Your New Leader 100-Day Action Plan

There are seven major onboarding land mines that you are likely to come across as a new leader and there are specific points in the first 100 days where you are most likely to encounter them, explain authors:

George Brant
Jayme A. Check
Jorge Pedraza

...in their third edition of, The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan.

Ill-prepared, without a plan, and lacking proper onboarding, the land mines will get you. And, if you miss one or more of the critical tasks that must be accomplished in your first 100 days, you'll likely fail.

The book is packed with:

Examples and case studies
Action plans
Tools, techniques and tricks of the trade

The authors also explain why you need to start even before your official first day on the job. For example:

Cultural engagement is extremely important in a successful transition; and it is essential that you know what your cultural engagement plan will be before walking in the door for Day One.
A new leader's role begins as soon as you are an acknowledged candidate for the job. Everything you do and say and don't do and don't say will send powerful signals, starting well before you even walk in the door on Day One.

By Day 30 share with your team:

Mission -- Why here, why exist, what business are we in?
Vision -- Future picture - what we want to become; where we are going.
Values -- Believes and moral principles that guide attitudes, decisions, and actions.
Objectives -- Broadly defined, qualitative performance requirements.
Goals -- The quantitative measures of the objectives that define success.
Strategies -- Broad choices around how the team will achieve its objectives.
Plans -- The most important projects and initiatives that will bring each strategy to fruition.

By Day 60:

Overinvest in early wins to build team confidence.

This must-read book for anyone in a new leadership role also includes:

A new approach called BRAVE on how to engage hearts and minds in the intended culture.
A 100-Hour Action Plan for crisis situations.

Comments

Effective Listening: Do's And Don'ts

Here are some great tips from Michelle Tillis Lederman's book, The 11 Laws of Likability . They are all about: what to do and what not to do to be a leader who's an effective listener : Do : Maintain eye contact Limit your talking Focus on the speaker Ask questions Manage your emotions Listen with your eyes and ears Listen for ideas and opportunities Remain open to the conversation Confirm understanding, paraphrase Give nonverbal messages that you are listening (nod, smile) Ignore distractions Don't : Interrupt Show signs of impatience Judge or argue mentally Multitask during a conversation Project your ideas Think about what to say next Have expectations or preconceived ideas Become defensive or assume you are being attacked Use condescending, aggressive, or closed body language Listen with biases or closed to new ideas Jump to conclusions or finish someone's sentences

The Four Components That Create Customer Satisfaction

Great customer service tips from author Micah Solomon's new book, High-tech, High-touch Customer Service : You provide value when you deliver the four components that reliably create customer satisfaction : A perfect product or service Delivered in a caring, friendly manner On time (as defined by the customer) With the backing of an effective problem-resolution process Micah has been named by the Financial Post as “a new guru of customer service excellence.” He is a keynote speaker and consultant on customer service issues, the customer experience, and company culture. He previously coauthored the bestselling Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit .

How To Lead An Empowered Workforce

The new book, The Empathy Advantage , speaks to anyone with responsibility for recruiting, engaging, leading and retaining the next generation of workers – a workforce shaped by the pandemic that fundamentally transformed the relationship between individuals and organizations. Not surprising, managers at every level are struggling to adapt to this new dynamic, balancing both employee satisfaction and corporate productivity. Quiet Quitting, Great Resignation, and Great Reset have all become code words to describe the trendlines that have been building for years. Accelerated change driven by exponentially advancing technologies have made steep learning curves part of every day work. Fortunately, book authors Heather C. McGowan and Chris Shipley , unpack the five interlocking trends that placed agency in the hands of workers: The Great Resignation The Great Refusal The Great Reshuffle The Great Retirement The Great Relocation …collectively delivering the Gr

Good Sample Business Principles

I really like these 10 guiding business principles that San Antonio, TX headquartered insurance company USAA lives by: Exceed customer expectations Live the Golden Rule (treat others with courtesy and respect) Be a leader Participate and contribute Pursue excellence Work as a team Share knowledge Keep it simple (make it easy for customers to do business with us and for us to work together) Listen and communicate Have fun Too many companies don't make it simple for their customers to do business with them. Is it easy for your customers to: Buy from you? Make returns? Get pricing and terms? Receive timely responses to their e-mails? Quickly get answers when phoning your company? You can find more examples of companies with impressive guiding principles in the book, 1001 Ways To Energize Employees .

