Transitions are a critical time for leaders at all levels. Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize your success. In his book, The First 90 Days; Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for conquering the challenges of taking on a new role — no matter where you are in your career. Whether you’re starting a new job, being promoted from within, or embarking on an overseas assignment, this is the guide you’ll need to succeed in your first 90 days — and beyond.
The Moonshots Podcast goes behind the scenes of the world's greatest superstars, thinkers and entrepreneurs to discover the secrets to their success. We deconstruct their success from mindset to daily habits so that we can apply it to our lives. Join us as we 'learn out loud' from Elon Musk, Brene Brown to emerging talents like David Goggins.
Hello and welcome to the Moonshots Podcast. It's episode 203. I'm your cohost, my Parsons, and as always, I'm joined by Mark person free. Good morning, Mark. Hey,
good morning, Mike. This is once again another exciting deep dive into our series at all about achieving your goals today, isn't it?
Not only is it about goals, I think the last two shows have been so turbocharged with, Okay, Mark, I just imagined.
Thousands of moonshots hitting objectives, realizing their results. You could not get more turbo charged with goal setting than the last two shows of the Moonshot podcast, but the question mark today, Is, where are we going? How are we continuing this blast through achieving your goals
based on the foundation that we have learned in the series so far today, listeners and subscribers, we are digging into Michael D.
Watkins is the first 90 days, Mike. This is a pretty relevant book for our series. And I think the surprise that we are going to reveal as we go through, and I'm not gonna give away all the spoilers quite yet, but there's a specific angle that I believe comes to life as we think about our goal or our achieving goals as a, an objective.
Let's say the first 90 days from Watkins is a really practical. Guide full of strategies that can help you and I and all of us, all of our members and subscribers and listeners, lean into new roles, new challenges, new transitions that happen every day and become that little bit better. These are proven strategies from Watkins that help us and all of us con, conquer and review challenges that we might run into wherever you are in your career and start to proactively go out and address them and be that best version of ourselves.
My, have I already made the case? For this book,
I think you're doing a pretty good job. I would say that these big kickoffs for something new for each of us is something where we can really relate to the need to like, Oh geez, I really gotta come in, get the job done. And this book, whilst originally designed to helping you for the first 90 days, I think what you're setting up Mark, is it may be able to help you for far beyond those 90 days.
And there's so much in the show ahead of us, in fact, Michael Dawkins has these kind of 10 ideas that are gonna transform the way you get results for yourself and for your team. And whilst traditionally set amongst that, hey, you're in a new gig, you've got 90 days to make impact. I think there's. A bigger story here including not only how you work on yourself, but in particular how you get to understand the organization and the team that you're in and how you even get the people in that to accelerate and to get the job done, to get all the boats sailing in the same direction.
It's. Sounds easy and quite elegant, but we all know once you actually start getting into things, that's when the reality hits. That moment mark when you're like, oh, this is gonna be hard. . Yeah, this is gonna, this isn't as easy as I thought it was gonna be,
yeah, exactly. No amount of preparation can necessarily, Get you ready until you actually get into the let's say the war zone.
When you step into the arena as Brene Brown would say, it reminds me of driving a car, Mike, you can practice, you can read your theory, but until you're behind the wheel by yourself, once you pass your test, that's when you really learn the ins and outs, the dimensions the way of dealing with other people on the road.
Totally. And I think this entire series is getting us ready for that, isn't it?
It is, yeah. And it really touches on the theme. Patrick Lencioni has in five dysfunctions of a team, which is work, and life is a team sport. And so you've gotta be the best version of yourself to help others sail in the right direction.
So all of that is ahead of us today on the show, Mark. So get ready, listeners and members. This first 90 day adventure is gonna help you unleash your goals and your results. So let's get stuck into it. Mark Where do you
wanna kick off? I wanna kick off with a little bit of an adventure, and I want to hear from the author Michael D.
Watkins himself making the case that transitions are every. So I think in a time of economic turmoil, we probably all feel like we're in a time of transition. Whether or not our job title has actually changed. Is there, is every transition unique or are there some overarching themes that mark every transition?
First of all, I think you're right. The current economic situation has really generated on almost continuous set of transitions for people. So even if they. Taking a brand new job. Their job responsibilities are really changing in pretty fundamental ways. So there's not just the normal kinds of transitions going on right now.
