In fact, how you treat your predecessor is so important and so easy to mishandle, we have determined that it is one of the top traps for new leaders and have therefore elaborated on the dynamic in Chapter 8.

Let’s face it, no one, regardless of how experienced or talented, is equally adept at every aspect of a job. In any case, as Immelt points out, even if you are above average across the board, no leader has the time to concentrate on every aspect of the job, especially in the earliest days of a new position. Think about where your personal involvement will yield the most leverage and where someone else might do an even better job.

Leadership can be a tough and lonely position, even in the best of times, but it’s especially isolated when you want to make changes. You can’t and shouldn’t try to do it all yourself.

You need someone trustworthy with whom you can brainstorm, discuss sensitive personnel decisions, test the waters, and gather opinions in situations when people might not be completely honest and forthcoming with the CEO. You need someone discreet whom you can turn to during the “what do I do now?” moments that hit everyone at some point. Call it partner or confidant, the position can be second in importance only to you.

Similarly, one of the keys to success in any new job is establishing a productive working relationship with your boss. Whether you are moving into a position of expanded responsibility as a new manager or as a new CEO, how you establish and sustain that relationship will help shape your first hundred days and will be a crucial element in your ongoing success.

The failure to let go of a past identity manifests itself in a variety of ways, none of them positive. Some leaders bring all the accoutrements of their prior office to their new one, causing people to disdainfully view their new digs as a mausoleum.