The First 90 Days in a New Leadership Position
No idea what to prioritize in your first 90 days? I'm going to share the five things you need to focus on for succeeding in your new leadership role. Leaders are especially overwhelmed and even vulnerable in their first 90 days.
The most common four mistakes I see leaders make in new roles, be it in ministry and non-profits and corporations, are
believing a leader is someone who tells others what to do and think,
believing leaders must figure out the best next steps forward by themselves,
believing the tasks have to be their main priority, and
their personal achievement is the main goal if they want to be successful for the long term.
The consequence of approaching leadership this way is you might get to the finish line but you'll get there alone and you'll likely leave a really dramatic wake behind you. So how can you avoid this and set yourself up for success?
The truth is that leadership is all about people. So the real question is: what do you do in your first 90 days to set you and others up for success? Here are the 5 things to focus on in your first 90 days.
#1: Your Mindset
Going into your first 90 days you can be confident. Why? Because you already got the job! They hired you, they want you to be in this role, and so while it can feel like there's a pretty steep learning curve the first 90 days, and there is let's be real, you can also face your first 90 days confidently knowing that you already got the job! So you can confidently bring yourself to the table. You can be confident that you can contribute right now as you are! You can be confident that your voice matters right now as you are, not six months down the road when you have figured everything out, but today. Your voice already matters today, your contributions already matter today. You are wanted at the table right now so you can confidently show up in those first 90 days.
#2: Focus on Others.
The most common mistake that leaders make in a new role is to focus solely on themselves and what they need to learn in order to succeed. But the opposite is true and where you need to focus and prioritize for those first 90 days and that is getting to know and establishing relationships with the people that you work with. It might be a boss, it might be your new team, it might be people that you're going to collaborate with, it might be new clients or customers or congregation members. There are a lot of people that will contribute to the success of your team and you moving forward and the only way that you move forward together, the only way that success is going to be possible in the long term, is for you to have buy-in and genuine trust established with the people on your team, with the people that surround you, with the people that you collaborate with, with the people that you work with, with the people that you serve.
So your number one priority in those first 90 days is to focus on others, it's to get to know others, it's to establish genuine relationships with others, and to start developing relationships of genuine trust.
You cannot rely on your title, you cannot rely on your position, you cannot rely on your office location, as a way of establishing trust with others, as a way of getting buy-in from others, as a way of having others trust you. It simply will not happen. You actually have to develop genuine trusting relationships with others, so that has to be your primary priority your main focus, the number one goal of those first 90 days is to get to know the people around you, is to develop those relationships, is to actually spend time with others.
#3: Understand People's Expectations.
Knowing what people's expectations are of you from the start will help you meet or even exceed their expectations or even allow you to negotiate them down the road if that is necessary and sometimes it is. The reality is that so much conflict happens because of unmet expectations. Well, we can't meet or even exceed people's expectations of us if we don't know what they are, nor can we negotiate different expectations if we don't know what the current ones are. So start finding out what people's expectations are of you in this role.
What are your boss's expectations if you have one? What's your team's expectations? What are your co-workers' expectations or other people that you collaborate with? What are your client or customer congregation members' expectations of you? What are the expectations of the hours that you work? If you don't work a set schedule every single week are there expectations about how you flex your time? What are the expectations about where you work? Do you come to an office setting every day or are you able to go and meet with people as they are? Do you meet clients or customers or congregation members in their office, in their homes, in a coffee shop near them, or do you have everyone come to you? What are people's expectations about how responsive you need to be to communication? Is it within the hour or is 24 or 48 hours okay? What about your team, do they expect you to come to them, or do you expect that they'll come to you?
In my experience when I go to my team members to have conversations about anything the relationships that we are able to build and the trust that we are able to build and the honest authentic conversations that we are able to have when I go to them is a hundred times better than if I simply rely on an open door policy and them coming to me. While open-door policies are great and we should have them, going to people as they are where they are, where they work in their often proves much better for having honest authentic, open, and effective conversations about anything and everything. So knowing what people's current expectations of you in this new role are is so crucial because you cannot negotiate what you don't know.
#4: Ask All the Questions.
This is literally the time that people expect you to ask lots of questions because you're the new kid on the block. Even if you don't think there's anything new to learn because maybe this is not a new organization for you or a new church or a new non-profit or a new corporation, rather you're just simply in a new position do not assume you know everything. You likely have missed something because you're in a new role, so you'll start to see things from a much different perspective. So ask all and I do mean all the questions. Even if you think you know something about something ask people about it anyway.
So take the position of learner in these first 90 days and ask way more questions than you come to the table with answers for. So ask all the questions, really listen, and seek to learn and understand. Your goal could be for the first 90 days that you learn three new things every single day because ultimately with your team here are the questions that you're going to want to be able to answer together: where are we now? who do we serve? what are our core values and how do we practice them? where do we want or need to go from here? what changes need to be made in order to get there? what does everyone need to have in order to succeed in their role? training, tools, technology? what are the resources each and every person on your team needs to have so that they can succeed? But before you start having that conversation with your team and focus on answering those questions you'll serve your team really well if you spend those first 90 days asking lots and lots of questions and learning as much as you possibly can from everyone around you. That will set you and your team up for success in the long run.
#5: Personal Health.
And the number five thing to focus on during your first 90 days is: your personal health. A common mistake that so many people make in a new position is working way too many hours during those first 90 days. Yes, I know that there's a lot to learn. Yes, I know that the learning curve is super high during those first 90 days, but when we burn the candle at both ends during those first three months we're setting ourselves up for failure in the long run.
And here's what I mean by that. By working constantly during those first 90 days we are setting the expectation for everyone around us that that's how we work and that's what we do so their expectation of us moving forward is that we're always going to work all the time. And here's the thing, it can be really easy to say well once x, y, and z is done then I won't work so much anymore, then I'll live a much more balanced life. Here's the truth, there will always be a next x, y, and z, a new project, another project, a new team member, you had to let someone go... There's always something coming up that will keep you committed to working all the time every day.
So the best way to set yourself up for long-term personal health success is to commit to your personal disciplines and build or maintain your personal support system, your health, your mental health, your emotional health, your spiritual health, your physical health is vital to your long-term success and the long-term success of your leadership your life and your team. So committing to your personal disciplines is vital for your long-term health and sustainability in leadership and in life. So committing to those disciplines which might be sleep, or rest, drinking enough water, journaling, time in prayer, time in the Bible, time with friends and family (yes that actually goes a long way toward our health). Whatever it might be for you, make sure to maintain the priority of those personal disciplines during those first 90 days and then build or maintain your personal support system.
New roles often mean new people need to be added to our support system, be that a new coach or a new coaching small group, or cohort, or a new therapist, or a new small group. Who do you need in your corner to help you become the leader that you were created to be?
Now that you know the five areas to focus on during your first 90 days in your new leadership position, where do you go from there? Weekly I write articles to equip and empower leaders to thrive in their leadership and life. Click here to subscribe.
