Eckert adds, “As the new guy, I realized that every first encounter with a Mattel employee had the potential to be fraught with tension, and I felt it was my responsibility to do everything possible to reduce it. Surprisingly, I found that in each situation, recognizing my own lack of knowledge about the company’s people and culture - in effect, allowing the employees to be the ‘boss’ in certain situations - actually helped me lead.

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.

Do not forget that your higher authority generally always wants things to work out just about as much as you do. If you keep at the forefront of your mind what your boss really wants from you - strong performance, loyalty, and good advice - and key off of his or her preferred work and communication style, you will maximize your chances of establishing a productive workplace relationship. If you are a CEO, the rules also apply for how you lay the groundwork for working with your board and building the relationship into a true partnership. Shaping a productive relationship with a new business partner, especially one who has the power to hire and fire you, is always a challenge.

Establish an effective communication protocol with your boss or board, including formal information flows such as monthly management letters, as well as an informal communication protocol, such as phone calls before each meeting and informal meetings or meals with your boss or individual directors.

Lucent’s Schacht offers sound advice for the new CEO in a crisis:

“If I were a new CEO coming into a new company at a tough time. I’d have a deal with the board. I would tell them, ‘I’m going to keep you informed every step of the way. But you’re not my most important problem right now. You’re asked me to come in and you’ve given me a good briefing and I thank you; now please give me a little room. I’ll be back with a status report in two or three weeks, and if something else comes up, we’ll be on the phone together. But right now my most important constituent is the internal folks and our customers.