Promotions, joining new companies. There's a lot of what I call hidden transitions. Downsizing, restructuring jobs, being. Being altered and so on. And it's certainly, a challenging time in terms of sort of general principles for making successful transitions. When I wrote the previous book, the first 90 days, I laid out a set of principles for how to make a successful transition into a new leadership role.
Looking at crucial things like how do you learn about a new organization or a new role, How do you securely wins? How do you create alliance? In the new book, I'm really looking much more deeply at certain classic kinds of transitions that people go through. And what I found is I was doing this, was really, there are two core components that you need to pay attention to.
One is what's the personal adaptive challenge you're going through? What does this mean for you personally in terms of the new competencies or the new skills or the new attitudes that you need in order to really step up to the. . And on the other side there's a, there's what I think of as the organizational change challenge.
What do you need to do with this organization? What's the objective? What kind of transformation effort do you need to undertake? And I think that as long as leaders get those two challenges really clear in their minds, what do I need to do to myself and what do I need to do to the organization?
That just provides a tremendous amount of clarity as you, you begin to plan how to
move. Jeez. He's asking some pretty fundamental questions there of leadership, isn't he? By, by saying as you go to transform a team or an organization, perhaps the first place to start is how will you transform yourself?
I think that's where we all fall down, isn't it, Mark? We often think, Oh, we've gotta change the environment around us and in, in our zest. In our zeal. Maybe we forget that maybe we need to change and grow as well.
I look, I think this is a topic that has we've visited a few times on the Moonshot Show, and I believe it's a big call out that we not only are running into a few times, such as within our entrepreneur series.
Do you remember Darren Hardy, the entre roller coaster Gerber's Emo. This ownership that you have as a leader to get yourself into, a, the right head space b the right attitude towards the business, but also c actually putting in the effort to make that organization work. It all needs to build from the foundation of being a.
Maybe not solid, but least improving leader who's leaning into, growth mindset. Who's challenging themselves with, maybe multitasking, but also people management, getting the right people on the bus, like you were saying earlier. I think this is a theme that keeps 'em coming back, isn't it?
This idea of you as an individual, a house that you need to get an order before you can guard and be your best self at work as a leader, as a manager of people.
Yeah the it's this constant I would say need or requirement to be self-aware. If you're trying to create change or if you're moving a team through a transition you can't make it solely exclusive.
It's all about them. I've just gotta fix them, improve them. I think what. Michael D. Watkins is setting up for us here is that, transition is not only constant, but it's all around us. It's all the stakeholders. All the constituents in that picture have to embrace some level of change. And I think if I reflect on some of the insights that I'm having as we're talking about this perhaps.
Where I could have had more impact is where I was prepared to take on as much change as the organization. What do you think?
I think that's an interesting build, isn't it? I think the, not to get too abstract, but I wonder whether there is a case for the business adapting to individuals that they.
Start as they're going through transitions, much like an individual has to be adapting to the business. So I think what we learned with Christina Woodkey and even John Deere, when we are talking about a business, choosing the right objectives as well as, teams identifying key results and so on, I think.
There's a synergy that happens between the personal level as well as the organizational one. And I think Watkins is again, helping us make a bridge from the OKR world, and the ecosystem that we've traveled within so far. And now we're starting to bridge into this quite practical. Mindset change, which is away from, let's all make sure we're on that same page and into how are we actually going to go out and a, become successful in the new role, or at least a new transition as Watkins puts it. Continuous transitions are around us time, but I think there's also a case here that says we can learn something that will help us throughout the entire, let's say, life cycle of our career, of our job, maybe.
Even at home, we can utilize some of these tools that we're gonna learn in the rest of the show to help us become that best version or a high impact version of ourselves when we are in a leadership position. Maybe it's just a teamwork situation or maybe it's something else. Yeah.
And I think what's gonna pay off this insight that transitions are everywhere.
And I think the emphasis might be for everyone, yourself included, as a leader. We are gonna go and unpack sort of the five key questions you should ask when you take a new role. We're gonna look at some key moments that you're gonna have whether it's that. Assessment that self-awareness or whether it's getting those early wins on the board, but also seeing transition as a much more greater constant in life at work.
But before we do that, I'll tell you who's always transitioning to good things in life, and that's moonshot's members.
Mark. I know I couldn't have said it better myself, Mike. Our members and our family just keep on growing, isn't it? These are individuals who help us keep the lights on as well as get. A daily, maybe minute by minute dose of good powered karma.
