Whether challenged with taking on a startup, turning a business around, or inheriting a high-performing unit, a new leader's success or failure is determined within the first 90 days on the job.

In this hands-on guide, Michael Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions, offers proven strategies for moving successfully into a new role at any point in one's career. The First 90 Days provides a framework for transition acceleration that will help leaders diagnose their situations, craft winning transition strategies, and take charge quickly.

Practical examples illustrate how to learn about new organizations, build teams, create coalitions, secure early wins, and lay the foundation for longer-term success. In addition, Watkins provides strategies for avoiding the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter, and shows how individuals can protect themselves-emotionally as well as professionally-during what is often an intense and vulnerable period.

Concise and actionable, this is the survival guide no new leader should be without.

"Few companies develop a systematic 'on-boarding' process for their new leaders, even though this is a critical function with major organizational implications. Michael Watkins's The First 90 Days provides a powerful framework and strategies that will enable new leaders to take charge quickly. It is an invaluable tool for that most vulnerable time-the transition."

-Goli Darabi, Senior Vice President, Corporate Leadership & Succession Management, Fidelity Investments

"Every job-private- or public-sector, civilian or military-has its breakeven point, and everyone can accelerate their learning. Read this book at least twice: once before your next transition-before getting caught up in the whirl and blur of new faces, names, acronyms, and issues; then read it again after you've settled in, and consider how to accelerate transitions for your next new boss and for those who come to work for you."

-Colonel Eli Alford, U.S. Army

"Watkins provides an excellent road map, telling us what all new leaders need to know and do to accelerate their learning and success in a new role. The First 90 Days should be incorporated into every company's leadership development strategy, so that anyone making a transition in an organization can get up to speed quicker and smarter."

-Suzanne M. Danielle, Director of Global Leadership Development, Aventis

"Michael Watkins has nailed a huge corporate problem and provided the solution in one fell swoop. The pressure on new leaders to hit the ground running has never been greater, and the likelihood and cost of failure is escalating. Watkins's timing with The First 90 Days is impeccable."

-Gordon Curtis, Principal, Curtis Consulting

"The First 90 Days is a must-read for entrepreneurs. Anyone who's been the CEO of a start-up or early-stage company knows that you go through many 90-day leadership transitions in the course of a company's formative years. In this groundbreaking book, Michael Watkins provides crucial insights, as well as a toolkit of techniques, to enable you to accelerate through these transitions successfully."

-Mike Kinkead, President and CEO, timeBLASTER Corporation, serial entrepreneur, and Cofounder and Trustee, Massachusetts Software Council

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After three months in a new job, are you up to speed? Will you sink . . . or swim? Transitions into new roles are the crucibles in which leaders get their toughest tests, and they're the defining factor in professional careers today.

Yet far too often, leaders fail to transition effectively into new roles. The resulting costs are high, for your career and the organization.

In Your Next Move, leadership-transition guru Michael Watkins tells listeners how they can survive and thrive in all the major transitions they will face during their careers, including promotion, on-boarding into a new organization, and making an international move. With real-life examples and case studies, he illustrates the defining hurdles associated with each type of transition.

He then provides the insights, strategies, and tools-including relationship reengineering, business systems analysis, and "organizational immunology"-they'll need to accelerate through these crucial turning points and continue moving up in their careers.

The necessary complement to the author's bestselling guide The First 90 Days, Your Next Move offers the keen observations, tried-and-true management wisdom, and practical good sense Watkins is renowned for. It's a vital resource for any manager or executive seeking to maintain career momentum....

After three months in a new job, are you up to speed? Will you sink . . . or swim? Transitions into new roles are the crucibles in which leaders get their toughest tests, and they're the defining factor in professional careers today.

Yet far too often, leaders fail to transition effectively into new roles. The resulting costs are high, for your career and the organization.

In Your Next Move, leadership-transition guru Michael Watkins shows how you can survive and thrive in all the major transitions you will face during your career, including promotion, on-boarding into a new organization, and making an international move. With real-life examples and case studies, he illustrates the defining hurdles associated with each type of transition.

He then provides the insights, strategies, and tools-including relationship reengineering, business systems analysis, and "organizational immunology"-you'll need to accelerate through these crucial turning points and continue moving up in your career.

The necessary complement to the author's bestselling guide The First 90 Days, Your Next Move offers the keen observations, tried-and-true management wisdom, and practical good sense Watkins is renowned for. It's a vital resource for any manager or executive seeking to maintain career momentum....