90 Days - Part 5: Negotiate Success

Summary

Negotiating success means proactively engaging with your new boss to shape the game so you have a fighting chance of achieving desired goals. Too many new leaders just play the game, reactively taking their situation as given and failing as a result. The alternative is to shape the game by negotiating with your boss to establish realistic expectations, reach consensus on the situation, and secure enough resources.

Fundamentals

Do's and Don'ts that support a productive relationship with new boss(es):

• Don't trash the past
• Don't stay away (get on the calendar regularly)
• Don't surprise the boss
• Don't approach only with problems
• Don't run down your checklist
• Don't try to change the boss

• Take 100% responsibility for making the relationship work
• Clarify mutual expectations early and often
• Negotiate timelines for diagnosis and action planning
• Aim for early wins in areas important to the boss
• Pursue good marks from those whose opinions your boss respects

Five Conversations

It is valuable to plan for five conversations - these are not necessarily separate meetings or discussions, but five areas of valuable dialog that set the foundation for the transition:

• Situational Diagnosis: Understanding how the boss sees the business situation (STaRS). How it reached this point, what factors make it a challenge, what resources are available to draw on.

• Expectations: Seeking to understand and negotiate expectations; short and meduium term needs, what defines success, performance measurement, timing.

• Stlye: Communication preference, frequency, types of decisions made independent vs. collaborative.

• Resources: Negotiation for critical resources, what is needed to be successful, what do you need from the boss to do. Not simply funding and personnel, but resources may include things such as your boss needed to help persuade change in a realignment scenario.

• Personal Development: How tenure will contribute to personal development; areas of improvement, special projects / assignments, courses or programs that strength personal capabilities.

Situational Diagnosis

• Critical first conversation; shared understanding is foundation for everything you do going forward.
• Starts with sitting down and clearly defining each area using the STaRS model as shared language (after defining buckets of responsibility; Cap Planning, Sourcing, Analytics, etc)
• Align the support required based on which of the STaRS model the area falls in:
  • Start-Up: Getting resource quickly, clear measurable goals, guidance at breakpoints, focus
  • Turnaround: Same as startup, plus support for making tough calls, support for correcting the external image of the org /people, help cutting deeply enough early.
  • Realignment: Same as Startup, plus helping make case for change
  • Sustaining: Reality testing; is this really success, or realingment, supporting for playing good defense, helping find ways to take to next level.

Expectations

• Align your expectations with the shared assessment of the situation(s)
• Aim for early wins in areas important to boss(es)
• Identify any untouchable areas; products, facilities, people, anything proprietary.
• Educate boss(es) - shape perceptions of what can and should be achieved
• Underpromise and overdeliver
• Clarify - revisiting initial diagnosis, ensure no ambiguity in key issues.
• Working with Multiple Bosses - shared services - ensure balance in applying diagnosis
• Working at a distance - critical to establish clear metrics and goals.

Style

• Determining how you and your boss can best work together on a continuing basis.
• VM, Email, Meetings, etc
• Hard data vs. conversastion
• Micro vs. independence
• Decision making box; which types of things to be consulted on
• Addressing serious issues directly
• Focus early conversations on goals and results rather than how you're going to achieve them.

Resources

• Ongoing negotiation for critical resources.
• Pre-requisite is to agree on STaRS situation by major bucket, goals and expectations.
• Align again to STaRS model; ie Start-up; financial, technical and people, vs. turn-around; authority backed by political support
• Place as much as possible in menu approach (as early as possible) - laying out costs and benefits from different levels of resource commitments.
• Resources tied to Play or Change the Game; what degree of change is required in the established way of doing business - ties back to depth of resources required.
• Negotiating Resources:
  • Focus on underlying interests
  • Look for mutually beneficial exchanges
  • Link resource to results

Personal Development

• Secondary, but learn culture for degree of personal development, align to honing specific managerial skills.

90 Day Plan

Through the learning phase and the above phase, the output is the 90-day plan. Written,this plan includes goals, milestones, and becomes effective contract on how you are going to spend time. (Link to offline doc).

Transitions Downstream - Direct Reports

Ensure thinking both upstream with the above, but apply likewise downstream to DRs. Accelerating DRs transitions critical to achieving objectives outlined.