So please welcome all of our Patreon members, Bob, John, Terry Kenmar, Marja, and Connor, Rodrigo Yasin, Liz and Sid, Mr. Bonger, Paul Berg and Kaman David and Joe Crystal and Evo Christian, Hurricane Brain, Samo, Kelly and Barbara Andre. Matthew, Eric and Abby. Ho, Joshua, Chris and Kobe, Deborah, Lasse, Steve and Craig.
Lauren, Javier, Daniel and Andrew Rav, eVet, Karen and Raul, as well as our brand new members, PJ and Nira. Welcome. Everybody, thank you for being part of the Moonshot's members. Yeah,
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We can also ask that you are you in a transition? Are you getting ready to start a new challenge? And if you are, then there are five key questions that you should be thinking about
the actions you take in the first few months in a new job, we'll have a major impact on your overall success or failure.
Transitions into new roles or exciting times. You have an opportunity to reshape an organization, take on new challenges, and to learn and grow at the same time, there are periods of great vulnerability. You're trying to climb a learning curve, operate in the context of a new, complex organizational environment.
And there's lots of ways you can go wrong. The biggest challenge new leaders face is staying focused. So it helps to have a key set of orienting questions that you ask yourself before you start the role and keep asking yourself as you move forward, how will you create value? What are you there to do?
What's your mandate? What are key stakeholders expect of you, and over what time period and how will your progress be measured?
Every organization has a culture, a set of norms of behavior that people are expected to operate within. The level at which you're leading will also have an impact on people's expectations of how you will show up.
Do you understand who are the key stakeholders? Are you focused on building the right relationships and even more important, the right alliances to get the support you need? To get things done.
What are some areas that you can focus on where you can get some early improvement and create a sense of momentum?
You may be able to get off to a great start, but it's highly likely that what got you here and one you the role is not the full set of skills and capabilities you're gonna need to be fully effective. Start asking yourself those five questions during the recruiting process. And keep asking them as you move through the first critical months in your new role,
Mike, that is a treasure trove, from Walkins there, isn't
it?
We can just do the show on those questions now if you want.
We totally could. We totally could. I think for me, as I'm reflecting on a lot of the advice and points of view that Watkins is, providing to us in that clip, the big one for me, Is really this idea around how you are creating value.
You go through the process obviously in the situation Michael's breaking down. It's a higher, So you are literally within that first 90 days Yes. Of your job. And I love this reflection that he's helping us. Keep in mind, and I think it's somewhat connected with our previous shows on achieving your goals as well, this idea of what value are you bringing, the value of creating the alliances and the relationships, how you turning up each day, What Are you demonstrating or providing?
How are you inspiring perhaps for those people around you? And for me, as I think about the times when, perhaps I've either taken on a new adventure at work or whether it's a new job entirely. Building that momentum, building the cadence to demonstrate that I'm trying to work quite hard, that I'm trying to create value.
Maybe being indisposable is always something that's in my mind. It's something that I've tried to hold myself accountable to. And it's interesting for me to hear that this is in indeed something that even Watkins is calling out. What are the insights that you are taking away straight away, Mike from that clip, from Watkin.
I think asking yourself how will you show up is an interesting question cuz obviously there are those questions about what kind of value are you gonna bring and so forth. But I always think things get interesting when you ask how will you, not, what will you, but how will you really, in any sort of context and I think it, cuz it it starts to be a bit more provocative of What will be the style and the approach by which you're gonna get the job done?
Are you gonna be a listener? Are you gonna be a collaborator? These sorts of questions I find are really powerful in getting into the finer points of how you might lead, how you might support others, how you would, how you will actually get the value. Achieved through this role. And I think, what's so powerful about the 90 ideas, 90 days construct is that it's this really clear start of a journey and how.
If you really focus on that there's it's such an important time. It's almost like if you haven't really got in the momentum and as a result, if you haven't got some runs on the board and built some trust, you're gonna find yourself in a year's time going, Geez, what have I really done? Yeah.
And I think that's our biggest fear, isn't it? That we somehow just. Stuck in no men's land, I guess is a way of describing it. We didn't get that traction. We haven't been able to make the. The impact in the team or the organization. And I think we all in the end want to get to the end of a day, a week, a year and feel like we've had a meaningful contribution, don't we?
