The First 90 Days as a New Leader

So, you have just made the big shift… and moved into the leadership seat. What now?

This is a question that we hear a lot: What are the most important things a new leader should attend to when stepping into a top spot? From years of working with new leaders in an organization, this is the guidance we share based on our experience.

Key Takeaways:

• Step into your new leadership role by first observing and learning about the organization's mission, values, and how success is defined.
• Seek guidance from mentors and coaches to support your growth and help identify your leadership style and areas for improvement.
• Engage employees through focus groups and pulse surveys to gather insights, build trust, and address concerns early on.
• Analyze team skills and update job descriptions to align talent and identify training needs for future success.
• Define and intentionally shape the organizational culture you want to lead by modeling desired behaviors and clearly articulating expectations.
• Develop trust within your team by communicating transparently, being authentic, and consistently setting clear expectations as a leader.

Phase One: Observe and Learn

Take the time to learn about the organization's mission, vision, and values. As a leader, your understanding of the organization will impact and determine how you make decisions and drive positive change. Observe:

• How the organization defines success and looks at performance.
• How decisions are made.
• What leadership challenges previous executives have faced.

Absorb as much information as possible by asking questions and engaging with key people to gain a deep understanding quickly.

Identify Mentors and Coaches

Identify your mentors, both inside and outside of the organization. Mentors are willing to share their knowledge, resources, and experiences. A good mentor has the ability to clearly describe what they have done and can give advice and guidance over a long period of time. An effective mentor will be patient, thoughtful, an excellent listener, and a great teacher.

An executive coach can assist an individual as they transition into a new leadership role. A coach will help you to identify your leadership style and provide a formalized action plan over a short period of time that will identify areas for growth while highlighting strengths. The goals of coaching can be to improve self-awareness, enhance communication, build team dynamics, develop leadership, or improve employee engagement and productivity.

In addition to more esoteric executive coaching focused on personal development, Compensation Resources sets itself apart by offering practical, hands-on training for leaders. We can sit down with you to review your organizational chart, dive into reporting structures, and help you make meaningful improvements to your leadership approach. This outcome-driven operational support is just as essential for new leaders as the introspective guidance that is foundational to executive coaching.

Hold Focus Groups and Pulse Surveys

Hold focus groups to include the opinions and feedback of staff outside of leadership. If held effectively, focus groups provide a great opportunity to observe and learn more about the organization. These groups will provide additional insight and a new perspective on the organization.

The following steps should be taken to set up a successful employee focus group:

• Develop an outline, explaining the purpose, topics, and specific questions to be discussed during the focus group.
• Select the team facilitator, often a representative from human resources, who can remain neutral.
• Select and invite employee participants, taking a representative sample across departments, functions, locations, tenure, or other factors.
• Conduct the meeting.
• Analyze and report the findings.

Pulse surveys can also be used to quickly gauge opinions, while including a larger audience than a focus group. The survey should focus on a few direct questions and can help to build trust and boost employee engagement, all while bringing possible issues to the surface.

Perform Skills Analyses

Reviewing and updating the job descriptions of your team will help you understand the duties, responsibilities, and skills needed for each role. Thereafter, conduct a skill analysis for staff positions to gain an up-to-date understanding of competencies, skills, and knowledge in one or more areas.

Good leaders will know how to best use the talent of their staff and identify where any gaps may exist. It is smart to get ahead and start thinking about where you will need to implement any training plans to fill in these gaps.

A skills analysis will improve productivity, optimize workforce potential, and align talent with business goals, safeguarding long-term success.

Phase Two: Define and Build Culture

After getting a better feel for the organization, clearly define and articulate the organizational culture that you want to lead and nurture. This is a key step as most cultures evolve by default rather than by design. Begin by thinking about the reputation that you want the organization to have by asking yourself the following:

• Why should people want to work here?
• What makes it special, engaging, or inspiring?
• How do you want people to treat each other?
• What kind of environment do you want to work in every day?

Take the time to write this down and then think about the key behaviors that you, as a leader, will need to demonstrate to model the culture. What will you need to do to make sure that this is the type of culture that develops? These are not easy questions, but remember: with or without effort, a culture will emerge.

Phase Three: Map Out Your Leadership Plan

Clearly define the type of leader you want to be by describing the reputation you would like to build. What do you want your employees, your senior team leaders, and your customers/clients to say about you? When someone describes you as a leader, what are the key words that you would like them to use: fair, driven, honest, inspiring, intuitive, innovative, compassionate, brilliant, energetic, decisive, etc.? There are no right answers, per se. However, your reputation will evolve… will it be the one that you want?

Any new leader must earn the respect and trust of their team. Trust enables team members to follow your lead, share critical information, and actively contribute to building a strong organization. Developing trust takes time and goes beyond keeping promises; it is shaped by how leaders treat people, communicate openly, and set clear, consistent expectations. Effective leaders intentionally foster an environment of trust through:

• Transparency: Provide regular, constructive feedback. Clearly communicate the team’s vision and expectations of team members, while encouraging open, two-way communication.
• Authenticity: Understand your leadership style and how others experience it. Demonstrating self-awareness and your vulnerabilities helps leaders appear approachable and less arrogant.
• Reliability: Consistently follow through on commitments, ground decisions in sound evidence, and demonstrate integrity and fairness in interactions with team members.

When good leaders build trust, they create a positive and collaborative environment where employees feel inspired to contribute their best work.

Phase Four: Develop the Strategic Plan

After observing and learning, defining and building the culture, and mapping out your leadership plan, it is now time to develop the strategic plan. The strategic plan will set a clear direction for the organization, with specific goals, and should support the culture that you took the time to build. A well-defined plan will align team members and foster collaboration and engagement within the organization. foster collaboration and engagement within the organization.

Setting the Foundation for Success

The first 90 days are crucial in setting the tone for success. Work to articulate the important parts of leadership that are rarely discussed but always emerge… culture, reputation, and trust (or lack thereof). If you can build a clear vision of what you want to achieve, you will be well ahead of your peers and on track to long-term success.