first 90 days book review

The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels

Michael d. watkins.

304 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 2003

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1 Accelerate your learning. Efficient and effective learning is a necessary foundation for making a successful transition. The faster you learn about the technical, cultural, and political dimensions of your new position or assignment, the more you'll be able to accomplish in the critical first months. 2. Match strategy to situation. Different types of business situations require you to make significant adjustments in how you approach your transition. A clear assessment of the business situation is an essential prerequisite for developing your transition plan. 3. Negotiate success. You need to figure out how to build a productive working relationship with your new manager (or managers). This means planning for a series of critical conversations about the situation, expectations, working style, and resources. 4. Achieve alignment. Armed with a deeper understanding of the business situation, your manager's expectations, and the interests of key stakeholders, you can define your vision and core objectives. Then you can develop your strategy to realize that vision and achieve your goals. 5. Build your team. Like most leaders taking on a new role, you probably don't get to build your own team; instead, you inherit your predecessor's. You must rapidly assess and reshape the team, and then align, organize, and energize it to achieve your goals. 6. Secure early wins. Getting early wins is essential in order to build your credibility and create momentum. Wins create virtuous cycles that leverage the energy you put into the organization. They create a sense that good things are happening. 7. Create alliances. You can't accomplish much on your own; you need to build alliances to support your key initiatives. This means identifying the most important people whose support you need and developing a plan for getting them onboard. 8. Manage yourself. Throughout your transition you must work hard to maintain your equilibrium, manage your energy, and preserve your ability to make good judgments. You need to be disciplined in deciding what you will and won't do, and you must invest in building and leveraging the right network of advisers.

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Book Summaries

“the first 90 days” summary: key takeaways and review.

Sudarshan Somanathan

Head of Content

January 31, 2024

You just got a promotion or maybe you’re transitioning to a leadership role at a new company. Congratulations! This career move is sure to be rewarding but can also be among the most difficult job transitions. 

You have to learn about entirely new company structures, build rapport with a new team, and handle the logistics of taking on new work. Luckily, with a focus on learning and staying organized, you can achieve success in your new role.

Here, we’ll share key takeaways and some of our favorite leadership quotes from “The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter” by Michael D. Watkins. This book is all about learning, adaptation, and management techniques when transitioning to a new leadership job. In this “The First 90 Days” summary, we’ll also share a seven-step checklist for transitioning into your new role with actionable advice. ✨

• “The First 90 Days” Book Summary at a Glance

1. Match your strategy to different business situations using the STARS model

2. streamline onboarding and build relationships with “the 5 conversations”, 3. secure early wins by building credibility and launching projects, 4. achieve alignment on strategy, skills, and processes, 5. assess, build, and adapt your team, 1. make a clean break, 2. evaluate problems and your ability to address them, 3. assess your strengths, 4. develop a learning mindset, 5. update your network, 6. be mindful of discontent, 7. ask for help when you need it.

• Popular “The First 90 Days” Quotes
• Apply “The First 90 Days” Learnings With ClickUp

“ The First 90 Days ” Book Summary at a Glance

“The First 90 Days” is a book by Michael Watkins offering a road map and strategies for people making professional leadership transitions. In this quick “The First 90 Days” summary, you’ll learn what the book is about, who the author is, and how it can help in your leadership transition.

Michael Watkins is a renowned leadership and negotiation expert. He’s a Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at IMD Business School, is the co-founder of Genesis Advisers, and has two decades of experience working in leadership. He was also inducted into the Thinkers50 Leadership Hall of Fame thanks to his background and numerous written works on leadership — including “The First 90 Days.” 🏆

In “The First 90 Days,” readers learn about career transitions within an organization as well as to new businesses. The book covers how critical the initial 90 days are with new leadership employment. It covers strategies and tips to help with everything from employee onboarding to advice on how to delegate .

Broken into 10 chapters, each one is centered on a strategy. The first 30 days focus on preparing, learning, and creating a plan. The next 30 days are about securing early wins and building a team. The final 30 days focus on management and accelerating success for the entire team.

Read on for a continuation of our “The First 90 Days” summary, where you’ll learn more about the key takeaways of this book and how you can create your own checklist for making a successful transition. 👀

5 Key Takeaways From “The First 90 Days” by Michael Watkins

Whether you’re looking for project management tips for a new management role or a plan to transition into a new C-Level position, Michael Watkins’ book delivers. Here, we continue our “The First 90 Days” summary with five key takeaways. 