And I think our biggest fear is that we are just not having that impact.
Yeah I would say that is a great extension to something that, Find ourselves encountering a lot on moon show, isn't it This idea of legacy? Yes. Am I spend the time, I do have on the right things? Have I wasted my time? Am I maximizing it enough?
Am I ? Waking up at 5:00 AM like Robin Sharma to read a book, exercise and journal. Am I trying to be that best version of myself? And although we don't necessarily all need to wake up at 5:00 AM to do that, I think the extension that you are building, Their mic is spot on, which, I'm in a new job.
Maybe I'm in a new role, maybe I'm still in the same business, but something's changed, continuous transitions. Am I still holding myself accountable in the right level so that by the end of a year, six months a week, I can look back and say, You know what? I was pretty, I was on fire then. I was doing some pretty good work.
I was focused and I'm really pleased with where I got to. I think at the end of the day, we are sometimes we are our toughest judge. So I think it's a great reminder here that if you can get that accountability focus your yourself gonna feel more confident in the fact that you've delivered the targets that you set yourself out.
Yeah, and I think it goes beyond the confidence of keeping your job or anything like that. I think it really speaks to that. At any point in reflection, you feel like the work that you are doing matters in some way, that it helps in some way that you can feel satisfied in your contribution, proud of your effort.
Like it's, To me, it's. Everything we've been doing thinking about here with the first 90 days, but also throughout the OKRs, it's so much more than just like a job or a bonus to me. This is about man, I got some great stuff done. People appreciated it. I feel good about it. They feel good about it.
This is something I want to continue. Doing. I think we all strive for that sense of meaning in our work, or at least fulfillment and satisfaction. What
do you think? Yeah I think this was the big takeaway that I had from Christina Woody's radical focus as well. This idea of feeling happy and confident, happy being a somewhat loaded word I suppose, but happy and confident with my abilities stems from being able to take owner.
And empowerment, and I think you are totally right when you are utilizing. Frameworks, tools of which, Michael d Watkins' book on the first 90 days is just one in an arsenal of things that can help you feel more confident in the delivery that you are providing to the business.
Maybe as an individual or as a team, suddenly you're gonna look back and think that you've made more of a positive difference that therefore is gonna lead you to feeling accomplished confident, as well as generally maybe a better colleague or leader.
Totally. Totally. So that's where we, we get into this idea that transitions aren't only in exclusively when you start a new job in a new company.
It feels like I'm always I feel like every quarter is like some new transition, a new chapter. And in fact, I find myself, Mark, I enjoy almost story booking. My work and for example, I just got back from a holiday, so I feel like I'm framing a new chapter for the year that will probably get me pretty much to the end of the year and I'm trying to reboot and refresh like it's a brand new transition.
Does that make sense? Yeah,
it does. It does. And I'm very much in the same position. I think a lot of us probably are, isn't it? It's great to see that transition in play. But I think what's interesting, Mike, is we're, delving into these first 90 days and we're understanding that it isn't just around the initial potential job.
That you've just started and the fact that these transitions are everywhere. We've got some great tips coming up now from expert program management who breaks down for us as well as for all of our listeners. One of the big tips that Michael has, and this is about building early momentum. So let's hear from expert program management helping you and I and our listeners secure early wins
in the first 90 days.
A key goal is to secure personal credibility. And to build momentum under your leadership. Now, early wins boost your credibility. They get people motivated and they create value for the organization. But there are a few mistakes new leaders can make when trying to secure early wins. And these are failing to focus.
And basically that means, you're trying to do too much. You're not focused, not taking the business situation into. . So this is about keeping in mind that a win will look very different from one business to another, not adjusting to corporate culture, which is similar. Don't bring your existing ideas of a win with you, but really understand what a win means to your new organization.
Same At the next point, failing to get will wins that matter to your boss and focusing on the what and not the how. And this means that. . It's not simply about achieving the results. You have to think about how you achieve them as well. So maybe you achieve the results, but if you've alienated people in the process, then that's gonna make it very hard to sustain that success and keep building on those
results.
Wow. We're getting into the real tribalism of work here, aren't we? In the end, we're just, all these tribes of humans running around. It's so simple about wins for you, wins for your boss. And it might sound a little valet, but the truth is, We are social animals. It's all about fear, belonging, success, ego.
