Promote Yourself!

Dear Managers and Leaders!

Today, we continue the analysis of the excellent book “The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Level” by Michael Watkins. It is a book I particularly liked and I want to share my thoughts about the book with you. Today, we will look at two aspects of leadership transitions, the topic of the book, in more details.

Promote Yourself

The first thing that the book teaches you is that when you are in a leadership transition, you must promote yourself. That does not mean that you have to show only your good side or publicize your past successes. It rather means that what made you successful in your previous role and got you your promotion will not necessarily make you successful in your new position. You have to give yourself a promotion, let go of the past, and turn your attention to what must be done to succeed in your new role.

First, you need to ensure that you really move mentally from your previous position to your new position. Note that this is tough to do. You were likely in a very comfortable position before you got this new job. You were probably successful. Now, you are in a position you do not understand fully, with different goals, potentially a different team, and brand new challenges. The boat is rocking. The secret here is to accept that the boat will be rocking for a while. It will be tough for some times, until you get accustomed to your new role. If you do not accept that fact and go back to what you feel secure doing (your previous role), you are doomed to fail!

Second, you need to learn what you need to learn. The first thing that you have to understand is your new role. What will it take to be successful in that new role? What does that mean to be at the level of management you’re at now? An excellent book to find answers to these questions is “The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company” by Charan, Drotter, and Noel. You can also talk to your new boss to understand what he expects from you.

Once you understand better what is required of you in your new job, you need to assess your strengths and weaknesses. What do you already possess to help you be successful in your new role? What are the areas where you need to learn more or improve? Those are two fundamental questions to answer really early in the transition process. Amongst those weaknesses, you may even have blind spots, unknown areas where you do not have prior experience with. Those are the ones you will need to watch out for the most, to make sure that you do not forget about these areas of the business. They are also areas where you will need to expedite your learning to ensure you improve quickly in those areas.

Define Your A-Items

Another concept that Watkins promote is the establishment of what he calls A-Items. Those items are general goals that you want to meet as you start leading the group. An example would be “increase customer satisfaction by 60% in one year”. Those goals must be related to the critical areas in your organization that demand attention as well as those that offer the greatest opportunities to improve your new business.

Defining a small number of A-Items will ensure that you stay focused and that your actions will be focused in the right direction. Without these over-arching goals, you might fall into the trap of trying to do everything at once or to forget to work on improving the business.

An important point that Watkins also promote in his book is the necessity to secure early wins during a leadership transition. Defining your A-Items allows you to secure your early wins in the direction you want to develop your business.

And you, dear leader, even if you are not in the middle of a leadership transition, do you know what your strengths and weaknesses are in your current role? Do you have a clear list of A-Items to direct your actions on a day-to-day basis?

Until next time,

Remi Cote