When transitioning to a new job, one of the first things you need to think about is what type of leader you are and how that works in different business cases. This involves understanding your impact as well as the different business situations your new organization faces. 🧐

To do this, Watkins suggests using the STARS model—an acronym that stands for five common business situations:

• Start-up : You’re building everything from the ground up, including products, teams, and structures, all within an exciting environment that needs to be closely managed
• Turnaround: You’ve been tasked with taking a troubled business division or company and turning things around. Your leadership role involves not only company restructuring but also managing moods of despair and motivating teams to take a new approach
• Accelerated growth : Your leadership job is to hire new employees and build scalable systems to handle rapid business growth
• Realignment : You’re hired to reassess the approach to a product or service when problems are present, but not everyone recognizes their significance. This type of leadership involves negotiation and encouraging team members to be open to change 
• Sustaining success : Your new company is at the height of its success, and your job is to make sure it stays that way by figuring out what makes it successful and implementing innovative solutions to stay on the cutting edge of your industry

By matching your strategies and leadership style to the specific business situation, you’re more likely to make a smooth transition. Plus, it’s easier to keep everyone on the same page and working toward the same goal.

Joining or building a new team is about more than just implementing onboarding software . You need to make connections and build relationships with everyone on your team. Without this critical step, it’ll be hard to get support and buy-in, especially if your transition involves taking the company in a new direction. 🤝

Watkins recommends having what he calls “the five conversations.” These encompass discussions you should have with your boss and your new team.

They include:

• Situational diagnosis: Revisit your STARS model with your boss and team. Does everyone agree the business is in the same situation? Discuss if anyone has a different opinion to lay the foundation of an effective leadership approach
• Expectations: Lay out clear expectations on what defines success and what each individual on the team should deliver. Make sure everyone’s priorities align, and build action plans based on those
• Resources: Discuss what resources you need. Depending on your business situation, these resources can include money, technical support, investments, or subject matter experts
• Style: Everyone communicates differently. Some people want constant updates and reassurance, while others prefer autonomy. Find out each team member’s or your boss’s style and tailor your communications to that. 
• Personal development : Get feedback on what you’re doing well and what needs improvement. These conversations can be held with direct reports as well as upper management so you can make adjustments early on and improve productivity and success

Early wins are a great way to build your credibility and reach the break-even point sooner—the point at which the company’s investment matches your contribution. By securing early wins, you build momentum and excitement for everyone on the team to reach even loftier goals. 🥇

Watkins suggests focusing on building credibility in the first 30 days and launching projects that are easy wins. To build credibility, talk to your team and figure out what they know about you. After all, you have a reputation, and you need to understand what that is to lead effectively. Once you know what they know, you can build on the existing credibility or establish it.

To be an effective and credible leader, it’s important to be accessible and set realistic expectations. Establish authority, but make sure you stay approachable. You also want to set clear demands and lofty goals but make sure they’re attainable as well. 

Once you’ve established credibility, it’s time to set goals for early wins. Keep in mind any long-term goals and break them down into smaller, attainable ones. Focus the team on specific goals to keep everyone working toward the early win and avoid distractions.

As a leader, you’re responsible for guiding the team and making sure everyone is working toward the same goals. That means ensuring alignment not only in priorities but structures and team units. ✍️

Watkins argues that four organizational structures need to be aligned for success:

• Strategic direction: Everyone needs to know the vision and strategy of the goals and company, and your goal should be to clearly define the company’s direction
• Structure: You need to align employees in groups, teams, and divisions to handle workloads that contribute to the company’s goals
• Core processes: These are systems that add value to the company and can include SOPs for how to be more organized at work , tools like project management software, and communication plans. Your job is to assess processes and align them within the structure for seamless workflows
• Skills bases: Your new organization will only be as successful as the people who work for it. As a leader, you’ll need to align people with skills to the right tasks to get the job done faster and smarter

Spend time thinking about potential misalignments, and put plans in place to avoid them. Focus especially on misalignments in terms of skill and direction, including individual team member capacity and capabilities. 

