Your First 100 Days of Leadership

Whether you’re embarking on your first formal leadership position, shifting leadership roles within an organization, or taking on a new challenge in a different organization, your first steps present distinct challenges and opportunities.

We All Need Support

When I stepped into my first formal leadership role, I took responsibility for a department and program staffed by 10 colleagues – all of whom had been with the organization longer than I had and were also older than me. It was daunting to say the least, but it was helpful to have a trusted mentor who supported me through the preparation phase and throughout my first year in the role.

In subsequent years, I had the opportunity to support many other leaders in our organization as they prepared for and navigated their entry and first steps in new leadership roles. A saying I often repeated during those years was, “Own your transition, or your transition will end up owning you.” In other words, build an entry plan that gives you a sense of direction, focus, and clarity about what matters most and how you will spend your time. Otherwise, don’t be surprised if you find yourself a hundred days into your new role still disoriented and wondering what you’ve accomplished.

Build an entry plan that gives you a sense of direction, focus, and clarity about what matters most and how you will spend your time.

Why are Your First 100 Days of Leadership So Crucial?

It was exciting to participate in the development of ACHIEVE’s new program, Your First 100 Days of Leadership. The goal of this program is to guide leaders through a preparatory process so they feel firmly established in their relationships and have a clear sense of where to devote their energy, effort, and talent. This allows them to support their organization’s mission and the people who depend on their leadership.

A core responsibility of any leader is to help cultivate a workplace environment where people can flourish in their roles, both in terms of their personal well-being and in their contribution to the organization’s mission. A foundational premise is that this cannot happen without earning the trust of your team. In that context, your role is to find opportunities and strategies to influence the team, individually and collectively, to act in ways that support this goal.

As such, the focus of your first 100 days in leadership isn’t just about you or what you plan to accomplish – it’s about building relationships, asking the right questions, listening, and learning.

Think about it this way: your contribution as a leader can be measured by the incremental engagement of employees, above and beyond what the organization would receive if you weren’t in your leadership role. That engagement stems from the trust you establish, which is the key to unlocking opportunities to inspire and intentionally influence your team. Ask yourself, “What does my team want, need, and expect from me as their leader? What do they want me to deliver?”

When employees are asked what they want from their leaders, they tend to provide answers that fall into four key categories: safety, value, clarity, and purpose.

Your contribution as a leader can be measured by the incremental engagement of employees, above and beyond what the organization would receive if you weren’t in your leadership role.

Employees might identify needs such as:

• Understanding the relevance and purpose of their work
• Knowing how success in their job will be measured
• Receiving support, training, time, and resources to do their job well
• Getting feedback that affirms what they’re doing well and guidance on how to improve
• Feeling safe, included, and connected to others in the workplace
• Having a voice in decisions that will impact their work

As you take your first steps in a new leadership role and begin the process of building your entry plan, start with the people you are there to serve and support – your team. Put them at the centre and build from there. Ask yourself how you can meet their needs and provide them with what they are looking for in a leader.

As you consider what you will prioritize, say, and do during your first weeks and month in leadership, keep the team’s needs at the forefront. Ask yourself, What do I want my team to know about me by the end of this time? For example, when I ask this question of new leaders, they often say they want their teams to see them as someone who is:

• Focused on the organization’s mission and committed to the well-being of every member of the team.
• Collaborative, while also knowing when and how to make thoughtful, considered, strategic decisions.
• A good listener who is available, engaged, curious, and able to ask the right questions.
• Calm and steady, maintaining a non-anxious presence even in the face of challenges.
• An effective communicator who values clear and timely communication.
• Emotionally intelligent, addressing problems and conflict rather than ignoring or avoiding them.
• Realistic and optimistic, demonstrating appropriate humility and confidence.

Reflecting on these two important considerations, it becomes clear that leaving all this to chance is taking an unnecessary risk. Most leaders, I suspect, do not go through the exercise of building an entry plan using a guided process. Many are thrust into their new roles with little support and a long list of expectations, and they end up operating in survival mode as they try to get the lay of the land and figure things out. Some will eventually find their way and become very effective leaders over time. After all, having a plan doesn’t guarantee success – but not having one can make success much harder to achieve.

Why It Matters

What I can say is this: leaders who fail often do so because they never took the time to build and implement a solid entry plan. In fact, I would venture that the magnitude of success experienced by leaders in their first 100 days increases significantly when they have a plan.

Ultimately, your goal is to shorten the amount of time it takes to get up to speed and start contributing. You want to earn trust quickly – right out of the gate – rather than spending time repairing lost trust or overcoming poor first impressions. You want to generate enthusiasm and buy-in for your leadership, set realistic expectations, and increase the likelihood of meeting those expectations for the people who are counting on you.

Developing a coherent entry plan through a reflective process that guides you on your journey is the key to taking ownership of your transition into leadership, so that your transition doesn’t end up owning you.