Timestamps

00:00:00: Introduction

00:01:48: Michael's book, from first edition

00:03:17: Recent transformations in the workplace

00:05:52: Changes in the onboarding process

00:07:28: Transition traps

00:09:35: Forming work relationships

00:10:55: Activities and exercises to keep repeating

00:13:01: Chapters and tools for managers

00:17:37: Leaving a job well

00:21:21: Michael's piece of career advice

00:23:13: Final thoughts

Interview Transcription

Helen Tupper: Hi, I'm Helen and this is the Squiggly Careers podcast, where each week we share ideas for action and tools to try out that we hope will help you, and it always helps us, navigate Squiggly Careers with a bit more confidence, clarity and control.  All of our episodes are supported with PodSheets, so it's a one-page summary of some of the things that we talk about, lots of ideas for action, some coach-yourself questions to help you to listen and to learn, which is what we really care about; and today, you're not hearing Sarah because she's not with me today. 

Instead, I've got a guest, so I'm going to be talking to Michael D Watkins, who is the author of The First 90 Days, a book that I have regularly referred to in the course of my Squiggly Career. Together in our conversation, we discuss how the first 90 days has changed in work since when he first wrote the book over 20 years ago.  We also talk about some of the common transition traps that people fall into when they move from one role to another; we talk about some of the different things that you can do in a job, whether it's your first 90 days in a new job, or maybe you've been in it quiet a while, like what are some of the things we should all be doing quite regularly; and then we start about, if you're starting a new job, you're probably also leaving another, so what are some of the things that you could be doing to leave well.  And if you're a manager, we also talk about how you can support people in their first 90 days too. So there's actually quite a lot packed into about a 20-minute conversation.  We'd love to know what you think.  You can always get in touch with us on social media.  There is our Instagram page @amazingif, there's also our LinkedIn page, which you can find @amazing-if, or you can just email us, we're helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com.  But now, let's get on with the conversation. Hi, Michael and welcome to the Squiggly Careers podcast.

Michael D Watkins: Thank you, Helen, great to be here.

Helen Tupper: I'm very excited.  I was reflecting on your book and feeling like it was one of the most useful books on my bookshelf, and we love useful, so that feels quite a meaningful thing for us.  But when I was looking back at my original copy, so this is the new copy, this is the new 10th anniversary edition; my original copy has got pages turned and pen marks all over it, and I've had that for quite a while.  But I think you wrote the very first one in 2003, right?

Michael D Watkins: Well, before I say that, I should tell you that I've been tempted sometimes to run a competition for the most beat-up copy of The First 90 Days; it sounds like you've got a contender, so if I do I'll definitely let you know!  So, yeah, the book was written originally in 2003. Really briefly, it came out of a previous piece of work I did with a colleague, called Right From the Start, which was published way back in 1999, and I tell people I was in my late teens at the time I was doing this.  And I was doing a whole lot of work with Johnson & Johnson, building programmes for them to help new leaders successfully take their roles.  And it was really out of doing all that work globally with these wonderful leaders that I started to steal the tools and the techniques that became the first edition of The First 90 Days. Then of course, as you mentioned, the second edition 2012, and I'm actually hard at work on the third edition, because of course a lot has changed since 2012, just a little!

Helen Tupper: Just a little!

Michael D Watkins: With the pandemic, virtual work, few little bits and pieces like that!

Helen Tupper: So, maybe let's dive into that, if it's not giving too much of a sneak peek into the next edition.  What do you think has changed about The First 90 Days, from when you first wrote the book to where we are now, with what people are experiencing at work?

Michael D Watkins: Sure, so I think there's a few things I would point to.  I mean, I joke these days that it's not the first 90 days, it's the first 90 minutes; in some cases, the first 90 seconds!  But I think one of the things is just the rapidity of change and transition has just accelerated over time.  And today, I think it's probably greater than it's ever been.  And then, of course, you add the turmoil that we're experiencing, on every dimension possible these days, so it makes transitions much more relevant, even more relevant than they were when I wrote the book originally. 