As a leader, you know how important having a good team is. People will be at the center of the most important decisions you’ll make in your first 90 days. Watkins suggests starting with assessments of existing teams. 

You don’t want to make changes too quickly, especially without understanding the existing situation. Establish an evaluation system with specific criteria based on skills and decision-making styles. Evaluate teams and individuals using specific KPIs based on the actual work they do.

By the end of the first 30 days, you should be able to make employment decisions based on your assessments. Watkins recommends grouping people into the following categories:

• Keep as is: If the team member is doing a good job, they’ll remain in the same position with no changes
• Keep, but focus on developing: The person does a decent job, but needs support, which you can provide
• Move to another position: The team member has skills that would make them more effective in a different position
• Replace: The person isn’t a good fit, and you’ll replace them with a new team member as soon as possible
• Observe: You don’t have enough information to make a decision or want to see how the person does on a specific project, so you’ll observe and then group them into one of the above categories

Your team will evolve, so make sure to revisit this process after your first 90 days. Be open to change, and adapt the team as the company’s goals and direction shift.

Preparing for a New Role : A 7-Step Checklist

The hardest part of transitioning to a new leadership role is leaving old habits in the past. Even with a new team, new tasks, and a new company culture, it’s easy to fall back into the same routine you used to have—and one that doesn’t fit your new role well. ⚠️

To avoid this dilemma, Michael Watkins recommends starting each new role with a seven-step checklist. As we continue our “The First 90 Days” summary, we break down this seven-step checklist so you can implement it fast.

It’s important to take time to celebrate the new transition. Whether that means spending time with friends over the weekend or grabbing a celebratory dinner with family, it’s key to celebrate your success. 

It’s also important to spend time reflecting on what you’re leaving behind and what lies ahead. Consider what things you wish worked better in your old role, and set expectations for what’s to come in your new role.

Make a list of likely problems—including technical, cultural, and political issues—across key business divisions. These can include finance, HR, tech, and marketing. Rank each potential problem on a scale of one to 10. Decide which problems you can—and want—to solve and which ones you’ll need to garner support for.

Spend some time thinking about your strengths and what makes you an effective leader. Think about what you did well in your past role and situations where you think you may have fallen short. Consider how these skills will serve you in your new job and how they may hinder your success in certain business situations.

Whether you were part of a leadership team at a startup, nonprofit, or multinational company, you have a track record of success. With so many wins under your belt, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you know best. 

When moving to a new position, it’s important to create a learning mindset. Things that have worked in other roles may not be as successful in your new position. Think about personal development and leadership development as you move into your new role. Take classes, be open to learning from colleagues, and consider new approaches to old problems. 

For new leaders and old leaders alike, having a solid network to turn to is invaluable. Take stock of your network, and see which individuals can help you make a smoother transition. Lean on old mentors, and look for gaps where you may need someone new to help you out. Make connections and build relationships with these individuals so you have the support you need to achieve accelerated growth.

Whether you’re moving to a new organization or getting promoted internally, some people may not be as happy about the change as you are. They may try to prevent you from being successful or limit your access to necessary resources. 

Whether it’s new team members, a new manager, or old colleagues, be mindful of these vulnerabilities. Focus on managing these working relationships, set clear expectations, and build a communication plan to address problems.

The first day of something new is always equal parts scary and exciting. Don’t be afraid to ask for help—whether it’s from your new boss or a direct report on your team. Reach out for help and resources when you need them, especially during the first 90 days when you’re getting settled in.

Popular “ The First 90 Days ” Quotes

Michael Watkins’ book is full of wisdom for leadership professionals. Not only does he know his stuff, but he also says it in a way that’s inspiring and engaging.

Here are some of our favorite quotes from “The First 90 Days:”

• “To be successful, you need to mobilize the energy of many others in your organization. If you do the right things, then your vision, your expertise, and your drive can propel you forward and serve as seed crystals” 
• “Joining a new company is akin to an organ transplant—and you’re the new organ. If you’re not thoughtful in adapting to the new situation, you could end up being attacked by the organizational immune system and rejected” 
• “The most important decisions you make in your first 90 days will probably be about people” 
• “Mission is about what will be achieved, vision is about why people should feel motivated to perform at a high level, and strategy is about how resources should be allocated and decisions made to accomplish the mission” 

Apply “ The First 90 Days ” Learnings With ClickUp

With project management software like ClickUp, you can implement key takeaways from this “The First 90 Days” summary faster and easier than ever. Here are some of the best features of ClickUp to make your transition to a new leadership role seamless. 🤩

ClickUp Goals makes it easy to set and track long-term goals and avoid misalignment along the way. Set clear timelines. and add measurable targets for each team, department, or the company at large. Automate progress tracking, and create folders to easily see goals for different team members and departments. 

