The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels

The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels | Michael Watkins | The First 90 Days

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The First 90 Days:...

	The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels Michael Watkins Harvard Business School Press, 2003 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 76 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

If you're not thinking about this material, you should be.

Like all management books there is fluff that detractors can point to. I bought this before assuming a new job and in a new company. I felt that it helped, and I spent less than twenty bucks. Now, that's a deal.

The First 90 Days

I love "How to" books and this one should be a required part of every onboarding program for professionals and managers. It really lays out a road map for early success on a new job. A great ongoing resource for you or your organization.

A student study

As a keen student of new manager behaviour always on the lookout for new ideas, I picked up "The First 90 Days" with great anticipation. Michael Watkins sets out to provide new managers (he calls them "leaders") with a 90 day plan for taking over in a new role. There's lots to recommend this book. There's also lots to question.

In "The First 90 Days", the author stresses the importance of building momentum during the critical transition phase from new manager to successful manager. A 90 day acceleration plan is suggested that includes 10 transition challenges ranging from "promote yourself" through "score early wins", to "expedite everyone". One needs to look further than the title of these challenges as they are often more than what they seem. For example, "promote yourself" has more to do with changing your perspective to fit the new role rather than self-promotion.

I particularly liked some of the practical tips included in this book, such as the "Problem Preferences Assessment" which enables the new manager to quickly select the most appropriate and rewarding problem areas to address. Also a suggestion to write yourself a letter as if you had been in the role for three years describing what others said about your success in the role, is a nice way to set a broad vision for the new manager. Chapter 5 "Negotiate Success", which is all about managing your boss through the 90 day plan, is worth the price of this book alone.

I have three areas of criticism. Firstly, whilst the book has a fantastic array of suggestions, strategies, tips etc, I feel it would take more than 90 days to implement them all, let alone do the work that is required in the role. As such, it would make a great text for students of management, but could overwhelm the new manager looking for some quick or directed advice.

Secondly, although the author stresses otherwise, the book seems more suited to upper level roles than first line supervisors. For example, Chapter 6 "Achieve Alignment", looks at quite a sophisticated process of crafting strategy, assessing coherence, assessing adequacy and modifying strategy.

Finally, I'd like to see more positive case studies to illustrate rather than the "what went wrong" scenarios provided in a number of chapters. Although in real life, we often learn more from our mistakes, in a teaching role (such as this book) it is far more effective for the reader if he or she can see what works and implement this, rather than what doesn't.

I would recommend this book as an excellent text for management students and a resource for management teachers/educators. If you're a reading "The First 90 Days", then go straight to the practical "How to" areas, otherwise your 90 days will be up before you finish reading. (New managers might like to check out What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers OR 50 DOs for Everyday Leadership: Practical Lessons Learned the Hard Way (So You Don't Have To)

Bob Selden, author of What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers

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food for thought, but not a panacea

This book is in a long tradition of 'expanded' magazine articles. There's more than enough content for an outstanding journal article, but when the concept is turned into a book, it's a bit thin. A least this example of the genre hasn't been hopelessly padded, so it gets one star for having some good ideas, a star for not wasting its readers' time (presumably more valuable in this context than the few dollars they spend on the book), a half star for not pretending to be more than it is (i.e., no claim to being the 30 second solution to all the problems any executive has ever had or will have) and a half star for being a fair value proposition.
Incidentally, I gave a copy of this book to my son (he's a couple of years out of college and had just received his first promotion at a General Electric subsidiary) and his reaction was that its really intended for managers a few years further into their careers. I think he's right.

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Read first chapter eagerly, than lost interest