These are all primary drivers, and particularly when we start a new transition, it's so critical to be aware of these things, isn't
it? It absolutely is. I think the biggest takeaway that I'm, reflecting on from that clip we just heard was. Actually the idea of bringing existing Decisions or points of view or perceptions.
So specifically in the clip, we heard bringing existing ideas of what a win looks like and bringing it to a new business or a new situation without adapting, without considering who the audience is, who your customers are, what your boss or your business is trying to achieve. And I think this is a really important call out.
That for me, whenever I've gone into maybe a new challenge, let's say let's say it's not a new job at this point, it's a transition that's happened internally. Maybe I've moved teams or maybe I've got a new project that's come up that I've never really done before. Maybe it's something very technical, so there's gonna be a sharp learning curve.
The transition here that I, or I wanna call out from that previous clip is the fact that I'm gonna bring my preexisting experience. This new situation. So if it's something very technical, something that maybe I haven't done before, I might naturally gravitate towards a proven strategy or technique that I've used before.
, maybe it's creating a strong relationship with somebody. Maybe it's being a particular character, whatever it might be, or putting in it as a specific framework or that I've used that maybe the team hasn't. I think the call out here is be aware of who the audience. Are, be aware of who the customers and the team and the colleagues and the boss are in order to help you make that right decision.
And that's certainly something that I've probably been guilty of in the past, Mike, bringing my own. Point of view over what works into a situation. It's kinda like bringing a square and trying to force it into a circle. Peg, , it doesn't quite fit. No matter how hard you push it, you have to be adaptable.
Yeah. You see this, that, sometimes leaders of some companies get poached to go to other companies and then don't have the same level of success. Exactly. And often there are. That's, they've tried to employ exactly the same tactics they used at the previous company, but now they're operating in a different system.
There's a different culture. People responded in different ways and I think. What I take out of this is this idea of securing early wins. It's almost a deeper challenge, which is to really observe and understand your new working environment and to, rather than, I think this is really important, rather than trying to solve everything.
Really quickly actually get some wins. They may actually be small wins. I get the sense here that if you're really listening to an organization and observing it, you understand what matters to them, but you're actually in a position to maybe make some small changes that have a big effect. And I think it comes back to almost in continuously comes back to this awareness level that we need to have when we're in a new transition.
This awareness of the people that are around you and the awareness of how you are going to, keep yourself accountable, right? So I think this next clip mic that we have is, again, from expert program management. Who's gonna help us when we get into those type of situations where we need to reflect on, how we holding ourselves, and are we on the right track?
So let's hear now from expert program management. Talk to us about self assessment. It's really
important to keep your balance through the first 90 days while you're trying to do so much. And this section is all about regularly performing a self-assessment to ensure you're not falling into a personal trap at work.
So including things like going off in all directions, it's not gonna be possible to focus others if you can't focus yourself. Unfunded boundaries. Now, if you don't define your boundaries, what you are prepared to do and are not prepared to do, then people are gonna take whatever you have to give brittleness.
Now, this means don't overcommit to a course of action so that you can't change your mind if things start to go badly. Isolation. To be effective, you have to be connected to people who can make action. bias judgment. So for example, confirmation bias whereby you focus only on factors that confirm your beliefs or maybe work avoidance, and that's where you avoid taking the bull by the horns and making those difficult decisions and in turn, that makes you know, tough problems, tougher.
And finally going over the top, basically working too hard and being too stressed. So you go beyond peak performance and you start to go downhill and move towards burnout. So those are the traps, but how do you avoid them?
You can adopt success strategies, and that's the bunch of strategies we've. discuss today. You can enforce personal disciplines and that means things like, devoting time weekly to planning two, a planning and evaluation cycle. Try not to make spur of the moment commitments that you might later regress.
Set aside time for actually doing hard work cuz it's so easy to get distracted day to day with emails and people knocking on your door. It means things like if you find yourself getting too caught up in the emotional side of difficult decisions, take time out to look at the big picture. And finally, it means, if you find yourself alienating people, even though you have really great ideas that you want to get, implement meant it, then you know, make some time and create a plan to how you're gonna go about influencing people.
And the final point, , it's important to build your support systems. And this means, stabilizing everything at home because, it's a fundamental rule of warfare not to fight battles on too many fronts. And it also means, thinking about how you're gonna build your advice and counsel on
network.
Wow. This is turning into a bit of an MBA masterclass . There's so much to cover here. I think one thing, one of the things I wanted to do for our listeners is Mark, you and I actually run through the quickly, these 10 strategies that are at the core of the first 90 days book. And what I thought is we could actually just read them out and comment on them a little bit.
To set this scene. So when in doubt, listeners and members, if you are going through a transition, if you are leading something new, a new initiative project whether it might even be a new job, here are the Big 10. All right, I'll start it off. This is what Michael D. Watkins recommends in his very popular book, The first 90 Days, number one.
Know what motivates you now? I like this one, Mark, because I think for me, it's always very important to be spending some time doing stuff that I really enjoy doing, and it makes it easier for me to do the stuff I don't like so much . Yeah, because I know I'm doing some of the good stuff. All right. That's number one.
What's number?
I like that. But I'm gonna raise you, Mike. Okay. We strategy number two, which is tailor your strategy very similar and building on some of the clips we've just heard, which I really like specifically around choose the strategy that's right for the target you have in mind.
Yes. Don't use old tricks from an old company.
Exactly. Don't just copy and paste that can get you into some travel. That's right. Now interesting thing is they, he talks about negotiate successes. Strategy three, for me, that's all about mutually agreeing expectations so that folks don't think you're gonna solve everything in the first 90 days.
. And I think that's really important, particularly if you are joining a team that has a. A big challenge or perhaps there's just a big stinky problem that really needs to get fixed. Yeah. Maybe you can't solve everything in the first 90 days to negotiate that success. All right. That's strategy number three.
The expectation management, I think, is that's a good one. And that builds onto strategy number four, which is speed up your learning. Like we were hearing from Michael D. Watkins earlier in the show, getting on board as quickly as he can is what matters. You wanna feel confident and happy in the situation that you are with your team.
And I think for me, Mike when it comes to speed up your learning, when I've had to adapt, it's quite literally turning off distractions. Either close your laptop or turn on, do not disturb, put in headphones if you need to be quiet and just apply yourself. Do that deep work in order to try. A level up, let's say the learning that you need to go
and do.
Yeah. Create spray space upstairs. Space. Space. Exactly. Don't put yourself behind the April just because you haven't allocated learning time or you're not getting prepared enough prior to meetings, for example. Exactly. Okay. That's strategy number four. Number five, clinch early victories.
I think the big one, the big take out on strategy five here, clenching early victories, is they don't always need to
be big, do they? That's it. I think like we were hearing from expert program management, if you can get a good momentum and you can just tick something off the list, not only is it good for you at a business or in a new role to demonstrate that you understand what it is that's tasked, but Mike, whenever something, whenever you and I have had a good win, what do we gonna do?
We take a moment. Yeah. We celebrate, we feel good. Yeah, And that's something that you really wanna try and to get right, isn't it? So even if it's a small little victory, It just still counts. Likewise, Mike, what else counts is strategy number six with get alignment. How many times have we struggled with work in the past when we know we are not necessarily on the same page as a client, a partner, a colleague, whatever it is?
That uncertainty that comes without alignment is so unpleasant, so just taking the time to train. Or at least discuss how you're gonna stay aligned with your colleagues or your boss, with your partner in business. That then re reduces and relieves any of that anxiety and stress that hangs around when you are not quite certain.
Yeah,
It's very much getting people on the same page because strategy number seven is build your team. This thing is a team sport. Life is a team sport. The quicker that we embrace that and the more often we remind ourselves that it's all about bringing people together, around achieving a vision that they can all share and be proud of.
That one's a big one. And we ain't done, we got three more, but let's race through these strategies for transition acceleration.
Building upon strategy number seven, which was build Your Team. We're now on strategy number eight with Build Alliances, and I think this idea is a great demonstration of that personal success strategy that we heard in the previous clip.
If you are going to align yourself and create a relationship with individuals, that's gonna help you make an impact, because you can't just join a new role and make a difference by sending one email, you're gonna have to create a relationship. Or an alliance with the people who go out and make that change.
Marketing or finance, whatever it might be, you need to go and work with those individuals. And frankly, Mike, whenever I've met alliances, I feel pretty happy at work anyway, , So I
think it's a good one. Of course, and doesn't have to be like Game of Thrones kind of alliances. It's just let's get along here and if you wanna, connect with others, you need to connect with yourself.
And that's strategy number nine. Manage yourself. No. Yourself, because that's the only way you can go out and be the best version of yourself. And Mark, bring it home for strategy number 10 from Michael D. Watkins.
