The First 90 Days: Positioning Yourself for Success in a New Job or Leadership Role

Watch my AM Northwest segment on this topic at the end of the article for a quick summary.

Introduction

The first three months in a new position represent a critical window that can define your long-term success within an organization. In today's rapidly evolving workplace, with professionals changing jobs more frequently than in previous generations, the ability to transition effectively has become an essential skill. Whether you're joining as an individual contributor or stepping into a leadership role, these initial 90 days offer a unique opportunity to establish your credibility, build crucial relationships, and lay the groundwork for future achievements.

According to research by Michael Watkins, author of "The First 90 Days," transitions into new roles are periods of both opportunity and vulnerability¹. New leaders who fail to build momentum during this period face significant challenges, while those who navigate this time effectively tend to establish patterns of success that persist throughout their tenure. The costs of a poor transition extend beyond the individual to affect team morale, productivity, and organizational outcomes. Conversely, those who master the art of onboarding themselves effectively report higher job satisfaction, faster integration, and accelerated career advancement.

This guide breaks down the first 90 days into three distinct phases, each with specific strategies designed to help you navigate this critical transition period with confidence and purpose. This approach is informed by best practices from organizational research and leadership development literature, including studies from Harvard Business School and the Center for Creative Leadership². By following this roadmap, you'll be positioned not just to survive but to thrive in your new role.

First 30 Days: Observe and Absorb

The initial month should be dedicated primarily to learning and relationship-building rather than making sweeping changes or pronouncements. This is your opportunity to absorb the organizational context and lay the foundation for future success.

Build Key Relationships

Identifying and connecting with the right people early on can dramatically accelerate your integration and effectiveness. Start by mapping the stakeholder landscape—who are the key players whose support you'll need? This includes immediate teammates, cross-functional partners, and influential leaders whose domains intersect with yours.

Schedule informal coffee chats or brief meetings with these individuals, approaching them with curiosity rather than an agenda. Ask about their roles, priorities, and perspectives on the organization's challenges and opportunities. Pay attention to how decisions are made, who influences whom, and where the real centers of power reside—which may differ from the formal organizational chart.

Remember that relationship-building is reciprocal—look for small ways to add value even during these early interactions, whether by sharing relevant industry knowledge or connecting people with shared interests. These initial investments in relationship capital will pay dividends throughout your tenure.

Listen More Than You Speak

Despite the natural desire to prove your worth quickly, restraint often yields better results in the early days. Adopt a stance of humble inquiry—ask thoughtful questions, encourage others to share their perspectives, and absorb information about the organization's history, values, and unwritten rules.

Pay particular attention to understanding the culture—how do people communicate? What behaviors are rewarded or penalized? What topics seem sensitive or off-limits? Notice the language people use, the stories they tell, and how conflict is managed. These cultural nuances will help you navigate the environment effectively and avoid unintentional missteps.

Keep a journal of your observations and insights, noting patterns and inconsistencies between stated values and actual practices. This cultural intelligence will prove invaluable as you begin to formulate your approach and priorities.

Create a Learning Plan

Approach your onboarding systematically by developing a structured learning agenda. Identify the key domains where you need to build knowledge:

• Business context: Industry trends, competitive landscape, market challenges
• Organizational structure: How different functions interact and where your role fits
• Products/services: Core offerings, development roadmap, customer needs
• Process and systems: Workflows, tools, decision-making protocols
• Performance metrics: How success is measured for the organization and your role

For each domain, identify the best sources of information—whether documentation, specific individuals, or direct experience. Schedule dedicated learning time in your calendar and track your progress. Being intentional about your learning demonstrates professionalism and ensures you build a comprehensive understanding of the context in which you'll operate.

For Leaders: Connect Deeply with Your Team

If you're stepping into a leadership position, individual meetings with each direct report should be a top priority. Research by Gallup has consistently shown that regular, meaningful conversations between managers and employees are strongly linked to higher engagement and performance³. These conversations serve multiple purposes: understanding each team member's strengths, aspirations, and concerns; gauging team dynamics and potential issues; and beginning to establish trust.

