The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan

The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan

by George B. Bradt, Jayme A. Check, John A. Lawler
Released February 2016
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119223238

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Book description

Entering a new leadership role? Leading a reorganization or integrating teams?

Get better results faster by building and implementing your 100-Day Action Plan

Your first 100 days in a new leadership position are critical, as they set the foundation for your team's success going forward. The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan helps you start gaining traction even before your first day in a new job. The playbook gives you a concrete strategy for getting a fast start—engaging the culture, setting direction, aligning the team, avoiding common missteps, and delivering results. This new fourth edition has been updated with new graphics and downloadable tools, and expanded with new information learned from real-world clients over the past twelve years.

Many organizations, regardless of size, industry, or geography, realize that it is strategically imperative to effectively onboard leaders into new roles and combine teams during M&A and reorganization. New thinking for new teams provides ways to get quick results with key business initiatives, and new discussions on cultural fit and evolution to help you better contribute to your organization's success. Updated stories and case studies provide real-life glimpses at how successful leaders navigate tricky situations, and extensive online tools point you toward additional resources as the need arises.

40 percent of new leaders fail within the first eighteen months on the job. When a new leader drops the ball, it's at the expense of the team, the organization, and the leader's track record. Successful leaders start leading and delivering immediately. This book shows you how to start getting results right away and dramatically increase your chances for success—by systematically shaping your leadership with intent.

  • Take control from the start
  • Expect the surprises and avoid the mistakes
  • Manage your message and shape culture
  • Set direction and build an aligned leadership team
  • Fuel momentum and deliver results

Your new leadership role begins the moment you accept the offer, the deal is done, or the re-organization is announced. The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan gives you a concrete framework for successful leadership and a clear roadmap to the critical first 100 days.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Executive Summary
  6. Chapter 1: Position Yourself for Success: Get the Job. Make Sure It Is Right for You. Avoid Common Land Mines.
    1. Culture First
    2. Sell Before You Buy
    3. The Seven Deadly Land Mines
    4. Do Your Due Diligence Before You Accept the Job Offer
    5. Mitigate Risk Before You Accept a Job
    6. Position Yourself for Success: Summary and Implications
    7. Additional Articles and Tools on www.onboardingtools.com
  7. Chapter 2: Leverage the Fuzzy Front End: Jump-Start Relationships. Listen, Learn, and Plan Before Day One.
    1. Create Time, Take Action
    2. Choose the Right Day to Be Day One
    3. The Longer the Better
    4. 1. Determine Your Leadership Approach Given the Context and Culture You Face
    5. 2. Identify Key Stakeholders
    6. 3. Craft Your Entry Message Using Your Current Best Thinking
    7. 4. Jump-Start Key Relationships and Accelerate Your Learning Before Day One
    8. 5. Manage Your Personal and Office Setup
    9. 6. Plan Your Day One, Early Days, and First 100 Days
    10. Leverage the Fuzzy Front End: Summary and Implications
    11. Additional Articles and Tools on www.onboardingtools.com
  8. Chapter 3: Take Control of Day One: Make a Powerful First Impression. Confirm Your Entry Message.
    1. What Are You Going to Do on Day One?
    2. Make Careful Choices about Your Day One Plan
    3. Don't Reinvent the Wheel: Start with This Prototypical Agenda
    4. Leverage Your Agenda as a Symbol of What's Important
    5. Choose Location, Signs, and Symbols with Care: People Will Notice
    6. Don't Necessarily Go to Where Your Boss Is
    7. Leverage Your Message on Day One
    8. Be Present
    9. Be Mindful of the Unintended Consequences
    10. Dress to Fit In
    11. What Not to Do on Day One
    12. Take Control of Day One: Summary and Implications
  9. Chapter 4: Activate Ongoing Communication: Establish Leadership and Begin Cultural Transformation.
    1. Where to Start and What You Need to Know
    2. Use Your Communication to Drive Engagement
    3. Consider What Drives Happiness
    4. Maslow's Needs
    5. Communication Engagement Levels
    6. Become the Narrator-in-Chief
    7. Touch Points
    8. Monitor and Adjust
    9. Know Your Message. Live Your Message
    10. Repeat the Message
    11. Celebrate Early Wins
    12. Reinforce
    13. Activate Ongoing Communication: Summary and Implications
    14. Additional Articles and Tools on www.onboardingtools.com
  10. Chapter 5: Pivot to Strategy: Co-Create the Burning Imperative by Day 30.
    1. Creating the Burning Imperative
    2. Don't Hesitate to Burn Rubber on the Way to a Burning Imperative
    3. Burning Imperative Components
    4. Make It Happen
    5. Workshop Attendance and Timing
    6. Follow through Consistently
    7. Focus
    8. Pivot to Strategy: Summary and Implications
    9. Additional Articles and Tools on www.onboardingtools.com
  11. Chapter 6: Drive Operational Accountability: Embed Milestones by Day 45 and Early Wins by Day 60.
    1. Capture the Milestones
    2. Follow through—Or Don't Even Start
    3. Milestones Are Checkpoints along the Way to a Defined Goal
    4. Manage Milestone Updates with a Five-Step Process
    5. Use Milestone Management to Lead Postmerger Integration
    6. Use Milestone Management at the Board Level
    7. Early Wins
    8. Use Early Wins to Prove the Benefits in a Postmerger Integration
    9. Don't Wait Too Long to Build Momentum
    10. Focus on the Results with the Most Impact
    11. Champion the Champions
    12. Redefine Success
    13. Charter the Team for the Win
    14. Celebrate Early Wins and Significant Milestones along the Way
    15. Drive Operational Accountability: Summary and Implications
    16. Additional Articles and Tools on www.onboardingtools.com
  12. Chapter 7: Strengthen the Organization: Get the Right Team in Place by Day 70.
    1. The Structure and Roles Themselves Can Be the Cause of Problems
    2. A Framework for Planning
    3. When Things Aren't Working, Don't Wait…
    4. …And, When Things Are Working, Stick with the Plan
    5. Don't Let One Bad Apple Spoil the Batch
    6. Keep People in the Right Roles
    7. Cut the Pain Out Early (or, at Least, as Early as Practical)
    8. How Fast Should You Move on the Team?
    9. A Pivotal Leadership Moment
    10. Using Role Sort to Accelerate Change in Postmerger Integration
    11. Map Performance and Role
    12. Developing Future Capabilities
    13. Strong Performers and the Three Goods
    14. Strengthen the Organization: Summary and Implications
    15. Additional Articles and Tools on www.onboardingtools.com
  13. Chapter 8: Keep Building: Evolve Your Leadership, Practices, and Culture to Deliver Results.
    1. Evolve Your Leadership
    2. Evolve Your Practices
    3. Evolve Your Culture
    4. Think Differently
    5. Adjust to the Inevitable Surprises
    6. Keep Building: Summary and Implications
    7. Additional Articles and Tools on www.onboardingtools.com
  14. References and Further Reading
  15. About the Authors
  16. Index
  17. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan
  • Author(s): George B. Bradt, Jayme A. Check, John A. Lawler
  • Release date: February 2016
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119223238