Transitions are a critical time for leaders. In fact, most agree that moving into a new role is the biggest challenge a manager will face. While transitions offer a chance to start fresh and make needed changes in an organization, they also place leaders in a position of acute vulnerability. Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize or even derail your success.
In this updated and expanded version of the international bestseller The First 90 Days, Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for conquering the challenges of transitions—no matter where you are in your career. Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions and adviser to senior leaders in all types of organizations, also addresses today’s increasingly demanding professional landscape, where managers face not only more frequent transitions but also steeper expectations once they step into their new jobs.
By walking you through every aspect of the transition scenario, Watkins identifies the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter and provides the tools and strategies you need to avoid them. You’ll learn how to secure critical early wins, an important first step in establishing yourself in your new role. Each chapter also includes checklists, practical tools, and self-assessments to help you assimilate key lessons and apply them to your own situation.
Whether you’re starting a new job, being promoted from within, embarking on an overseas assignment, or being tapped as CEO, how you manage your transition will determine whether you succeed or fail. Use this book as your trusted guide.
Author
Michael Watkins coaches C-level executives of global organizations and is founder of Genesis Advisers (www.genesisadvisers.com), a global leadership development consultancy specializing in transition acceleration for leaders, teams and organizations. He is also Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at the IMD Business School where he teaches a popular Virtual First 90 Days Open Program for leaders in transition (www.imd.org/f90d). He has spent the last two decades working with executives - both corporate and public - to help them craft their legacies as leaders and is ranked among the leading management thinkers globally by Thinkers50 (2019).
Watkins is author of the international bestseller The First 90 Days Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, aptly dubbed "The Onboarding Bible" by The Economist. With over a million copies sold in English and translations in 24 languages, The First 90 Days is the classic reference for leaders in transition and a standard learning and development resource for executive onboarding. Amazon named it one of its top 100 business books of all time.
Prior to joining IMD, Watkins was a member of faculty at INSEAD, Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he designed and taught world-class programs for high-potential leader development, corporate diplomacy, and strategic negotiation.