New Book Review: "The First 90 Days"
New book review for The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, by Michael D. Watkins, Harvard Business Review Press, 2013:
Copy provided by Deloitte.
The introduction provided by Benton actually offers a realistic look at what is offered in the rest of the book, unlike many other business texts I've read over the years which initially entice and subsequently disappoint, offering only an article's worth of information watered down to fill hundreds of pages. And I personally have the dog ears I left behind over the course of reading this text as evidence that this is the case. That said, however, the introduction provides enough value that it could actually stand on its own as an article, briefly walking the reader through glimpses of several pertinent topics such as avoiding transition traps, creating momentum, assessing transition risk, mapping out one's first 90 days, and hitting the ground running.
"Even though a lot has been written and discussed about how to be a more effective leader in general, little research and writing addresses how to successfully accelerate through leadership and career transitions. People will go through these all-important career crucibles with little preparation and no reliable knowledge or tools to help them. That's what this book is designed to give you. Your goal in every transition is to get as rapidly as possible to the break-even point. This is the point at which you have contributed as much value to your new organization as you have consumed from it. New leaders are net consumers of value early on; as they learn and begin to take action, they begin to create value. From the break-even point onward, they are (one hopes) net contributors of value to their organizations."