The First 90 Days of Any New Leader
Sunday Morning Coffee
I've stepped into leadership roles under all kinds of circumstances over the course of my career. Some came with excitement and momentum. Others came with problems that had been quietly accumulating long before I arrived, and a few came with the organizational equivalent of flashing red lights and smoke coming from under the hood. Those are interesting first days. One thing I've learned is that when you walk into a leadership transition, especially a difficult one, there’s enormous pressure to do something.
People are watching.
Staff want to know what you're going to change. Boards and supervisors want reassurance. Stakeholders want answers. Problems that have existed for months suddenly feel as though they need to be solved by Thursday. A new leader feels pressure to demonstrate leadership, but some of the worst decisions I've seen new leaders make happen because they confuse action with leadership. The first 90 days aren't primarily about proving what you can do. They're about understanding what you've walked into.
Start With Listening
I know. Listening isn't particularly exciting. Nobody announces at the first staff meeting: "Good news, everybody! My major initiative is going to be listening to you." But it probably should be. My dad, who will always be my #1 role model for being an exemplary leader of people, gave me this very advice before I took on my first leadership role, and it turned out to be the most valuable I ever received: put out immediate fires that have to be put out, but otherwise, watch and listen until you understand what people need from you.
Over the years of leading and watching others lead, I’ve come to realize that every organization has two versions of itself. There's the official version: the strategic plan, organizational chart, policies, annual report, program descriptions, budgets, dashboards, and website. Then there's the organization people actually experience every day. Those two versions may be remarkably similar. Or not. The only way to find out is to talk to people and really, and I mean FOR REAL, listen to them.
When I enter a new leadership role, I want to know what staff think is working. I want to know what's frustrating them. I want to know which processes make absolutely no sense but everyone follows because "that's how we've always done it." I want to know what they're proud of, and I especially want to ask: "If you were sitting in my chair, what would you be worried about?"
People closest to the work usually know where the problems are, and most of the time I find that they’ve been trying to tell someone for years.
Don't Assume the Story You've Been Given Is the Whole Story
New leaders usually arrive with a narrative. Here's what happened. Here's what's wrong. Here's why it happened. Here's who the problem is. New leaders have to be careful about this narrative, though. Organizations are complicated, and the first explanation is rarely the complete explanation. A struggling program might have a leadership problem, or maybe a staffing problem, a funding problem, a design problem, or maybe a completely unrealistic set of expectations. Often, it's several of those at once. The temptation is to quickly identify villains and heroes, but its best to resist that temptation. It’s best to listen to multiple perspectives and see the entire narrative by looking at the data, reading the documents, following the money, and talking to the people doing the actual work.
Then decide what you believe.
Figure Out What's Actually on Fire
In a difficult transition, everything feels urgent, but it isn't. Dad’s advice about putting out immediate fires is sound, but it’s a little more complex in that you have to be able to recognize fires that need extinguishing. Some problems are fires and some are smoke. Some are just ugly pieces of furniture you've inherited and would really like to replace. You have to learn the difference. In the first weeks, I want to identify the things that could genuinely harm the organization if they aren't addressed quickly:
Financial risk.
Legal or compliance issues.
Safety.
Critical staffing gaps.
Broken relationships with major partners or funders.
Programs that aren't delivering what we've promised.
These require attention. The staff meeting format you dislike? Probably not an emergency. This is where judgment matters. If you try to fix everything at once, you'll exhaust yourself, overwhelm your staff, and probably make some things worse. Triage first and transform later.
Look for the People Everyone Else Looks For
Every organization has an organizational chart, and every organization has an actual organizational chart. They're not always the same. More advice from dad: every org has the formal power (CEO, Superintendent, the people with the titles), and there’s the informal power (folks without the titles who are able to persuade their colleagues because they have their trust). Dad’s POV was that if you’re going in as the formal power, you also want to tap into the informal power. You want to earn the trust of the people you’re leading so that you’re all working together with as few factions as possible. But wrestling that informal power away or trying to work with it can be a real…well, you know, and first you have to be able to spot the ringleader(s).
Watch what happens when there's a problem.
Who does everyone call?
Who knows how things really work?
Who can find the document nobody else can locate?
Who has relationships across departments?
Who calms people down?
Who quietly fixes problems without needing recognition?
Who do frontline staff trust?
These people are incredibly valuable, and sometimes they have impressive titles, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they’re working for the good of the organization and sometimes they aren’t. Coming into an organization as a new leader, you need to know who has the power of influence and how they’re wielding it. A new leader who only talks to other leaders can miss some of the most important knowledge in the organization.
Resist the Urge to Announce a Grand Vision
This may be the hardest one, because new leaders love vision. So do boards. And of course, vision is important, but announcing a sweeping new direction before you understand the organization is a little like remodeling a house before you've had the foundation inspected. You might want to know what's underneath there first. Your first 90 days should absolutely begin shaping where the organization needs to go, but your vision will be better, more informed, more realistic after you've listened, and, importantly, more likely to have the support of the people who will actually have to make it happen.
Fix Something
Listening doesn't mean paralysis. There’s usually at least one problem everyone knows about that can be fixed relatively quickly. Fix it. Maybe it's an unnecessarily complicated process, or a decision that staff have been waiting on for months, or two departments that need to start talking to each other, or maybe there's a policy creating problems nobody intended. Small, thoughtful changes send an important message: I heard you. I understood the problem, and we're going to do something about it.
That's how trust begins, and it’s so much more powerful than speeches about vision, especially when people are tired and burned out.
Tell People What You Know and What You Don't
Leadership transitions create uncertainty, and uncertainty creates stories. When people don't know what's happening, they fill in the blanks themselves. The breakroom rumor mill is remarkably efficient. Communication matters enormously during those first months. Tell people what you know. Tell them what you're still figuring out. Tell them when they can expect to hear more. And if you don't know something, say so. "I don't know yet" is a perfectly respectable leadership answer. Especially when it's followed by, "But I'm going to find out."
By Day 90, You Should Have Better Questions
There's an expectation that a leader should have all the answers after 90 days. I'm not sure that's the right measure. It’s certainly not realistic. By 90 days, I want a leader to have better questions. They should understand the organization's strengths, know where the greatest risks are, recognize the informal leaders, understand the financial picture, know which programs are producing results and which ones need attention, have begun building trust, and they should have a much clearer understanding of what needs to happen next.
That's progress. But all the answers? Rarely.
You Don't Have to Prove You're the Smartest Person in the Room
This is probably the biggest leadership lesson I’ve learned. Mostly from watching other people lead, because I never think I’m the smartest person in the room. lol! In fact, I’m trying to find the people who know more than me, and as quickly as possible! Leadership isn't walking into an organization and immediately demonstrating how much you know. It's creating the conditions for everything the organization already knows to become visible, then using that knowledge to make good decisions. Sometimes leadership means acting quickly, sometimes it means making a difficult decision no one else wants to make, and sometimes it means sitting quietly long enough to realize that the solution you're looking for has been sitting three offices down the hallway all along.
The first 90 days aren't about making your mark. They're about learning where you are, earning trust, addressing what truly can't wait, and figuring out where you're going together. There will be plenty of time to move the furniture later. First, make sure the house is standing.
To all you leaders, aspiring leaders, and especially new leaders out there…cheers to you (I’m lifting my coffee cup and sipping. Then doing a mental “Ah…”). You’ve got this! And if you need me, I (and my dad’s great leadership example) you can find me here.
