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57 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All Performance, Not Hype, September 28, 2006
You won't find this book touted in any web 2.0 blogs, business 2.0 magazines, or pundit 2.0 panel discussions at Demo. It lacks snarky, pithy and/or bloviating commentary. This is an un-hip book that focuses hedgehog-like on your being successful in your new job.
The New Leaders 100-Day Action Plan gives us an insight into an area of our business lives that has not been given enough attention, namely what the authors call, the 'executive on-boarding' experience. Many, many new executives fail in new roles, not because they are incompetent but because they are set up for failure before their arrival.
The invaluable lessons within this book include: 1) your first day begins well before your first day, 2) negotiate after your offer and before your acceptance, 3) know your stakeholders before you start -- get all of these issues ironed out before you accept the job; and many others.
I won't do the standard "Amazon book report review" here, but if you're in a position to transition into a new role, this is a book you really need to read, quickly.
I joined a company many years ago -- hot brand name, great technology, high riding stock price -- only to find out upon arrival that 1) the job I was promised wasn't agreed upon by other stakeholders, 2) that there were others in the company who also had 'my job', and 3) my boss was about to get fired. I left after seven months. Had I spent 15 minutes with this book, I could have unlocked a few of these secrets ahead of time. You live and learn, but you don't always have to learn the hard way.
Save yourself from having to learn the hard way. Highly recommended, quick read.
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47 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The only complete book for starting a new job as a leader from A-Z, May 28, 2007
We bought this book along with the "The First 90 Days" and read them side by side.
Pro:
-Delves into what questions to ask before the interview through the first several months... I found no other book that is this complete from beginning to end
-Promotes using the time opportunity BEFORE you start a job and in my experience is a major differentiator that I've been able to surprise and delight. Set up pre-meetings, arranging for email/phone and a place to sit, etc. as a chance to listen and learn without the pressure to perform and to begin forming alliances.
-Serves as a handy reference... excellent chapter summaries and a strong executive summary with a timeline and a meaty chapter outline are helpful both now and in the future
-Checklists are excellent and abundant, boiling thoughts down to the most essential elements in a more memorable (less verbose) way
-Checklists include not only job-related tips, but also cover moving-related items as well... handy!
-There are many good tips interspersed throughout the book that are good reminders of the basics you need to adhere to in order to be successful
-Breaks the "sink or swim mindset" often associated with starting a new position
-Excellent use of forms for introspective Q&A; creatively offers forms that can even be downloaded from the internet, a clever and fairly unique offering
Con:
-I think that assessments of what environment you'll be stepping into are underdeveloped and/or understated. You need to know if the team is under performing, just too new, etc.
Bottom line: Highly recommended as a must have text for the aspiring business professional. This book effectively serves as warning, motivation, and how to get results in your new role.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Think Productive Condensed Wisdom, September 14, 2006
This is an amazing book! Actually, it's a distillation and synthesis of the most relevant content of many books, combined with lots of unique and very valuable insight from the authors, and arranged in a highly useful order.
Key eye-openers are:
*The importance of starting before Day One and how to do it
*The critical success factors of Day One
*The sequence, timelines and guidelines for the critical events in the first 100 days - and how much time you haven't got
Even on established concepts (e.g. establishing shared purpose, building the right team, conducting milestone meetings), this book adds valuable perspective and many effective practices to improve your probability of success.
While the book focuses on the essential steps to succeed in a new job in a new company, it's equally useful for consultants taking on a new assignment or leaders taking on new responsibilities in their current company.
The only downside is the "Ouches" you'll feel when you realize what you did wrong, and what you should have done, in prior experiences that could have gone better.
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