6 Ways To Seek Feedback To Improve Your Performance In The Workplace

Getting feedback is an important way to improve performance at work. But sometimes, it can be hard to seek out, and even harder to hear. “Feedback is all around you. Your job is to find it, both through asking directly and observing it,” says David L. Van Rooy, author of the new book, Trajectory: 7 Career Strategies to Take You From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be . As today's guest post, Van Rooy offers these six tips for how to get the feedback you need to improve performance at work . Guest Post By David L. Van Rooy 1. Don’t forget to as k : One of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming things are going perfectly (until they make a catastrophic mistake). By not asking, you’re missing out on opportunities for deep feedback: the difficult, critical feedback that gives you constructive ways to improve. 2. Make sure you listen : Remember, getting feedback is about improving your performance, not turning it into a “you versus the

The Seven Roles Of Being A Collaborative Leader

Edward M. Marshall 's book, Transforming The Way We Work -- The Power Of The Collaborative Workplace , remains relevant today, more than a decade after Marshall wrote it. Particularly useful is the book's section that teaches readers how to be a collaborative leader . Marshall says that there are seven different, important roles and responsibilities of collaborative leaders when leading teams , and those leaders should select the appropriate style to meet the team's needs. The seven roles are : The leader as sponsor -- You provide strategic direction, boundaries and coaching for the team. You also monitor progress and ensure integrity in the team's operating processes. The leader as facilitator -- You ensure that meetings, team dynamics, and interpersonal relationships function effectively. You also ensure internal coordination of activities among team members. The leader as coach -- You provide support and guidance and you serve as a sounding board. The leader as

Seven Ways To Delight Your Customers

If you want to delight your customers, then the book by Steve Curtin , Delight Your Customers -- 7 Simple Ways to Raise Your Customer Service from Ordinary to Extraordinary , is a must-read for you and your employees. The book explains the seven ways for you and your employees to demonstrate exceptional customer service : Express genuine interest Offer sincere and specific compliments Share unique knowledge Convey authentic enthusiasm Use appropriate humor Provide pleasant surprises Deliver service heroics "Exceptional customer service typically costs no more to deliver than poor customer service," explains Curtin. For example: How much does it cost to express genuine interest in customers or to anticipate their needs? Does it cost more to display a sense of urgency or to pay attention to detail? Do you pay your employees more to smile, to make eye contact, or to add energy to their voices? Curtin reminds readers that: Customers don't establish relationships with bus

When Leaders Should Coach And When To Counsel

A good manager is both a coach and a counselor . Generally, coaching should precede counseling. As a coach , a manager: identifies an employee's need for instruction and direction and this need is usually directly related to his or her performance or career goals. Coaching is collaborative. It relies on mutual, progressive goal-setting, personal feedback, and an ongoing, supportive relationship. You coach to help retain employees and to show you care about your employees as individuals. It's best to coach when a new procedure is introduced, a job is changed, and/or a skill gap is identified. As a counselor , a manager first identifies a problem that interferes with an employee's work performance and then helps the employee to define specifically what behavior he or she needs to change in order to improve his or her performance or resolve a problem. So, the difference between coach and counselor is subtle, but important. And, as Sharon Armstrong further shares in her b

How Women In Corporate Leadership Are Rewriting The Rules For Success

“We are living through a moment in history when the old definitions of success and what it takes to lead are giving way to something that is altogether more collaborative and more inclusive,” says Jenna C. Fisher , author of the new book, To The Top: How Women In Corporate Leadership Are Rewriting The Rules For Success . “We are seeing a demand for leaders who cultivate a kind of compassionate command,” adds Fisher. In her book, Fisher outlines how collectively we can permanently build a more inclusive way of working into corporate culture to launch more women to the highest echelons of business. Her approach puts the onus on organizations, not on the individual, to change and keep women on a sustained path to success. In the United States, women account for 51% of the population and 70% of high school valedictorians. Yet, only 9% of the largest 100 companies in the S&P500 index are led by women, shares Fisher. Combining cutting-edge research with the stories of power

How Leaders Use Four Workarounds To Tackle Complex Problems

“Workarounds are effective, versatile, and accessible methods for tackling complex problems,” shares the author of the new book, The Four Workarounds . “They are a creative, flexible, imperfection-loving, problem-solving approach. A method that ignores or even challenges conventions on how, and by whom a problem is meant to be solved.” In Part 1 of this fascinating and instructional book, author and Oxford University professor, Paulo Savaget , explains what workarounds are and how to come up with them. And, then in Part 2, he digs into how to cultivate a workaround attitude and mindset, including how to reflect on the ways you typically see, judge, and approach obstacles. “I also show you how you can systematically conceive workarounds to your problems and how your workplace can become more workaround friendly,” adds Savaget. You’ll read intriguing and revealing stories of how some of the largest and scrappiest companies and organizations used one or more of the four workaround

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog