At Gillette, I felt comfortable only about a year after I walked in that we knew exactly what we would need to do over the next five years.
âA leader must take action immediately to fix obvious problems. But developing an insightful strategic plan will take three to five months. There is too much information and too steep a learning curve to try to implement solid strategy in the first thirty to sixty days.â - Jim Kilts.
Related Quotes
Pressler recognized that it would be premature in the first hundred days to develop a comprehensive strategic plan - and even if he did, it might be wrong. But he knew that in an organization of 165,000 employees, he needed to find a way to set a direction and motivate the people.
You shouldnât expect to walk into a new leadership job with an established strategic plan. Rather, you should walk in prepared to lead a strategic processâ - Dave Petersschmidt
Finding the right balance between creating a compelling picture of where you plan to lead the organization and not becoming prematurely locked into a plan of action is one of the most important ways to make the most of your first hundred days. Think not about developing your strategic plan but about crafting your strategic agenda.
Most likely you have more time than you think to develop your strategic agenda. While people expect fresh perspective from a new leader, a new style, and probably a new energy level, most do not expect a wholesale new direction, at least early on.
Thereâs a lot to be said for effective listening and for not sharing plans prematurely. Not only does it tamp down the amount of potential distraction within the organization, it also nips public scrutiny and second-guessing in the bud. The last thing a new leader needs, especially in a crisis situation, is to have the media and industry pundits questioning, analyzing, and deconstructing your plans even more than they already will be doing. Big pronouncements, especially early in your tenure, make big impressions that can come back to haunt you. âIf youâre going to make big calls, you better be right,â counsels Steve Bennett. âBecause if you come in early and you make big calls and youâre wrong, the whole organization is going to lose a lot of confidence in you.â
Vision for visionâs sake is counterproductive. Determining a course for the organization is a process that usually requires more time than most people foresee. It should be iterative, building off your strategic agenda, sharpening and clarifying the path based in experimentation and feedback.
The issue of trying to transform a culture, especially a deeply embedded one from many years of the corporate equivalent of geological layering, extends well beyond your first hundred days. Sometimes it takes years. The critical point for the early days in a new role is to be highly sensitized to the issue, make an effective cultural assessment, and plant the seeds for the long-term change you are committed to achieving.