Surviving Your First 100 Days and Beyond
Posted by Robert Hargrove
The first 100 days can be like an exciting, but nerve wracking travel experience through the land of uncertainty. You think you know your going-in mandate, but you are not sure because some early attempts were thwarted. You are wondering where you have the power to make big decisions and where it would be wiser to go for quick wins that would build credibility and produce some near term results.
I think one of the best pieces of advice about how to survive your first 100 days came from former Brazilian President Lula. He said something to the effect that the secret was in “doing the obvious.”
In his case, there were millions of people living in poverty in Brazil who couldn’t afford healthcare or schools, and he yanked people out of poverty by giving them a small stipend that completely changed their lives. Everybody—supporters and the opposition—got on board and his popularity sky rocketed.
In my soon to be released book, I often use the phrase, “your first 100 days and beyond.” It’s easy enough to have a nice neat 100-day plan, but it is the “and beyond” that often confounds new leaders.
After the first 3 to 4 months on the job, you may feel that you have accomplished a lot. Yet basically what you have been doing may be compared to cleaning up a messy room, where everything you do seems to make a visible difference. For example, cleaning house with your leadership team, preaching about the importance of a much more customer centric organization, or cutting some really wasteful costs. Yet once the room is clean, your actions don’t seem to carry the same impact.
Big challenges don't present easy or obvious answers.
You are now in a situation where you have to deal with some really big challenges that don’t present easy or obvious answers. This was described very well by Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, who has weathered more than his fair share of highs (knocking Hollywood and Blockbuster for a loop, over ten million subscribers) and lows (aggressive competition from Wal-Mart and the fact that Netflix’s most avid customers who stream videos are also its least profitable.)
Handling each new challenge with aplomb, Hastings has demonstrated an enviable capacity for resilience. “Being an entrepreneur is about patience and persistence, not the quick buck,” and “Everything great is hard and takes a long time.”
If your mindset after the first 100 days is that things are going to be easy, you will probably either be too bold or too impatient and get yourself in trouble. Yet if you reset your mindset and embrace the fact that it may be hard, you will be able to find the right mixture of boldness and patience, and be up to the task in front of you.