.png)
How do you Succeed During the First 90 Days in a New Role?
If you are starting the new year in a new role, you will be thinking about how to approach integrating into a new team and business.
Although starting a new executive role can be exciting, it also comes with significant responsibility. Your first 90 days are critical. Here are 8 tips that will ensure you make an impactful start and set yourself up for success:
1. Understand the Dynamics
Making significant business-wide changes right at the beginning of your role can lead to disruption. Your first step should be to engage with each department and understand organisational processes and culture.
Consider:
Meeting with Key Stakeholders: Schedule face-to-face time with your team, peers, and leaders. Take time to understand their expectations, challenges, and unique perspectives.
Analysing Company Culture: Does communication flow? Observe how decisions are made and how the company celebrates success.
Reviewing Financials and KPIs: Data can be useful in determining the status quo. Gain an understanding of revenue, costs, cash flow and KPIs already set in place.
Gathering this knowledge will help you build a picture of where the business is in the present and enable you to start mapping areas where small positive changes can lead to improvements.
2. Clarify Expectations
If your expectations are not aligned with your manager and the board, this can lead to frustration, diluted resources, and missed opportunities. In the first 90 days of your role, aim to:
Set Clear Objectives: Set short-term, medium-term and long-term goals with your stakeholders to ensure you are working towards the same mission and success.
Define Priorities: What tasks need to be addressed now? What could make a positive impact? Decide which initiatives require immediate attention and which can be addressed later.
Draft a Communication Plan: Decide how often will you meet with your manager and board and what will be the agenda/outcome of your meetings.
Creating a clear communication plan and clarifying expectations will ensure that leaders in the business are aligned when it comes to goals.
3. Build Strong Relationships
The way you engage with your team and the wider business will shape your leadership style and the way you are perceived beyond the first 90 days in your role.
Aim to develop and nurture meaningful relationships by:
Engaging with your Team: Meet team members individually to understand their roles, personal goals and concerns. This will help you identify opportunities where you can provide support or help develop your team.
Collaborate with the Leadership Team: Take the time to get to know other executives in the business and understand where your team could support theirs to build a cohesive leadership team.
Listen First: Actively listen and show curiosity and empathy to ensure others feel valued and heard.
Building strong relationships will better enable you to drive change and align the business to a cohesive goal in the long term.
4. Assess Your Team
As an executive leader, your success will be linked to the success and capability of your team. Use your first 90 days to assess whether you have the right people in the right roles and completing the right tasks:
Complete a Skills Audit: Sit with each member of your team and assess their strengths, weaknesses and software competencies.
Identify Key Players: Identify the members of your team who have the ambition to drive change and process improvement.
Address Underperformance: Although a tough process, identify if there is any underperformance and take steps to rectify it. Can you offer support or do you need to implement a development plan?
A high-performing team will help you and the business achieve success by utilising individual skill sets and steering everyone toward the same goal.
5. Deliver Early Wins
Delivering small successes early can boost your credibility, motivate your team and gain their trust. Look for opportunities to achieve impactful quick wins without implementing large-scale change:
Focus on High-Impact Areas: Identify where you can make small improvements that can be implemented quickly and visibly.
Include your Team: By engaging your team in making non-invasive and quick changes, you create a sense of collaboration and ownership.
Communicate Success: Update the team and wider business on the progress you have made and celebrate your and your team's achievements to inspire motivation.
Securing early wins without overstepping too early, creates a positive approach that will lead to further, more comprehensive change.
6. Develop a Strategic Vision
While early action and development in your first 90 days are vital for establishing yourself, you want to ensure you set yourself up for long-term success by executing a compelling vision:
Align your Goals with the Business: While aligning your team's goal to yours, ensure that your vision supports the overall objectives of the business.
Utilise Feedback: Use insights and feedback from employee surveys to inform your strategy and ensure everybody's voice is heard.
Communicate Clearly: Articulate your vision in an engaging and inspirational way.
A clear and thoughtfully communicated strategy that has consulted the wider team, provides direction and unites the business.
7. Balance your Approach to Confidence
Executive leaders are expected to handle difficult decisions, make bold changes and provide direction. However, being overconfident or too confident too early can alienate others. You should:
Acknowledge What You Don’t Know: Nobody can be an expert on everything. Being transparent about where you need more information or guidance can help you seem more approachable, and also empower your team.
Seek Differing Perspectives: Where appropriate, involve others in decision-making to ensure a rounded approach that considers multiple opinions and outcomes.
Adapt: Demonstrate willingness to adapt your approach to what already exists, but slowly adjust based on insights and changing circumstances in those first 90 days.
Aim to demonstrate confidence and credibility, but avoid overstepping and implementing change too early.
8. Prioritise Self-Care
Stepping into a new executive role can be overwhelming and your well-being might become less of a priority. To ensure sustained success:
Manage Your Energy Reserves: Balance high-intensity work with less demanding tasks, as well as regular breaks during the work day.
Set Boundaries: Schedule time for activities that help you reset and relax.
Seek Support: Build a network of mentors or coaches who can provide guidance and encouragement. Sometimes engaging an external influence on your work can provide direction.
Taking care of your well-being ensures you can perform at your best and lead by example.
Conclusion
The first 90 days in a new senior leadership role are a pivotal period for establishing credibility, building relationships, and setting the foundation for long-term success. By focusing on understanding the organisation, aligning expectations, developing strong relationships, and delivering early wins, senior leaders can position themselves—and their teams—for sustained achievement.
Remember, success in leadership is a journey, not a sprint. Approach your role with curiosity and a commitment to continuous improvement, to set yourself up for lasting impact.