The first ninety days in a new position are critical to success. The President gets one hundred. Leadership transitions can be challenging and require different strategies depending upon the current situation of your new employer.

Is your company a turnaround, start-up, and re-alignment or successfully stable? Each situation requires different strategies, assessment tools and negotiations. Are you prepared? The stakes are high.

Failure in a new assignment can spell the end of a promising career. Transitions are periods of opportunity and chances to make change. They are also filled with intense vulnerability, lack of relationships and knowledge of systems. If you fail to build momentum during your first 90 days, it will be an uphill battle after that.

To help you avoid the potential uphill battle, I personally recommend reading the book, "The First 90 Days," by Michael Watkins. This book will assist you in developing your own transition acceleration plan. Watkins gives you tools to:
* assess your strengths and weaknesses while identifying vulnerabilities
* help you to identify challenges and opportunities
* negotiate a positive working relationship with your boss
* help you secure early wins
* build your team and connect with influential support coalitions

You can not afford to have the wrong people on your team. The most important decisions you make in your first 90 days will probably be about people on your team. If you succeed in creating a high performance team, you can create added value. If not, you will face difficulties, for no leader goes it alone. You will need to access team members, devise a plan to get new people moving, get some people off your bus; and moving others into the right positions -- without damaging performance. You will need to put in place goals, performance measures and incentives while promoting team work.

-- Atwood is president of Atwood Associates LLC, a Madison-based executive search, recruiting and consulting services firm.

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