9 Things To Do In The First 100 Days
Posted on November 5th, 2007 by Ivan
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Last week , in Why the First 100 Days Could Make or Break Leaders, I mentioned the importance of “the First 100 Days” of a leader in a new position. In today’s post I’ll map out one possible course of action that someone might take in those first 100 days, to make the most out of them. The list was thought of in a step-by-step approach, but each item can be seen as a separate idea.
- Ask for suggestions from present employees on what are the things that must be done. This doesn’t mean you’re going to do whatever they tell you, but it will be useful information to know what are the perceived top priorities.
- Meet with your executives, 1 or 2 per day depending on the size of your organization. Get to know who you’ll be working with.
- Prepare a report where you gather and analyze the information that has been gathered.
- Take your people on a get-away to collaborate on the design of a new strategy, based on the information that has been gathered. Come away with new goals and a new strategy to achieve them.
- Focus on communicating the new strategy to your organization.
- Ask employees if they’re willing to work and collaborate with you in reaching new goals and following a new strategy. You need only the most willing people.
- Re-assign or fire those who aren’t compatible with your vision.
- Hire those who need to be hired. Use this opportunity, if given, to fill in the gaps. Do you lack sales and marketing skills? Then hire people who excel at sales and marketing.
- Take the first step in your new strategy. You were brought here for a reason, so get to work on what you have achieved in these 100 days. You have just begun.
Whatever you do in your first 100 days, my suggestion to you is to focus on gathering information and developing a plan to synthesize and utilize that information. Whichever method you choose, that should be the most important goal.
November 6th, 2007 at 10:34 am
This is all good. I would add one more idea - which might be implied - but communicate your process and progress every week. Don’t wait until the 100th day to give your report. Give status reports along the way. Tricky but essential. 100 days is a very long time for employees who crave clarity. Thanks for writing this.
November 6th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
That is a very good point! It’s a great way to give comfort to the employees and to be more transparent. Thanks for the comment.
January 21st, 2008 at 1:18 pm
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January 27th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
“Whatever you do in your first 100 days, my suggestion to you is to focus on gathering information and developing a plan to synthesize and utilize that information.”
Ivan,
This is a good and obvious first step. But what about implementation? Making things happen – a bias to action is critical for success. Our thinking is biased but teaching your team about the newly evolving field of project management is absolutely critical. So send all your people to PM boot camp. Especially your senior and mid-level management team. You would also do well too bring in some enterprise level software that is integrated with the training process. There are many out there but we favor Vertabase for its fit to multidisciplinary groups. See – http://www.vertabase.com.