So, that speeding up is certainly a part of it. The nature of work has changed a great deal, generationally and otherwise.  Organisations are far flatter, expectations are far higher; methodologies at work, whether it's agile or hybrid work, have really change the way things have to happen, and they've changed the way you need to transition into new roles.  And then I think transformation has become front and centre, I think, for every leader. 

I mean, I basically tell my classes, my participants in the programme I teach at IMD, the senior executive programme, that today every leader is a transformational leader.  No one's being told, "Everything's fine, take your time, it's all going to be okay".  That's not what's happening these days.  So, I think it's a combination of forces like that. At the same time, I think a lot of the basic principles are just flowing from humanity and leadership and we've had leadership transitions from the dawn of species. 

So there are certain things I think that remain very solid from a principles point of view, and I'll give you a simple example, which is getting early wins; the notion that you build credibility early by taking some actions, by connecting with people initially, by demonstrating you're credible, but then by having an impact on the organisation, that really begin to create momentum.  And if you don't create momentum, or even worse you create anti-momentum, you're in desperate trouble.

So yes, things have changed, technology; work; transformation; speed; but there's also things that I think were made very consistent and solvent over time.

Helen Tupper: And I think reflecting on my own experience, when I first go your book I would have been in, I don't know which organisation, it might E.ON or something like, so large organisation; and I remember the onboarding process at that time, it felt a bit more supported.  So yes, it was about me and my career, but there was a little bit more around me; whereas more recently when I've started in big companies, because everything is changing so fast and everyone's working in a different way, it's sort of been, "You're here, great, get started", and some of the luxury of 90 days, from what the company provides, I don't feel was there as much as it was in my early career, which is why I think your book actually becomes more important in today's context, because it's more relevant for you to take control of it.

Michael D Watkins: I agree with you, and I think there's both the speed and turbulence going on.  There's also that companies don't really have the same kind of social contract with their employees that they used to.  You're assuming that employees are only going to stay a relatively short period of time, why would you invest a lot in them?  And that's true, not just from onboarding, but more generally for developing people.  So, I think it's a product of some of those forces that we're seeing. I still believe onboarding is very important.  There really wasn't such a thing as onboarding when I started working in transitions.  I'm not saying I created onboarding, but I certainly made a contribution to it.  Today we're dealing with, as you said, different things, like how do we onboard people virtually into organisations, and how that's different.  I actually just had an article come out a couple of days ago about that very topic.

Helen Tupper: One of the things that really resonated with me in the book is the transition traps, and not because I like alliteration, which I do, but I think because I identified with quite a few of them.  There was one in particular, the Action Imperative, "I'm here, what can I do, because if I do stuff, then it looks like I'm doing a good job"; that trying to do before you learn what needs doing, and how to do it round here.  And I wondered whether you could share with us some common pitfalls that you see people making in that first 90-day period?

Michael D Watkins: Yeah, I sometimes joke that people treat this like it's a checklist of prior experience like, "Oh, yeah, I fell into that one there.  That one really hurt"!  So as such, I whittled it down a little bit more for the next edition of the book, into I think four big traps. Number one, and I see it unfortunately happen all the time, which is sticking with what you know, thinking you're going to be successful in your new role, doing the same things that you did in previous roles, and this connects to Marshall Goldsmith's book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, and the reality is that in most cases, you've got to embrace new possibilities, new imperatives when you take a role. 

The second one is the one you mentioned, which is a really important one.  That pressure you feel early on, to take action to show people that they made the right decision in hiring or promoting you, you try too hard and try too early, and that's the one, as you know, that I called the Action Imperative. Then a third is just not focusing on learning the right things, focusing too much on the technical learning I describe it, and not enough on the politics and culture of the organisation; particularly dangerous when you're joining a new organisation.  The fourth one is less the case than it used to be, because organisations are flatter, but not building pure relationships early enough, focusing too much on the vertical, as it were, not enough on the horizontal. So, I used to have seven, then I had five, now I have four.  I'd like to believe that distillation and precision are informing all this.

Helen Tupper: In year 30, there'll be three!  I thought the relationship one was really interesting as well.  Again, you read into a book what resonates with you, but I think that often I can see that supporting my team and connecting with my manager taking precedence around quite a lot of the other enabling relationships in the other functions; and the time, without thinking about it, the time directly goes to my team.  But when I'm more conscious, I build that bigger community in the company, and I think the book for me just raises a lot of consciousness.

I also have so many memories of reading your book on a beach.  I think weirdly, before I would start a new job, I would often have a holiday.  It's always a good time, isn't it, to have a holiday before you start a new job?  So, your book would often be beach-reading, and I remember going through some of that stuff in advance, before I started the first 90 days, and having that in my mind.

Michael D Watkins: Well, it's interesting to connect to current developments too, Helen, which is the fact that so many people are now working virtually or hybrid, remotely or hybrid, it actually makes building those lateral relationships even harder and you've got to be even more purposeful in doing it, because you don't naturally just run into people or connect with them, other than perhaps in formal team meetings that you're in.  So, being even more disciplined in doing that work of connecting up laterally and to key stakeholders is just really essential.

Helen Tupper: And so, on a recent re-read, I am how many years into my job now?  So, I'm Co-founder of Amazing If and officially the CEO, although sometimes I wonder what that actually means, but I've doing this now full time for about four years, and I was re-reading, so definitely not in the first 90 days; but I was re-reading your book thinking, "Yes, lots of this is very relevant for the first 90 days, but actually lots of this is very relevant for me right now", and I wondered, in terms of the activities and exercises that you recommend in the book, are there any that you think that people should do repeatedly, regardless of whether in your first 90 days or the first 9 months, or even beyond that?

Michael D Watkins: Well, it's interesting you say that, because I do see folks picking it up almost like a methodology that they use on an ongoing basis, every 90 days, you know, pick up certain pieces of it.  I think it connects to some of the work that has happened out of Agile, the sprints, so you could think about each 90 days and your work as kind of a sprint.  And I think the logic of this is diagnose the situation, learn and connect, define your plan; so diagnose, define, deliver is kind of the logic of the cycle, and that's something you can apply on an ongoing basis. I think there's real value in organising yourself in a cyclical way.  Now of course, there's always disruptions and things you need to connect with; so no, absolutely you can do that. 

And I'm actually seeing organisations approach transformation in somewhat of a more cyclical way, it's not something we do periodically.  We used to talk about unfreezing organisations, transforming them and freezing them again.  I mean, wow, we would never use language like that today, it's a much more continual process.  And if you embrace that idea, then you think about it's an ongoing cycle of transformation, so maybe there's an opportunity for the next 90 days, to be the approach for sure.

Helen Tupper: Yeah.  I think one of the things that myself and Sarah learnt when we started our business was, we focused on the individuals, so we were all about helping individuals to develop the Squiggly skills.  Then honestly, about 18 months, 2 years into it, so it wasn't an immediate discovery, these people would come back to us and they would say, "Loved your course, learnt a lot from it, but I had a bit of an issue when I had a career conversation with my manager, because they didn't know how to talk to me about my confidence gremlins or my career possibilities, and so you really need to support managers in sync with individuals".  And we were like, "Oh, yeah, if we want to change career cultures, we probably need to get both of those things". Thankfully, we have now done that, and that's what we work on quite a lot.  But I did wonder, from your perspective, what you thought managers should be doing to support people in their first 90 days, if individuals are taking all this ownership?

Michael D Watkins: Yeah, it's really interesting you say that, because when I wrote the second edition, I have a chapter at the end, which I think I swear no one ever gets to or reads, called Organisational Implications, accelerating everybody.  The basic logic is exactly what you said.  I mean, I'm a huge believer that there is power in having common frameworks, common languages, common toolkits for organisations, because it becomes part of the ongoing conversation that you can have, and certainly we went through a similar evolution of focusing on individual leaders, taking new roles. 

But my consulting company basically now works with organisations to institutionalise The First 90 Days as a common framework language toolkit. Once you do that, you begin to get these sorts of synergies of being able to have conversations using that language.  And the way I describe it too is that if you can accelerate everyone's transition by 10% in an organisation, that's an enormous amount of value creation that goes on.  So, my experience has very much tracked what you've experienced.

Helen Tupper: And so, if I was a manager, actually we're recruiting at the moment, so we've got a couple of people joining the team, which I'm really excited about; if you were to tell me one or two things we're going to tease out of that last chapter that I could be doing to help them in their first 90 days be at their best, and then beyond those 90 days, can you give me your words of wisdom; also for people listening, but mainly for me?!

Michael D Watkins: Sure, so I think there's a few things I'd point to.  First of all, you want to welcome your new people, you want them to feel as quickly as possible that you care, that you're connecting.  Those early interactions are their first taste of you as an organisation.  And so, they need to be welcoming at a fundamental level.  And then the foundations of successful transitions I think are learning and connecting, and there's lots you can do to help both of those processes. 

You can help someone get up the learning curve even before they're formally in the role or on the job, there's a lot you can do to help them to connect. It can be as simple as, "Here are the ten people you need to talk to and here's why" and send a little note to each one of them, "Helen's joining the organisation, here's her role, here are some ways you might be able to help her", just really simple stuff like that can really help accelerate the transition of someone joining the organisation, and you have a big stake in making that happen.  The faster they get up to speed and become fully productive, the better off you are.  It's never clear to me why that doesn't look blindingly obvious to people, but people are busy, so the notion of investing in onboarding someone, it's not obvious that that's the way you're going to spend your time, even though the payoff is potentially huge. I guess walking them into the team, helping them connect with the team, is a key piece; being crystal clear about expectations early about where they might be able to get some early wins would be valuable; coaching them a bit as they come in.  So, it very much mirrors the structure of The First 90 Days, but it's more how you help someone else do that work, if that makes sense.

Helen Tupper: Yeah, it does.  I've taken away the team connections, maybe introductions outside of the team that might be not so obvious and easy without me making that happen for them, and then really focusing on those early wins for them to give them, I guess, a sense of achievement as well, so they're not doing action for action's sake, but it's action that's in support.

Michael D Watkins: They're building their confidence.  I like the gremlins, I noted that one in passing, confidence gremlins, and yeah, so helping people get a sense that they're contributing, connecting.  People want to feel comfortable, they want to feel like they're achieving things.  The more you can do to help that process, I think the better.

Helen Tupper: So, I was thinking that when you start a new role, so you're in your first 90 days, you'll have left another one.  And we had a podcast a while ago on how to leave well, and I wondered if you had any advice for, if you're starting a new role, you're also leaving another one, so what are some of the really great things that we should look to do as we're leaving, as well as starting those first 90 days in a new role?

Michael D Watkins: Yeah, it's funny you say this, because actually some colleagues and I co-authored an HBR article the early part of the year, I guess it was, about how to quit when you're leaving a team, which is exactly about this, and it flows from the observation I think you just made, which is it's important for a variety of reasons to wrap things up and depart well.  Part of it is just I think your responsibility to help your team and the next leader be positioned for success; and part of it is frankly about your reputation and not closing doors that you don't want to close. Some of it's just obvious.  Don't leave things undone that it's best for you to be doing; don't leave to your successor hard choices that you should be making; but at the same time, don't make choices that your successor should be making, again pretty similar principles. 

Help them up the learning curve, help your team deal with the reality of transition and what's going on.  I mean, none of this is rocket science, obviously, but it's surprising always how few people do a good job of it.  Personally I think too that's because organisations don't help when they kind of expect you to continue to do one job, completely wrapping it up, overlapping with doing the new one and then that doesn't do justice to the job you're coming out of, and it doesn't really help you focus on the job you're going into, and I'm hugely not a fan of that happening, but it does happen.

Helen Tupper: I always find it useful, you know, we talk about quick wins when you start roles, almost closing wins.  So, because towards the end of your role, you're hopefully handing over some of your responsibilities and maybe you've got a slightly different perspective and headspace, maybe a bit more time in your diary, because you don't need to be dragged into every meeting, and I think that's a really nice time that you can find a few closing wins, just a few things that you could do, like templates or documents or run a meeting, but it's a very different agenda. 

And I think it helps other people to go, "Wow, they're really good!" so they're more likely to recommend in the future, and you're probably going to meet them again in your Squiggly Career. But it also makes you feel good so that you go into your next role not feeling a bit flat about what you've left, but feeling really brilliant about what you bring.  I just think it's so important for them and for you to leave well.

Michael D Watkins: I 100% agree with you.  And yeah, I mean part of it is just for you.  When I coach people more on long-term career bases, legacy is important.  What you want your legacy to have been from this particular period of time in your life and how you're making sure you're cementing that set of accomplishments is really important.  And it helps, I think, as you just said to make then the move a positive move forward.

Helen Tupper: And we often talk about when you're looking at opportunities while working your weak ties, so they'll be points of time in your career when you'll want to go back to some of those people and ask them for an intro or their advice, and that is so much easier to do when you've left a job well.

Michael D Watkins: People have long memories about these things, and if you burn bridges on your way out, or very obviously not help support the organisation going through a big transition, that's not going to be someone you're going to go back to, or a group of people you're going to go back to later on; 100% agree with you.

Helen Tupper: So, my final question, and we ask all of our experts that come onto the podcast this, is your best piece of career advice, and it can be something that someone has gifted to you, or something that you have just found useful for yourself over your career.

Michael D Watkins: When I talk to people about this, I talk about starting where you are and looking forward, but also looking forward and working backward.  And what I mean by that is, when I do this kind of work, I try to define a specific period of time, an era of time, two or three years, whatever it is, and say two questions, "What do you want to be true about what you've accomplished at the end of that period?  And, what do you want to be possible as a result of what you've done during that period?" because there's a tendency to say, "Okay, I'm here, I want to go there"; it's also highly valuable to say, "Once I'm there, what do I want to be true; what do I want to be possible?" and working both ends of that equation I think is really quite helpful.

Helen Tupper: I love that.  Sometimes we ask people, "What do you want to be true in 12 months' time that isn't true today?" but I feel that, "What would be possible because of it?" is a really important build that helps you go beyond that 12-month point.

Michael D Watkins: Well, because it also focuses you on what are the options you want to create, the possibilities you want to explore or the confidences you want to build that may then prepare you for that next era in your career.

Helen Tupper: I love that, thank you so much for sharing it, and thank you for spending your time with us.  As I said, massive fan of your book and I know that lots of other people are going to be listening and going to go out and look at it as well.  So, maybe they can, I don't know, get it now and then get the updated edition very soon as well.  We're going to run a competition so people will be able to get hold of a copy as well.  But thank you very much for your time, Michael.

Michael D Watkins: Thank you, Helen, great to talk.

Helen Tupper: Thank you so much for listening.  I hope you picked up a few tips and tactics and good luck; if you're about to start your first 90 days in a new job, good luck!  It always feels a bit hard, and sometimes I think it's a bit of a trigger for confidence gremlins.  So, it might be worth looking at the free e-book we've got on how to cage your confidence gremlins, which is on our website.  If you just go to amazingif.com.  On the top, it will say, Learn With Us, the top tool bar, and then you'll find loads of free career resources, such as the How to Cage Your Confidence Gremlins e-book, there's the A-Z of Squiggly Careers, there's the PodBook we created, which has got over 100 PodSheets in it; there's loads, everybody, loads and loads of free resources!  But I think the confidence one in particular could be a good one if you're about to start a new role, so you can start with brilliant levels of self-belief. So, thank you so much for listening. 

We're back with another episode next week.