An Excerpt from You're in Charge — Now What?
Being flexible is a crucial quality for new CEOs. Creating a balance between articulating your plan for the company, and not becoming locked prematurely into an action plan, is one of the most critical things you can do in the first 100 days.
Develop a strategic plan for the future. While Lou Gerstner’s famous comment “the last thing IBM needs now is a vision” is often cited in mitigation of not having a plan, he did go on to describe what the key priorities and operating principles would be under his leadership — i.e., his strategic agenda.
He delivered a sound assessment of the company's critical needs and priorities — precisely what all new leaders should focus on initially.
Build your foundation
Not having a vision doesn’t mean you don’t need a good view of the company. You do, because it will form the basis for your plan. Without that knowledge, the agenda may be out of sync with the business, the company will lose direction and the results could be serious.
An identity crisis knocks a company off track and clouds people’s judgment regarding their direction and ways to allocate resources.
To get a good perspective on your company, assess it within the operating environment. Only then should you try to determine what conditions and resources need to be present to get it moving toward long-term success.
Set a short-term agenda
Short-term agendas typically create priorities and allocate a timeframe, informing the organization what you’ll be doing right away. The agenda should be rooted in the current reality, and don’t be tempted to make promises you cannot guarantee you can keep — if you fail to deliver, your credibility will suffer. The following principle should govern any short-term agenda: under promise and over deliver.
People expect a fresh perspective from new leaders, but they don’t expect wholesale new direction from the start. In fact, most senior executives reserve judgement on the new CEO until the end of the first year. This gives new leaders some latitude to immerse themselves in the business before changing the company’s strategy.
Focus on the few
Pare down your priorities to things you can concentrate on at any one time — not just for your own sake, but for that of your team. When people are deluged with a long list of priorities, inaction sets in because no one knows where to start. A few concrete priorities are more likely to get the team moving ahead with purpose.
There are some ways to make sure your short-term agenda moves the company forward: link to your business assessment, identify the core initiatives you intend to launch, address short-term issues that support long-term themes, include your team in the creation and maintenance of the agenda, and incorporate an explicit plan to address cultural issues and potential barriers to change.
Moving quickly will satisfy an organization’s hunger for information as to what the new order may entail, and allow people to get a sense of where they are going, the resources required, and what is and isn’t important.
Look for quick wins
Quick wins let people see that progress is being made, but plan your promises around what you can deliver. Once those goals are public, keep evidence that you accomplished them. Not all achievements will be happy ones, but they are worth emphasizing if they help the organization move in the right direction.
Expect pushback
Involve key stakeholders early in the process. Identifying mutual concerns and negotiating joint solutions will increase your chances of success.
There will be differences of opinion, and pushback is a natural reaction to change. In your first year, your agenda is likely to be criticized, questioned and debated constantly. Be patient.
Conclusion
A well-defined strategic agenda can be used to mobilize people and ensure their attention stays on key objectives. Done correctly, your strategic agenda will evolve into your strategic plan to be used in presentations to employees, the media and the financial community. For some it will be a roadmap — for others, reassurance.
A strategic agenda will help prioritize the short-term initiatives that will support long-term objectives, giving people coherent direction and reducing the uncertainty that comes with change.