The first 90 Days (a Book Review) on Leadership principles - to help get you off to a “roaring” start or thru a Transition.

Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders – Founders, Managers & Supervisors

Topics: What the best Leaders know. Survival Guide, What’s In It for You, Key Features, Core Challenges, Do’s & Don’t’s.

One of the most important books I’ve ever read on Leadership Principles – to be the best leader you can be is “The First 90 Days”, by Michael Watkins.

What the best Leaders know.

The First 90 Days was the extreme opposite of any high-level Leadership Principles book I had ever read. Instead of high-level advice that doesn’t always translate to practice, it is a book with extreme knowledge & depth – where the rubber actually meets the road. It’s full of strategies & tactics for successful leadership.

The Leader \ Warrior’s Ultimate Survival Guide.

The First 90 Days is one of those rare books where I can keep learning from it. It continuously unfolds puzzles into clarity and consciousness about how the leadership system around you works, what’s important, why people do what they do, & how you can take your game to the next level. From the book, I learned how to secure early wins, align goals up & down, anticipate surprises, build coalitions, stay balanced, & avoid vicious downward spirals. I’ve also learned to have the right conversations with my Leaders, Investors, Advisors & Mentors to spot early warnings of straying to set myself up for success. The advantage of the book is that it’s more than a 90-day Survival Guide during the most risky of times — transitions. It’s actually a highly effective Leadership Principles handbook that helps you be a better leader for yourself and others.

What’s In It for You.

Here is a sampling of some of the challenges that “The First 90 Days” helps you with. How to:

adopt personal success strategies
align priorities, goals, & incentives
avoid predictable surprises – fire-fighting
build a coalition to support your ideas
build an advice and counsel network
build a productive relationship with your Team & superiors
build your skills on the job and grow the skills of others
create virtuous cycles that build momentum, secure early wins
frame compelling arguments
keep your balance identify supporters, opponents, & convincible
improve core processes
make team decisions more effectively with “sufficient consensus.”
set aside time for the reflection & fun
work with multiple superiors

Key Features

Author Michael Watkins provides several compelling features with his book:

Acceleration Checklists. Each chapter provides a simple checklist to help you put what you learned into practice and test your success.
Insights & Actions. The book is very actionable, insightful, & reflects deep skills, experience, & wisdom in the leadership space.
Mental Models & Figures. The book has a rich collection of simple visuals that help you “see” important concepts, models, & ideas. This is especially helpful if you are a visual learner and need to see what things look like.
Templates. The book includes useful templates, such as a Learning Plan Template that help you create more effective plans and organize your thinking in more effective ways.

Core Challenges

My favorite thing about “The First 90 Days” is that it provides a framework for getting and staying on track. According to Author, the core challenges that need your focus are:

Promote yourself, when needed
Accelerate your learning
Match your strategy to the situation
Secure easy, early wins to build momentum
Focus on your Priorities to achieve alignment with your Vision

“Be one of the Stars with a STARS model: Start-up, Turn-around, Achieve goals, Re-align, or Sustain a business’s success”.

How to build a Productive Relationship with a new Superior, Partner, Associate or Team member.

Author knows the importance of having a productive relationship and provides clear guidance in these Do’s & Don’ts. Here are examples:

Don’ts:

Don’t trash the past.
Don’t stay away, avoid
Don’t surprise your Superiors, unless (+)
Don’t approach your Superiors only with Problems. Have a proposed Solution

Do’s:

Take total responsibility for making the relationship work – with all contacts
Clarify mutual expectations early, monitor & measure, then propose modification to get back on course.
Negotiate Timelines for diagnosing a problem, then taking action.
Aim for early wins in areas important to the you & superiors – to build confidence.

Comments: Is there anything else you gained by reading the Book?

from Sources of Insight.com 4/17 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4.biz

For more info, click on Leadership Principles, Founders.