Bring ideas and suggestions forward as well. Otherwise people might just be irked by your ‘annoying new guy’ comments.

IT IS ALL ABOUT PEOPLE AND HOW THEY RELATE TO EACH OTHER

Whilst we emphasise the importance of having a first 100 days plan, we don’t underestimate the importance of your emotional intelligence (EQ) skills in being able to bring the plan to life with your team and others. EQ refers to emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy and social skills.

Your EQ will be as important as your IQ (intelligence quotient/actual intellect). Being emotionally intelligent will be a very important aspect of the ‘how’ on your first 100 days plan. You will need to figure out how to motivate and engage your team to deliver on the plan. To do this, you need to be aware of how you are coming across in your message and how the team is responding to your approach and plans.

The analytical mindset of the executive – and the very act of creating a plan – could create an unhelpful illusion that an organisation and team can be controlled and managed as a set of systems, processes and organisation charts. First 100 days plans, whilst necessary to attempt to gain control in the first 100 days, play into this illusion – but, in reality, organisations are highly interpersonal places. In the end, it is all about people and how they relate to each other.

FIND YOUR PEER COMMUNITY – AND BUILD UP YOUR SUPPORT SYSTEM

Seek out people who have joined at your peer level in the past 12 months. They can be a unique source of ongoing support and help for you because they understand what you are going through. Listen to their experience, advice and top tips for the transition. Take the opportunity to ask your peers any silly questions that you feel too shy to ask anyone else. If not already set up, you could even go one step further to suggest to your boss or HR that your company CEO hosts an annual dinner for all new leaders who joined within the previous 12 months as a way to connect socially with other joiners, and as an opportunity to meet the CEO.

Consider other ways to find mentors and build up your support system. Perhaps your company runs a ‘buddy’ system whereby they pair you up with someone who has been working in the company for a long time, who can offer you insight into the culture and how best to navigate it. If not formally set up, you could request your own version of a mentor or buddy scheme from your boss or HR – or simply identify your own preferred mentor and ask them direct if they would be open to a monthly call or meeting during your first 100 days.