Strategy number 10, Accelerate everyone. You might be the first person, or at least in your mindset, you might be the only person who's going through a bit of a change.
But remember, there are people around you that are also adapting to you being present. And I love this idea where if you are stepping into. A new role or you're transitioning into something that's a little bit different than what you've experienced by helping get everybody onto the, your wavelength as well as you catch up to them, is a way of guaranteeing everybody's on the same page.
Exactly.
And. Whether you are doing that in a brand new job or whether you're just bringing a sense of renewal to your current work, it doesn't matter. Those 10 strategies will help you for the first 90 days. And now as we close out with Michael Watkins, maybe it's the next 90 days. There have been a number of executives who have been going through the workshop.
They're not in a transition. One of the really unexpected benefits we've found is they're coming up to me saying, Oh my gosh, this is my next 90 days. So what I found is whether it's the first 90 days or their next 90 days, the same concepts and principles apply. Could you
speak more to that? The workshop is really about understanding where you are and planning for going.
That's most valuable often when you are in transition, but it can be valuable anytime, right? The discipline of taking stock of where you are, right? Understanding the key features of the challenges you're facing, thinking about what you need to learn because we need to learn these days at every point in time and putting together a plan for the next 90 days.
That can be an incredibly productive thing. , I've had leaders go through the first 90 days program and adopt it as a methodology for every 90 days. They go forward and do this sort of work as the speed of change is accelerated. You can argue that senior leaders are basically in transition in some form or another, almost always, right?
And if that's the case, then the discipline of understanding, diagnosing, learning, planning, connecting, propelling things forward, that can be a very useful dis discipline wherever you. In, in terms of timing
in your role? I think that's it, Mike. We've made the case, Michael D. Watkins, bringing it home for us, calling out the fact that even though you might not necessarily be looking at your LinkedIn or your CV, knowing that you're about to start a brand new role, the truth is continuous transitions are all around us, so it.
Pays dividends for us to be disciplined, to reflect on where we are and to plan what we're gonna go and do next. Yeah. And
if you're interested in those 90 strategies that we read out, you can get them all at our show notes, which are available at Moonshot. Dot io amongst many other goodies, full transcripts of the shows.
Our back catalog links to literally everything we talk about on the show. It's all@moonshots.io. So Mark, just when everybody thought, Oh, Mike and Mark, they're just gonna talk about the 90 days. We ended up turning the 90 days into our lifetime of work. , Whoops. Look, I'm really interested to know, we talked about the 10 strategies.
Is there one of those that is saying, Mark, embrace me, learn more about me? Which one of those do you think could be very effective for you in the coming week at work?
You know what? I think the building alliances is something that really is so valuable that I think we touch upon occasionally, but we probably don't spend enough time really calling out because of its personal benefit.
So building relationships and alliances whereby you are not only gonna be happier with your day job, but also you might be more productive because you. Working with, collaborating with, or at least discussing work with the people who can go out and make that change. And fundamentally making change or making it happen is a thing that sometimes you feel pretty insecure about when you're in a new role.
So for me, build alliances. Strategy number eight is the big call out for me. What about you, Mike? Oh man, I'm looking at them. They're good,
aren't they? I'm looking at them. I think accelerate everyone was really interesting because I think sometimes we can make the mistake of charging into something and not taking everyone with us, right?
Yes, that's true. And I've been guilty of that. So I think it's a very good reminder, and I just like the idea. It's not just the first 90 days. There's this sort of, this permanent sense of renewal, of iterations, of chapters in our working lives. I really like that, don't you? I
like that a lot. Yeah, I like that a lot.
It's a great call out.
All right, thank you to you, Mark, and thank you to our members and our listeners here We are today on Show 203 of the Moonshots Podcast where we are diving into the. The first 90 days by Michael D. Watkins and boy did it have a lot to teach us. Transitions are everywhere.
There is, in fact five fundamental questions you should ask whenever you start a new role and some great strategies to incorporate are getting those early wins, getting the self-assessment, build your team, negotiate the success, do all of these things in your first 90 days, and you know what you'll be ready to do even.
In the next 90 days, and that's really what it's all about here at the Moonshot's Podcast, is we learn out loud, we wanna improve the next 90 days so that we can be the very best version of ourselves. All right. That's a wrap.