Use ClickUp’s Task assignment and status features to build your team, keep track of everyone’s responsibilities, and avoid misalignments with your new team. Assign priorities to each task to let everyone know what work is most important. Add dependencies so team members can see what work is preventing progress on other tasks. 

Stay organized with ClickUp Spaces , especially if your leadership position involves overseeing various departments. Customize each Space with Lists and Folders to keep things like SOPs, company documents, and project resources all in one place. Trigger custom notifications to ensure effective communication any time big changes are made or projects are completed.

ClickUp also offers more than 1,000 templates—including several 30-, 60-, and 90-day plan templates —to make everything from goal setting to employee onboarding easier than ever. The 30-60-90-Day Plan Template from ClickUp offers an actionable plan for the first three months in your new role. Use it to outline goals, identify tasks, set deadlines, and track progress.

You’ll also find dozens of SOP templates to create a culture of organization. Use these to onboard new team members or build better processes for the existing team to implement.

Make Your First 90 Days Successful With ClickUp

With these strategies and tips from “The First 90 Days,” you’ll have what you need to transition smoothly to your new role. From building better teams to aligning strategies and securing early wins, this book offers a roadmap to leadership success.

Take your leadership game to the next level and sign up for ClickUp today . This project management software makes it easy to onboard new employees, set measurable goals, and track progress every step of the way. Plus, it’s customizable, so you can build a system that’s adaptable and fits the needs of your new organization. 🙌

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

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The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter Hardcover – May 14 2013

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• Print length 304 pages
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard Business Review Press; Updated, Expanded edition (May 14 2013)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1422188612
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1422188613
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 280 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.7 x 12.9 x 1.98 cm
• #3 in Career Guides (Books)
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About the author

Michael watkins.

Michael Watkins coaches C-level executives of global organizations and is founder of Genesis Advisers (www.genesisadvisers.com), a global leadership development consultancy specializing in transition acceleration for leaders, teams and organizations. He is also Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at the IMD Business School where he teaches a popular Virtual First 90 Days Open Program for leaders in transition (www.imd.org/f90d). He has spent the last two decades working with executives - both corporate and public – to help them craft their legacies as leaders and is ranked among the leading management thinkers globally by Thinkers50 (2019).

Watkins is author of the international bestseller The First 90 Days Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, aptly dubbed “The Onboarding Bible” by The Economist. With over a million copies sold in English and translations in 24 languages, The First 90 Days is the classic reference for leaders in transition and a standard learning and development resource for executive onboarding. Amazon named it one of its top 100 business books of all time.

Prior to joining IMD, Watkins was a member of faculty at INSEAD, Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he designed and taught world-class programs for high-potential leader development, corporate diplomacy, and strategic negotiation.

You can find Michael:

On LinkedIn (www.linkedin/in/michaeldwatkins)

On Twitter (@MichaelDWatkins)

You can follow The First 90 Days:

First 90 Days Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/thefirst90days)

First 90 Days YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/first90days)

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The First 90 Days has become the bestselling, globally acknowledged bible of leadership and career transitions. In this updated and expanded 10th anniversary edition, author and expert Michael Watkins gives you the keys to successfully negotiating your next move, whether you're on-boarding into a new company, being promoted internally, or embarking on an international assignment.

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Michael D. Watkins is a cofounder of Genesis Advisers, a leadership development consultancy that specializes in the design of onboarding and transition acceleration solutions, workshops, and coaching for Fortune 500 companies.

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• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
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Michael watkins.

Michael Watkins coaches C-level executives of global organizations and is founder of Genesis Advisers (www.genesisadvisers.com), a global leadership development consultancy specializing in transition acceleration for leaders, teams and organizations. He is also Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at the IMD Business School where he teaches a popular Virtual First 90 Days Open Program for leaders in transition (www.imd.org/f90d). He has spent the last two decades working with executives - both corporate and public – to help them craft their legacies as leaders and is ranked among the leading management thinkers globally by Thinkers50 (2019).

