Ann Badillo Coaching

Strategic Priorities

While we all "do a hundred things," we may not/should not/cannot have more than 2 (or 3) true "strategic" priorities at any point in time. --Tom Peters

90 Day Executive Onboarding Plan

Day 1

** Making connections with the right people
** Learning specifics of the business
** Obtaining clarification of expectations
** Clarifying and understanding cultural identity
** Identifying key job fit issues at this level

Month 1

1. Identifying learning priorities
2. Identifying  executive's risk profile
3. Identifying cultural alignment issues
4. Identifying corporate job expectations and devising 90 day strategies
5. Attaining clarity of relations with the boss
6. Investigating team restructuring issues

Common traps of new leaders

I know that we have all seen our colleagues fall into one of these traps which Michael Watkins, HBS professor outlines in Seven Rules for New Leaders.

Trap #1 Being isolated

Trap #2  Coming in with "The Answer"

Trap #3  Staying too long with the existing team

Trap #4  Attemping too much

Trap #5 Being Captured by the wrong people

Trap #6 Setting unrealistic expectations

Read more

The First 90 Days

Michael Watkins, professor at HBS has developed an excellent framework for creating your 90 day acceleration plan. The conceputal backbone of the roadmap is 10 key transition challenges:

1. Promote yourself

2. Accelerate your learning

3. Match strategy to situation

4. Secure early wins

5. Negotiate Success

6. Achieve alignment

7. Build your team

8. Create coalitions

9. Keep you balance

10. Expedite everyone

This framework works and I have helped my clients successfully transition into new roles and hit the ground running!

Recent  Articles:

Business Week: How to Take the Reins at Top Speed: Finding Traction In The First 100 Days

The Economist: Executive Onboarding

Top Ten Reasons to Hire a Coach or Strategist (Corporate)

• When you have a complex business problem
• When you are in an early market, or early to market
• When you need creative thinking
• When time is not on your side
• When you must engage a diverse team of outside stakeholders
• When you need synthesis and action, not just analysis and thought
• When you need to jump-start internal teamwork
• When you must maximize decision-making capabilities
• When you need cross-company alignment and buy-in
• When you need a different process and results—not just another meeting

• When you have a complex business problem
• When you are in an early market, or early to market
• When you need creative thinking
• When time is not on your side
• When you must engage a diverse team of outside stakeholders
• When you need synthesis and action, not just analysis and thought
• When you need to jump-start internal teamwork
• When you must maximize decision-making capabilities
• When you need cross-company alignment and buy-in
• When you need a different process and results—not just another meeting

• When you have a complex business problem
• When you are in an early market, or early to market
• When you need creative thinking
• When time is not on your side
• When you must engage a diverse team of outside stakeholders
• When you need synthesis and action, not just analysis and thought
• When you need to jump-start internal teamwork
• When you must maximize decision-making capabilities
• When you need cross-company alignment and buy-in
• When you need a different process and results—not just another meeting

First 90 Days/Leadership Acceleration Coaching//Executive Onboarding

• Critical success strategies for new leaders at all levels
• Assess your strengths and weakness
• Diagnose your situation & understand challenges and opportunities
• Align expectations with your boss
• Secure early wins that establish credibility and build momentum
• Build your team and connects with influential coalitions

Recent  Articles:

Business Week: How to Take the Reins at Top Speed: Finding Traction In The First 100 Days

The Economist: Executive Onboarding

New Leadership Role? Get Early Wins

According to Michael Watkins, auther of The First 90 Days, the single most important principle from his framework is-- Get early wins to build momentum fast.

By the end of the first six months, the new leader must have begun to energize people and focus then on solving important problems, in ways that have a quick dramatic impact.

To secure early wins,  a new leader should:

--Establish A-items priorties

--Identify a center of gravity

--Initiate pilot projects

For full text

Recent  Articles:

Business Week: How to Take the Reins at Top Speed: Finding Traction In The First 100 Days

The Economist: Executive Onboarding

How to Take the Reins at Top Speed: Finding Traction In The First 100 Days

Business Week wrote a piece on executive onboarding.

“Despite having a name only a consultant or HR professionsal could love, onboarding is also know as management integration or worse, assimilation coaching—the practice is taking off.

Key Benefits of executive onboarding which the article does not address:

1. Organizations are investing significant amounts or time and money in the process beccuase data shows that CEO failure rate exceed 40% . Given the very high CEO compensation packages, failure of a key leader can cost an organization big bucks. Not to mention internal CHURN—loss of barnd image, strained key customer loss and loss of potential sales.

2. Executive onboarding is like insurance and a tool to help mitigate risk. Like any good insurance policy it protects the executives success and coporate profitability.

3. The trend is emerging now because companies want to help their newly hired executives get “in the saddle” or hit the ground running” and performing at high levels.

Executive Onboarding

Here's an recent article from the Economist about the value and benefit of helping new leaders through their first 90 days with acceleration transition experts.

 "With increased turnover comes reduced tenure in the top job—and, indeed, in other senior positions. Executives are now being judged more quickly than ever, it seems. This trend has spawned a business designed to help newly appointed corporate leaders to hit the ground running. “The average CEO is in the job for under four years now,” says Rich Rosen of Heidrick & Struggles, a recruitment firm. “So firms are looking for a new CEO to make a quicker impact, and are prepared to invest in making sure it happens.” Reflecting the management industry's addiction to jargon, this process has been named “onboarding” (that is, helping a new executive successfully climb on board)."

Download Economist Article on Executiveonboarding.pdf