Congratulations – you have a new job!
The first 100 days sets the tone for your leadership within your team and across your peer set. Here is what to do in the first 100 days to get up to speed quickly.
- First, draft a 100-day plan as quickly as possible to identify, achieve, and maintain key performance parameters. Use it to align with your peers and other management team members.
- Then, keep a running log separately that defines activities that maintain the business and activities to improve the business. Understand the ratio and make sure your leadership agrees with the split.
- Conduct an immediate assessment of direct reports and key positions. Identify capabilities and gaps and work with your leadership and peers to devise clear organizational structure alignment.
- Establish a communication cadence for key stakeholders and employees across all levels. This will aid in alignment and clarify expectations early on. Any gaps in communication can create misunderstanding and confusion within the organization. Consider daily check-ins during the first week for direct reports, and then weekly. Begin a “skip level” cadence to penetrate deeper into your organization. Create office hours so members know when you are available.
- Perform a financial assessment to get a clear picture of the financial reporting, contribution and needs for your department. Evaluate your annual and quarterly budgets. Review with your leadership to ensure you understand operational spending, initiative budgets and your spending limits and restrictions.
- Visit stores get out of the headquarters market with an intention to see a store representing all prototypes, your largest and your smallest stores as well as very high-volume and very low-volume stores.
- Finally, be conscious of the need to understand and work within the culture of the company. Build authentic relationships with legacy employees and peers .First, seek to understand the reasons behind practices before attempting to change or replace practices. You will gain credibility and respect if you appreciate the culture before making changes in your first 100 days on the job.