Watkins is author of the international bestseller The First 90 Days Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, aptly dubbed “The Onboarding Bible” by The Economist. With over a million copies sold in English and translations in 24 languages, The First 90 Days is the classic reference for leaders in transition and a standard learning and development resource for executive onboarding. Amazon named it one of its top 100 business books of all time.

Prior to joining IMD, Watkins was a member of faculty at INSEAD, Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he designed and taught world-class programs for high-potential leader development, corporate diplomacy, and strategic negotiation.

You can find Michael:

On LinkedIn (www.linkedin/in/michaeldwatkins)

On Twitter (@MichaelDWatkins)

You can follow The First 90 Days:

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First 90 Days YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/first90days)

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The First 90 Days Summary

1-Sentence-Summary: The First 90 Days delivers an exact, play-by-play roadmap for acing a career transition, be it a promotion or job at a new company, from mentally preparing before the move to adapting when on the role to securing early wins, managing expectations, and aligning yourself with a new team, boss, and culture.

Favorite quote from the author:

I’ve never been promoted, but I once promoted someone else. Unfortunately, running a small business is very different from maintaining a publishing schedule, and so eventually, I had to reverse the decision.

I should have known better, but it goes to show: Career transitions are some of the hardest transitions in life. Perhaps it should not surprise us. Getting married, choosing a college, having a child — all of these are big role transformations. Why should changing jobs be any easier?

In The First 90 Days , leadership professor Michael D. Watkins explains why role changes at work often go less than rosy and how to succeed at a new job or company. Here’s the rough structure: Divide your first 90 days into 3 blocks of 30 days each, with a check-in with your boss after every block. Spend the first block on learning and building credibility, the second getting some early wins on key priorities, and the third diving deeper into your initiatives.

Here are 3 useful frameworks from the book to help you during those crucial first 90 days:

• Use a 7-step checklist to prepare yourself well before you start a new role.
• The STARS-model will help you understand and prioritize your new responsibilities quickly.
• Maintain 5 ongoing conversations with your boss and team to build strong work-relationships early.

You’ve worked hard for your new gig. Let’s ace the first 90 days!

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

Lesson 1: Whenever you start a new role, run through a 7-step checklist to prepare yourself well.

After 8 years in marketing, Julia was promoted to product launch manager. Instead of delegating work across functions, however, she micromanaged and neglected non-marketing tasks. Soon, she was back in her old role.

“She kept doing what she knew how to do,” Watkins writes, but that didn’t cut it. The hardest part of nailing a new role is to let go of your old one. Watkins suggests a 7-step checklist to help you do so:

• Make a clean break mentally . Life goes fast. Take time to acknowledge your new role, if only informally, for example by celebrating with friends on the weekend.
• Assess your problem preferences . List out technical, political, and cultural challenges across core business units, like HR, finance, etc. Rate them from 1 to 10 on whether you can (and want to) solve them. Which problems will you enjoy, and which ones do you need help with?
• Take stock of your strengths . Note how they might help or hinder you . Being hands-on might have gotten you here , but will it still get you there ?
• Re-familiarize yourself with learning . If you’ve been comfortable in your old role, starting from scratch can be hard. Get into a mindset of learning so you can adjust as required.
• Adjust your network . With a new role, you’ll need new advice. Who’s a mentor you can still rely on, and who should you ask to be one now that you have different tasks?
• Watch out for gatekeepers . From your old boss to former colleagues turned subordinates, some people might be less happy about your transition than you are. Manage them and set the right expectations.
• Seek help when and where you need it . Be it a leadership development program or the 90-day plan you agree on with your manager: You’re not alone in making change, and it’s okay to ask for help.

Sliding into a new job rarely goes smoothly during the best of times. With this checklist, however, at least you won’t accidentally set yourself up to fail.

Lesson 2: Diagnose job aspects with the STARS model to quickly understand and prioritize new responsibilities.

