|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
This earnest guide to career transition periods-when a new job or promotion puts an employee in an unfamiliar role-asserts, reassuringly, that navigating the all-important first 90 days is a "teachable skill." Business professor Watkins, co-author of Right From the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership Role, lays out a "standard framework" for leadership transitions, based on "five fundamental propositions," "ten key challenges," and a four-fold typology of situations that new managers find themselves in. Fortunately, Watkins balances the theorizing with practical steps managers can take to get on top of things and initiate changes, including elaborate self-assessment checklists, planning exercises and meticulous guidelines on how to have conversations with underlings and bosses. His advice, if not very original, is sound. He warns managers not to assume that their existing skills will suffice for new roles, advises them to pursue small-scale "early wins" to boost credibility, and admonishes workplace Machiavellis to "avoid pressing for closure until you are confident the balance of forces acting on key people is tipping your way." Watkins's penchant for cut-and-dried schematizations sometimes goes overboard, especially in the book's plethora of elementary graphs, tables, diagrams and matrices (novice orators are informed that "classic values invoked to convince others to embrace potentially painful change are summarized in table 8-1," while the oceanic topic of "Intersecting Cultural Dimensions" gets boiled down to a three-ring Venn diagram). But if the content of Watkins's counsel is not always obviously helpful, his systematized approach to thinking will at least help panicky executives keep their wits about them.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In these days of the public's microscopic scrutiny of corporate C-level executives, it's a wonder anyone would aspire to the CEO position. Amazingly enough, many eager managers are still climbing--and Harvard Business School professor and author (Right from the Start [1999]) Watkins helps prepare them for career moves, accelerating their transitions. This is, essentially, practical advice about undertaking new opportunities and understanding new vulnerabilities, quickly and without much upheaval. Different steps--sometimes simultaneously, sometimes sequential-- define success in the first three months, from promoting yourself (i.e., taking charge fast) to keeping your balance. Anecdotes enliven the checklists and sample learning plans; in fact, one specific case--Douglas Ivester of Coca-Cola--underscores the absolute necessity to adapt and change rapidly in new positions. Much content is human resources related, based on self-discipline, team building, and the availability of trusted advice and counsel. Would that every newly elected president of the U.S. heeded this practice. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
THE PRESIDENT of the United States gets 100 days to prove himself; you get 90. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE PRESIDENT of the United States gets 100 days to prove himself; you get 90. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Many great ideas to think about!,
By
This review is from: The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels (Hardcover)
There are many original great ideas presented in this book which stand alone on their own merit. But perhaps the biggest idea of the book is for companies to view a job transition as any other business process- and subsequently look to optimize it. There are so many transitions in most companies in any given year, that having a process that makes more transitions successful and the new employees effective sooner should noticeably improve the bottom line. Most importantly, this book makes you think!Also noteworthy in this book is its straightforward organization- the book lays out 10 areas to consider during a transition, then dedicates a chapter to each, and concludes with a brief summary. The book also reads well, and has examples to clarify the 10 areas.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
The First 90 Pages -- I can't believe I wasted money on this,
By Andrew Frenette (Red Deer, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels (Hardcover)
If I could give this book no stars, I would. This book is horrible. It contains everything William Zinsser warned us about in his classic book "On Writing Well." As a new manager I was keen to learn the "how's" of doing the job well. On the outside, this book appeared to be what I needed to help me. I should have read further than the first few pages. "A-Item" action lists, imminently notable ways of expediting your acceleration through your transition, persuading your "convincibles" to "acculturate" themselves to the company's mode of operation....? Huh? (I studied English in university, by the way.) I made it to about page 175 before I collapsed from the fatigue induced by my attempts to decipher what it was Watkins was trying to tell me. Buried among the euphemisms, coined jargon, and plain bad writing, I'm sure, are some valuable lessons for new managers. But untangling the language makes this read less enjoyable and more like a chore. Save your time and money. My advice: read Marcinko. He's brash, he's crude, and he writes much better. He's what I needed.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
early wins are the key...,
By "newok" (New Jersey , USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels (Hardcover)
As someone who recently moved into my first executive role, i found this book very helpful in focusing on early wins and in developing and accelerating momentum in my new role. It forced me to balance thinking with action...Stongly recommend it for a general mgmt transition. ...tools in the book force you to take an outside-in view of your new role.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Decision-Making & Problem Solving
- Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Leadership
- Books > Business & Investing > Organizational Behaviour > Organizational Change
- Books > Business & Investing > Popular Economics
- Books > Professional & Technical > Business Management > Management & Leadership > Decision-Making & Problem Solving
- Books > Professional & Technical > Business Management > Management & Leadership > Leadership
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
