Two, take the time to listen before you do anything else. You will set the tone; it will be very difficult to reset it. If you start off by imposing your views on people, you’re not going to have what you most need when you most need it - namely, the commitment of the people you need to get the work done. Even if you’re right and you end up in exactly the same place as you thought you were going to end up, the experience of stopping and doing nothing but being a very good listener for as long as you can stand it is the most important thing to do. The whole act of talking to the top people is the first step towards gaining their commitment and understanding, which you must have if you don’t get it the first time. Until you get a consensus, that everyone agrees on - these are our priorities, and here’s who’s going to work on them, and here’s how our midcourse correction is going to be if we’re not right, and here are the things we can’t put off - take as long as you can stand to get that front end clear, committed, understood, communicated, massaged, and changed.” - Henry Schacht

In his first few weeks, he made appointments to talk with the top 20 percent of management - fifty people in all - for an hour each. “I’d start at seven in the morning and finish at eight, nine, ten o’clock at night,” he recalls. “I asked everyone the same question: ‘What do I need to know?’ Then I didn’t say a word the whole time, except to encourage them to keep going.

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.

Communication is a central aspect of leadership and indeed all human activity. It has a magnified effect during your first hundred days. Take care to do it well and do it often, which requires active listening, tailoring communication approaches both to your natural strengths and to the situation, and giving and getting direct feedback. It will help support your strategic and cultural agenda; it will also help you avoid many of the most common pitfalls that threaten new leaders as they try to get off to the right start.

The key takeaway: Spend a large portion of your first hundred days listening rather than talking, learning rather than preaching, observing rather than jumping to conclusions, and inviting input rather than promulgating the gospel according to you.