The First 90 Days - Part 2

The First 90 Days - Part 2

Promote yourself

We’re not talking about hiring your own PR specialist. We’re talking about giving yourself permission to leave your old job behind to focus on the new challenges ahead. A key mistake many new leaders make is to hold on to the past and micromanage the areas they are most familiar with.

You get just 90 days to make an impact. Don’t waste precious time getting caught up in the past. Key tips for avoiding this trap include:

Establish a clear breakpoint
The transition from one role to another can often be a blur and there’s nearly always a scramble to finish up your old job at the same time as starting the new one. Pick a specific time, maybe a weekend, and use it to imagine the process of being promoted and consciously let go of the old job and embrace the new.

Hit the ground running
Your transition begins the moment you learn you are being considered for a new job. People around you will expect to see you making impact and getting results in less than three months. So start planning what you hope to accomplish by specific milestones. Begin with your first day, then your first week and so on through the first 90 days.

Assess your vulnerabilities
We all have a tendency to work one level below where we are. You need to be where you are, not where you were. One key tip is to assess your problem preferences – the kind of problems toward which you naturally gravitate, and probably like the best. Your vulnerable points will be those problems you shy away from.

Watch out for your strengths
The qualities that made you successful in the past can be potential pitfalls in your new role. For example, if you always prided yourself on your attention to detail, in your new senior role, this could lead to a tendency to micromanage.

Relearn how to learn
It may have been some time since you faced such a steep learning curve. Having to learn again can evoke long-buried feelings of incompetence and vulnerability. But you have a choice. You can either decide to learn and take on board all the setbacks that go with it, or you can become brittle and fail in the new role. Relearning can be painful, but should be embraced in order to move forward.

Rework your network
Promoting yourself calls for a restructure for your advice-and-counsel network. Personal advisers help you keep perspective and equilibrium in times of stress. This may take you away from familiar faces and friends, and outside your comfort zone. But make sure you have the right people around you.

Watch out for people who want to hold you back
Some people will not want you to succeed. Your old boss may not want to let you go for example. So you have to negotiate clear expectations as soon as you know when you will be making that transition. This means being specific about what issues or projects will be dealt with and to what extent and, critically, what is not going to be done. Jealousy can sometimes be an issue too, and people will be watching and judging. Getting those around you to accept your new position is all part of promoting yourself.

Help is available

Acorn offers a ‘First 90 Days’ leadership coaching model that can help those taking on new challenges step up to the mark and build a credible foundation that will secure their success.

The ‘First 90 Days’ model is based around a programme of 1:1 coaching that helps leaders take action and create a plan that will ensure successes. The programme also helps delegates consider broader implications in their new role including; company politics, ‘selling’ back successes, and getting the best from you new team.

  • Click here to find out more about how Acorn Coaching can help.

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    Click here to read The First 90 Days - Part One