One of the first things you should do once you’re on the job, Watkins says, is run a “STARS” analysis. “STARS is an acronym for five common business situations,” he writes. They are:

• Start-up : Getting a new business, product, team, or project off the ground.
• Turnaround : Taking a deeply troubled brand, business unit, or product line, and steering it back on track.
• Accelerated growth : Scaling a successful but fast-paced venture to new heights.
• Realignment : Restoring a once-great business to its former glory and beyond.
• Sustaining success : Leveling up a flourishing legacy business.

Apply this framework to “the 5 Ps:” products, processes, projects, plants, and people . Overlap is possible. A legendary clothing brand like Nike might have a new shoe line starting up and a now-defunct Yeezy brand to deal with at the same time.

Make a table putting each element into the right categories, and try to assign a priority-percentage to each one so the total adds up to 100%. Do the start-ups deserve most of your attention ? Or the turnarounds?

With a quick STARS-analysis, you’ll make sure your strategies match the situation in each aspect of your new job during the first 90 days!

Lesson 3: Have “the 5 Conversations” to build great relationships with your new boss and team.

Onboarding well depends on quickly building efficient and strong relationships . If your new boss thinks you’re acting unilaterally or your team doesn’t have your back, you won’t get anything done. Not in 90 days, and not in 900.

To start off on the right foot, plan for “the 5 Conversations,” as Watkins calls them. These are the big topics you should actively address with your boss but also your own team, especially if you’re their boss. Here they are:

• Situational diagnosis : Get your boss’s input on your STARS analysis. Do they agree? What do they see that you don’t?
• Expectations : Assess them and work to change them if you must. What does your boss need from you, and when can you realistically deliver it?
• Resources : What are the tools you need to succeed? How many people doing what? Negotiate for the resources you need.
• Style : Share your management and conversation approaches with your boss, and find out theirs. Establish a solid, ongoing communication routine.
• Personal development : Start a dialog about what you’re doing well and what needs work. After all, just because you got promoted once doesn’t mean you’re at the end of your career ladder!

These 5 conversations should be ongoing, and you’ll likely discuss more than one of them in any one meeting. Trust in organizations rests on clear, honest, and timely communication. If you successfully maintain these 5 discussions, you’ll be well on your way to having a victorious first 90 days!

The First 90 Days Review

The First 90 Days is a business classic with over 1.5 million copies sold. It is chock-full of great tips, useful frameworks, and detailed planning exercises. “The actions you take during your first few months in a new role will largely determine whether you succeed or fail,” Watkins reminds us. With this book, you’ll have all the tools you need to do the former instead of the latter!

Who would I recommend our The First 90 Days summary to?

The 17-year-old starting their first desk job fresh out of high school, the 30-year-old young professional who just switched companies for the first time, and anyone who’s about to get promoted or currently looking for a new gig.

Niklas Göke

Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each. Born and raised in Germany, Nik also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Engineering from KIT Karlsruhe and a Master’s Degree in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich. He lives in Munich and enjoys a great slice of salami pizza almost as much as reading — or writing — the next book — or book summary, of course!

*Four Minute Books participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon. We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Our referral links allow us to earn commissions (at no extra cost to you) and keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

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“The First 90 Days,” by Michael Watkins: Book Review

by Kate Dixon | Apr 16, 2020 | Book Club , Performance & Productivity

Whether you’ve just been promoted or have recently been hired into a new role, getting started on the right foot can make a huge difference in your long-term success. Michael Watkins’ must-read book on onboarding, “ The First 90 Days ,” outlines every aspect of successfully transitioning to a new role.

Watkins covers ten essential components of onboarding in the book. While this review highlights my favorite five, do grab the book to check out the other items, too!

Prepare Yourself

Negotiate success, achieve alignment.

• Build Your Team

Accelerate Everyone

This chapter focuses on shifting your mindset to open up the way you think about everything from delegation, to communication, to adapting to a new culture. You’ll find tips on how to deal with greater complexity and ambiguity, tougher politics, and more scrutiny here. There’s even a tip sheet for how to identify cultural norms by asking yourself questions about how meetings, execution, recognition, and other things work.

This might be my favorite chapter in the whole book. Watkins advises “proactively engaging with your new boss” to ensure you have a clear path to success. The section on “Planning for Five Conversations” (situational diagnosis, expectations, resources, style, and personal development) stands out as a powerful way to address issues in a clear, organized, and intentional way.