Prepare a consistent set of questions for these initial meetings, such as:

• What's working well in the team/organization that we should preserve?
• What challenges or obstacles are hindering your effectiveness?
• What do you hope to see from my leadership?
• How do you prefer to receive feedback and communication?

Listen carefully not just to what's said but what remains unspoken. Pay attention to team morale, any signs of conflict, and the quality of cross-functional relationships. Resist the temptation to make significant changes during this period, even if problems seem obvious—premature action without sufficient context often creates unintended consequences and can undermine your credibility.

Days 31-60: Develop and Plan

With the foundation of relationships and organizational understanding established, the second month is the time to begin defining your strategy, clarifying expectations, and demonstrating early value.

Identify Quick Wins

Strategic "quick wins" can build credibility and momentum while demonstrating your value. According to research by leadership experts David Pottruck and Terry Pearce, identifying and achieving early successes is critical to establishing leadership credibility⁴. The ideal quick win addresses a visible pain point, can be accomplished relatively quickly with available resources, and impacts multiple stakeholders positively.

Begin by reviewing the insights gathered during your first month to identify opportunities that meet these criteria. Prioritize actions that align with organizational priorities and your manager's expectations. Remember that a quick win doesn't need to be revolutionary—often, simply addressing a long-standing irritant or streamlining a cumbersome process can generate goodwill and demonstrate your attentiveness.

When you achieve these early successes, be mindful about how you communicate them. Share credit generously, acknowledge those who helped, and frame the accomplishment in terms of its benefit to the team or organization rather than personal achievement.

Clarify Expectations

By the midpoint of your first 90 days, it's essential to ensure alignment with your manager about priorities and success metrics. Schedule a formal check-in conversation to review your observations, validate your understanding of key priorities, and confirm how your performance will be evaluated.

Prepare for this meeting by drafting a brief document outlining:

• Your understanding of the top priorities for your role
• The specific outcomes you plan to deliver in the next 30-60-90 days
• Resources or support needed to achieve these outcomes
• How success should be measured

This document serves as a discussion tool and, once refined through conversation, can become an informal contract between you and your manager. Regular alignment conversations prevent the common scenario where a new hire focuses on areas that seemed important but weren't actually priorities for key stakeholders.

Expand Your Network

While your first month focused on immediate stakeholders, the second month should expand your relationship-building to include broader organizational connections. Identify departments and individuals who influence your area indirectly but significantly—perhaps upstream teams who provide inputs to your work or downstream groups who depend on your outputs.

Look for opportunities to participate in cross-functional projects or attend meetings outside your immediate area. These experiences provide visibility into how different parts of the organization operate and allow you to demonstrate collaborative skills. Relationship-building at this stage should be more strategic, focusing on connections that will help you execute your priorities effectively.

Consider mapping your expanded network visually, noting each person's role, influence level, and potential impact on your success. This exercise helps identify relationship gaps that need addressing and ensures you're investing your limited social capital wisely.

For Leaders: Develop a Vision and Direction

As a leader, your second month is the time to begin articulating a vision for your team that balances continuity with necessary evolution. This vision should be informed by your observations, aligned with organizational strategy, and responsive to the needs expressed by your team and stakeholders.

Draft a simple but compelling narrative that addresses:

• The team's purpose and how it contributes to broader organizational goals
• Key strengths to leverage and challenges to address
• Priority initiatives for the coming quarters
• How success will be defined and measured

Before finalizing this direction, socialize it individually with key team members and stakeholders, genuinely incorporating their feedback and perspectives. This collaborative approach builds ownership and helps identify potential resistance or blind spots early.

When communicating the vision to the full team, frame it as an evolution rather than a revolution (unless there's explicit mandate for dramatic change). Acknowledge the team's past successes and present contributions while painting a picture of an even stronger future that builds on these foundations.

Days 61-90: Execute and Evaluate

The final month of your transition period focuses on putting your plans into action, establishing feedback loops, and solidifying your professional identity within the organization.

