Small is Beautiful: Career Transition - Your First Ninety Days- Part 2

If you missed Part I of this article, you can read it here: https://businesswise.in/special-focus/details/2511/Small-is-Beautiful-Career-Transition--Your-First-Ninety-Days 

A recap from Part I of my Article suggests that very well-intentioned unilateral decisions not embedded in the unique new culture, old successes implanted on new problems, allowing tactical issues to consume your day(s), taking remote oversight for granted, underestimating the importance of team buy-in, and the urge to show yourself on top of the game are pointers towards failure, NOT success.                                                                                                                                                                                   

Plainly speaking, the seeds of failure and success are sown in the first ninety days of a Career Transition. The impact of the actions and decisions lingers, and there is no going away from the opinions developed about you and like the word in Chinese Whispers, touches people who are not in your direct line of sight within and outside the Organisation, leaving you, for the most part, in an unenviable position.                                                                                               

Here, then, are some Pro Tips and Mantras which could reduce the possibility of failure and definitely increase the possibilities of success.                                                                                 

1. With technical competence being a given, learn, understand, filter, and absorb as much about the organisation: its history, unique culture, political dynamics, informal influencers, change barriers, etc, from multiple reliable sources. 
2. Establish your credibility first by solving problems which appear as low-hanging fruit with negligible costs and visible impact, provided these are the focal areas of your leadership and not disconnected from long-term goals.
3. Invest and consolidate your relationship with your Reporting Manager from the word GO. Every interaction must inspire his trust. Clarify expectations, revisit them periodically, align with his goals, set realistic timelines, ask for support, deliver on commitments, and invite feedback. Read between the lines, pick up cues about his style and keep him posted.
4. Solutioning – coming up with conclusions must essentially be rooted in the wisdom of the team and other related stakeholders, both vertically and horizontally.
5. Let go of the past, the present situation may be uncertain, complex and ambiguous, requiring recalibration of thoughts, treating unlearning and relearning a part of your growth.
6. Follow the beaten path in any change initiative, keeping the deeper ones towards the end. Guard against making a change for the sake of change or making too many.
7. Be cautious about building your reputation /brand. Let every spoken word, tone, behaviour/ action, body language, demonstrate your values, attitudes, capabilities, commitment & judgement.
8. Take a hard-nosed view of the reporting team - competence, trustworthiness, judgement, relationship effectiveness. Choose stability over change unless it is dysfunctional to the organisation, is my recommendation. Create a high-performance environment and keep energy levels high.
9. Notwithstanding your position in the organisation, build relationships and allies who believe in your work and your values, who will root for you when you are not in the room.
10. Leverage data to direct your decisions, give credence to reason over intuition, temper your actions with a touch of humaneness and reasonableness.

If you have personal experiences to share that support this prescription or add to it, write to me at [email protected].

By Ms Triveni Mehta

Senior Human Resource Consultant