The First 90 Days

Issue No. 328 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a book--almost a classic and recently updated--that I recommend frequently to clients.  And this reminder: subscribe here for Drucker Mondays, as 52 guest writers share their favorite quotes and commentary from the new book, A Year With Peter Drucker.
 


"He Knew the Math, But Not the Music"

It’s summer and time for a rerun. This issue highlights another no-brainer book for your team. Honest—you must read this! But don’t just give it to HR. It’s got off-the-chart insights for the whole team anytime a new manager shows up.

The title hooked me. The introduction intrigued me. “The president of the United States gets 100 days to prove himself [or herself?]; you get 90.” The first chapter plowed new ground with five propositions on transitioning to a new job. “Too often…the new leader behaves more like a virus…” Really? Why?

In this remarkable book (I can think of seven transitions where this book would have saved me—and others—major pain), Michael Watkins, a Harvard Business School prof, delivers a thoughtful and well-reasoned plan for what he calls “critical success strategies for new leaders at all levels.”

It’s the difference between virtuous and vicious. He says, per Proposition #3, “that the overriding goal in a transition is to build momentum by creating virtuous cycles that build credibility and by avoiding getting caught in vicious cycles that damage credibility.”

I’m recommending this to all my clients. The first 90 days of a new job are critical for everyone: first-time managers, long-time managers now leading new departments, plus first-time CEOs and experienced CEOs recruited to other organizations. “Like swimming,” says Watkins, “transitioning is a teachable skill.”

Click here to read the full review from Issue 191.

To order from Amazon, click on the graphic below for: The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter (Updated and Expanded), by Michael Watkins.

Managing the Superstar! - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit


As we cycle through the 20 buckets, here is an insight from Chapter 4, the Drucker Bucket, in Mastering the Management Buckets. 

In the July 13 issue (next week) of Drucker Mondays, Mark P. Fisher, guest writer, waxes eloquently on Week 28’s topic, “Managing Superstars.” You must read it! (Subscribe here.)

Fisher quotes Peter Drucker:
• “Stars are expensive. I always have to remind managers that the Bible says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain [Deuteronomy 25:4].’” 
• “One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence. And yet most people try to concentrate on making incompetent performers into mediocre ones. The time, energy, and resources should instead go into making a competent person into a star performer.”

For more insight on managing superstars and the rest of us, visit The Drucker Bucket webpage.

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Comments

[Angela V]

In agreement the book is excellent! I just started a new role, bought the book read it before my first day. Only to learn on day one that my hiring boss is leaving the company. There are endless scenarios and this is one I do not recall reading about in the book. Intrigued on what modifications to the plans would be made in this particular situation.