Implement Your Strategic Plan

With a clear understanding of the environment and aligned expectations, it's time to begin executing on longer-term initiatives. Break down your strategic priorities into concrete action plans with clear milestones, responsibilities, and resource requirements.

Be thoughtful about sequencing—which initiatives should come first to build momentum? Which might require more groundwork or relationship development? Consider dependencies between projects and how they support one another.

As you implement these plans, maintain regular communication with stakeholders about progress, challenges, and adjustments. Transparency builds trust, especially when facing inevitable obstacles. Frame setbacks as learning opportunities and demonstrate agility in adjusting approaches based on new information.

The goal by day 90 isn't to have transformed the organization, but rather to have established clear direction, begun meaningful progress, and demonstrated a thoughtful, structured approach to achieving results.

Seek and Provide Feedback

Proactively soliciting feedback at the 90-day mark serves multiple purposes: it demonstrates your commitment to growth, identifies blind spots, and reinforces key relationships. Schedule brief feedback conversations with your manager, peers, and if applicable, direct reports, asking specific questions such as:

• What's one thing I'm doing well that I should continue?
• What's one area where I could be more effective?
• How well am I adapting to the organization's culture and ways of working?

Listen non-defensively to the responses, asking clarifying questions to ensure understanding. Express genuine appreciation for the feedback, regardless of its nature, and share how you plan to apply these insights.

This is also an appropriate time to begin offering thoughtful observations and suggestions to others, having built the relationship foundation and contextual understanding to make your input valuable. Frame your observations as possibilities to explore rather than directives, and focus on the most impactful areas rather than attempting to address everything at once.

Establish Your Personal Brand

By the three-month mark, people have begun forming impressions about who you are professionally and what you stand for. Take this opportunity to reflect on how you want to be known in the organization—what distinctive value do you bring? What professional reputation do you want to cultivate?

Your personal brand emerges from consistent patterns in how you:

• Make decisions and solve problems
• Communicate and manage relationships
• Handle pressure and setbacks
• Approach innovation and change
• Deliver results and meet commitments

Identify the 3-4 key attributes you want to be associated with your professional identity. Then audit your behaviors, communications, and priorities to ensure they consistently reinforce these desired perceptions. Remember that your brand is ultimately defined by what you do repeatedly, not what you claim about yourself.

For Leaders: Implement Appropriate Structural Changes

Having thoroughly assessed team dynamics, processes, and performance, the final month is when leaders can begin implementing thoughtful structural or process changes that address identified gaps or opportunities. These might include:

• Realigning roles or responsibilities to better match team members' strengths
• Adjusting meeting cadences or formats to improve collaboration
• Implementing new tools or processes to address efficiency bottlenecks
• Clarifying decision rights and escalation paths

When introducing these changes, connect them explicitly to the vision and direction established earlier, explaining both the rationale and the expected benefits. Be prepared to support team members through the transition with appropriate resources, training, and recognition.

Throughout this period, demonstrate consistency between your stated values and leadership behaviors. Your team is watching closely to determine if your actions align with your words—this congruence is fundamental to building trust and credibility as a leader.

Conclusion

The first 90 days in a new role present both tremendous opportunity and significant risk. By approaching this period with intentionality—observing before acting, building relationships systematically, clarifying expectations early, and implementing plans thoughtfully—you dramatically increase your chances of long-term success.

Remember that the transition doesn't end precisely at the 90-day mark. Continue refining your understanding, deepening key relationships, and adjusting your approach based on feedback and results. The habits and practices established during this crucial period will serve as the foundation for sustained effectiveness and growth throughout your tenure.

Research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) indicates that a well-executed onboarding process significantly improves new hire retention and productivity⁵. By taking ownership of your transition process rather than relying solely on formal onboarding programs, you maximize your chances of long-term success.

Those who master the art of the professional transition don't just perform better in their current roles—they develop a transferable skill that enhances their adaptability and advancement potential throughout their careers. In a world where change is constant and career paths increasingly non-linear, the ability to onboard yourself effectively may be among the most valuable professional competencies you can develop.