Niamh O’Keeffe is a leadership advisor, author and the founder of First100, established in 2004. She provides advice to senior leaders on key moments in the leadership role life cycle: how to get promoted, how to have a great first 100 days, how to stay the course and legacy projects.
Niamh has a track record of over 27 years in leadership advisory services including strategy consulting, executive search and leadership coaching. She is a transition expert, problem-solver, idea-generator and trusted advisor on leadership performance for senior leaders in global organisations. Niamh’s client list spans multiple industries and includes advising leaders of entrepreneurial ventures in London and New York, as well as senior executives at global corporations like Accenture, Microsoft and Oliver Wyman Group.
Niamh’s insights in this book are based on her many years of experience working as a leadership coach and companion on the journey of senior leaders and CEOs in the first 100 days of a critical new leadership appointment.
The first edition of this book was published in 2012. Since then, Niamh has published a further three books with FT Publishing International (Pearson imprint), including Lead your Team in your First 100 days (2013), Your Next Role: how to get ahead and get promoted (2016) and Stepping Up: how to accelerate your leadership potential (2017).
With a new world context in mind, and armed with further experience and insights from her client work, and the many reviews and feedback from readers on the original edition, Niamh is pleased to bring you this updated second edition.
Background to setting up the First100 leadership consultancy
Through her experience as a head-hunter placing senior executives in the City of London, Niamh realised that the first 100 days were the most crucial stage in the life cycle of a new leadership appointment. The first 100 days of a new role have a major determining factor on overall leadership performance and impact in the first 12 months and beyond. For example, this is the time when you have optimal licence to refresh the vision, improve the strategy, reform the team and set new goals.
empowering leaders to succeed in the first 100 days
Niamh’s observation was that failure to optimise the first 100 days was probably the biggest missed trick on leadership effectiveness and performance acceleration – a lost opportunity for the leader, resulting in losses for the inherited team and the organisation as a whole. Her prior background of eight years as a strategy and management consultant for Accenture meant Niamh was well equipped to convert this insight into a new niche ‘first 100 days’ leadership offering.
Niamh set up First100 in 2004, to create outcomes where everybody wins: a win for the newly appointed leader, as well as a win for their team, organisation and market. Specialist First100 coaches offer a unique combination of structured planning, performance acceleration insights and strong results orientation. Niamh wants to empower leaders to step up in the first 100 days, giving them the confidence and capability to overcome the challenges and succeed during a heightened stress period.
Niamh created a unique First100assist™ methodology. The approach is outcome-driven and highly structured. It takes into account your whole leadership eco-system: you as leader, your role, your organisation and the market. It has been revised and refined over years of experience of working with senior leaders in their first 100 days.