Whether you’re stepping up into senior leadership or taking on a Board position in a new company, the first 90 days of your tenure are crucial. As you get to know the business, your team, and your stakeholders, they’ll be familiarising themselves with you and forming their own conclusions. It’s not uncommon to feel under pressure. You’ll need to build on the skills and experience that got you here to start delivering.
For a smooth and successful first 90 days that establish your value as a leader, here are five steps you can take.
1) Don’t act: Listen
It may sound counter-intuitive when your intent is to make an impact but it’s vital not to sweep in and start taking action on day one.
You’re new to the business so now is the perfect time to listen and observe. In the first 4 to 6 weeks, you have the benefit of an “outsiders lens”, you can still see the wood from the trees which will give you a perspective that can support clearer decision making. You’re not likely to have an opportunity like this again before you find yourself becoming part of the way things are done. So, ask questions, interrogate processes, and listen actively.
Active listening not only helps you absorb important information, but it also send signals to the people you work with that you care about what they think and the issues affecting them. It shows that you aren’t coming in assuming you have all the answers and are here to fix things. A 'fix-it' attitude may seem helpful but it can create friction and, even when you observe problems you want to address, holding back from acting too fast will help you cultivate a more empathetic leadership persona.
So, if you see a problem, don’t be tempted to jump in. Make note and come back when you’ve built trust.
Listening more than you speak is also the cornerstone of building effective working relationships. This is priority number two.
2) Build relationships and understand the culture
To deliver more as a leader, you need to understand the people who make up your organisation.
The more you spend time with people in different roles at different levels, the more you’ll discover about the business. You’ll also begin to understand how different individuals and functions fit into the plans you’re beginning to form – and if those plans involve change, you’ll need to have built strong links.
The idea of a T-shaped manager is pretty familiar these days and we recommend a similar approach to building those first relationships: Get to know your peers across all functions, especially your fellow C-suite members, but don’t neglect the verticals. Spend proper time with at least one person from every level within your own function as a minimum. Ask them about their day-to-day work, about their challenges, about the areas they think are being overlooked. This is where you can uncover some real insight, particularly on operational issues and customer experience.
Establishing a few key relationships up and down the business can also enable you to empower people to work as your go-to delegate when the time comes. You’ll have a sense of who you can trust, who shares your way of thinking, and who can act as an effective bridge to others.
Make sure to get individual facetime with key stakeholders too. This is an expectation at the top level and one you can’t neglect.
As you do this work, you’ll also begin to get a proper feel for the company culture. No doubt brand values will have been sold in to you during the hiring process and maybe you’ll have seen a presentation or two as you onboarded but now’s your chance to see what that actually looks like in reality.
Does the company live up to the culture and values its promoting? How do you drive and promote that? As a new leader, you’ll need to find your place within the existing culture as a starting point. Hopefully, this will feel natural – the company culture was likely one of the reasons you committed to take on the job.
But if the reality doesn’t live up to the promise, if you can see signs of a toxic work culture, then remember step one – keep listening, don’t act too soon. Gather your intel and consider what you might do once you’ve established relationships.
3) Communicate your priorities and consider quick wins to build confidence
As you get closer to the 90-day milestone in your new leadership position, you will have developed a clear sense of your priorities. It’s important to communicate these to your team clearly, with strategic justification to gain buy-in.
To gain your team’s confidence in you as a leader, consider prioritising some quick wins before committing to projects that will take more time and investment. These may be simple changes that have become clear through the conversations you’ve had across the business – perhaps a process change that you already have experience of or implementing a clear channel of communication to you that engages employees with the bigger picture.
Having done this groundwork, you can begin to establish your expectations and highlight the short-term goals that will help you work towards the longer-term strategic vision you’ve agreed with the Board or SLT.
4) Invest in yourself as a leader
The Chartered Institute of Management found that 82% of managers in the UK had received no formal training before stepping into a management role. It’s likely you experienced this yourself as you took on your first more senior role but hopefully you had the support around you to rectify this with training and mentoring.
That work doesn’t stop as you continue to climb the ladder, even if you’re making a lateral move from a Board position in one PE-backed organisation to another growing SME. However, as someone with seniority, more of the onus is on you to recognise the need to do this work and seek outside counsel.
One of the best investments we recommend any leader make is to work with a qualified coach. Many business coaches have been in your position so they understand the pressures you face but, as they don’t work in your company, they can offer a new perspective. They can ask you tough questions and cast a critical eye over your thinking process without judgment. A coach is an effective sounding board, particularly in the early days of your leadership.
A coach can also help you refine your narrative. Through your conversations with them, you can develop your leadership persona and story and understand how to use this to sell-in your ideas.
If this doesn’t float your boat as an investment, join a peer group for that challenge and sound board.
5) Don’t treat every business the same
Step five is an important reminder for anyone joining a new business: Not every business is the same. The things that got you to where you now, the things that worked in other organisations, may not have the same impact in your new role. There is no one size fits all approach to scaling a business – that’s why the first four steps we’ve already discussed are so important.
This is especially true when becoming a leader in a growing SME. Even if you’re PE-backed, the security and fallbacks you might trust as part of a corporate entity aren’t there in the same way so missteps are more costly. You might be expected to get stuck in on some lifting and shifting to keep things moving forward, so you’ve got to be prepared for that. You’ve got to be adaptable and able to juggle.
Apply for your next SME leadership role
But if you can do these things, if you’re inspired by the challenge and the thrill of building something with great people, then let’s talk. At Olive Search we match impactful leaders with growing SMEs across the UK and we could help you find your next senior executive position too – get in touch today.