Alignment, in this case, refers to how your piece of the pie relates to the whole. Organizational alignment, strategic alignment, and process alignment are covered here. While you may not have the opportunity to reorganize your organization in your first 90 days, identifying misalignments should be high on your list.

Watkins offers a great – and easily actionable – tip: reframe SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis as TOWS (threats, opportunities, weaknesses, strengths). This focuses on the external environment (threats and opportunities) first, and the internal capabilities (weaknesses, strengths), informed by the external, second.

Create Alliances

While leadership and management skills are critical, influencing through alliances can make (or break) your team’s success. Taking the time to map out networks of influence for any areas or issues of concern will help you understand where you need to create relationships. And understanding who the opinion leaders are – with both supporting and opposing views – will help you navigate change initiatives more effectively.

By identifying where the biggest-impact transitions are happening throughout your organization, and supporting those transitions well, you’ll have a better shot at accelerating success for everyone. The great news is the techniques and concepts Watkins teaches throughout “The First 90 Days” can be applied at any level of the organization to achieve that acceleration.

Other topics included in the book are how to accelerate your learning, matching strategy to each situation, securing early wins, managing yourself, and building your team. See? You really do need to read, “The First 90 Days”!

What’s been your biggest “aha” you’ve had in your first 90 days integrating into a new role? Tell us in the comments below!

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The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter: Proven Straegies for Getting up to Speed faster and smarter Hardcover – 14 May 2013

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• Print length 304 pages
• Language English
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• Publication date 14 May 2013
• Dimensions 19.7 x 12.9 x 1.98 cm
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard Business Review Press; Updated, Expanded edition (14 May 2013)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1422188612
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1422188613
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.7 x 12.9 x 1.98 cm
• 35 in Job Hunting (Books)

About the author

Michael watkins.

Michael Watkins coaches C-level executives of global organizations and is founder of Genesis Advisers (www.genesisadvisers.com), a global leadership development consultancy specializing in transition acceleration for leaders, teams and organizations. He is also Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at the IMD Business School where he teaches a popular Virtual First 90 Days Open Program for leaders in transition (www.imd.org/f90d). He has spent the last two decades working with executives - both corporate and public – to help them craft their legacies as leaders and is ranked among the leading management thinkers globally by Thinkers50 (2019).

Watkins is author of the international bestseller The First 90 Days Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, aptly dubbed “The Onboarding Bible” by The Economist. With over a million copies sold in English and translations in 24 languages, The First 90 Days is the classic reference for leaders in transition and a standard learning and development resource for executive onboarding. Amazon named it one of its top 100 business books of all time.

Prior to joining IMD, Watkins was a member of faculty at INSEAD, Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he designed and taught world-class programs for high-potential leader development, corporate diplomacy, and strategic negotiation.

You can find Michael:

On LinkedIn (www.linkedin/in/michaeldwatkins)

On Twitter (@MichaelDWatkins)

You can follow The First 90 Days:

First 90 Days Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/thefirst90days)

First 90 Days YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/first90days)

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard Business School Press India Limited; Updated, Expanded edition (1 January 2013)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
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About the author

Michael watkins.

Michael Watkins coaches C-level executives of global organizations and is founder of Genesis Advisers (www.genesisadvisers.com), a global leadership development consultancy specializing in transition acceleration for leaders, teams and organizations. He is also Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at the IMD Business School where he teaches a popular Virtual First 90 Days Open Program for leaders in transition (www.imd.org/f90d). He has spent the last two decades working with executives - both corporate and public – to help them craft their legacies as leaders and is ranked among the leading management thinkers globally by Thinkers50 (2019).

Watkins is author of the international bestseller The First 90 Days Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, aptly dubbed “The Onboarding Bible” by The Economist. With over a million copies sold in English and translations in 24 languages, The First 90 Days is the classic reference for leaders in transition and a standard learning and development resource for executive onboarding. Amazon named it one of its top 100 business books of all time.

Prior to joining IMD, Watkins was a member of faculty at INSEAD, Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he designed and taught world-class programs for high-potential leader development, corporate diplomacy, and strategic negotiation.

You can find Michael:

On LinkedIn (www.linkedin/in/michaeldwatkins)

On Twitter (@MichaelDWatkins)

You can follow The First 90 Days:

First 90 Days Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/thefirst90days)

First 90 Days YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/first90days)

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