The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan: How to Take Charge, Build Your Team, and Get Immediate Results, 3rd Edition

Why did you write this book?

George Bradt (GB): Leadership turnover continues to be a significant challenge for organizations and their leaders. The costs to a company’s bottom line and employee morale resulting from an employee involuntarily leaving are substantial. Despite an increased awareness surrounding the need for new leaders to have a comprehensive onboarding plan, many continue to wait until after their first day on the job to plan for their success. Realizing this, we married our own leadership experience with the insights gleaned from our work with PrimeGenesis’ clients to develop an iterative approach that sets new leaders up for success before day one. This how-to book shares the actions needed to stop the revolving door.

How is your book different than other leadership books?

Jayme Check (JC): Many leadership books speak in theoretical terms and don’t present a clear call to action. At each chapter’s conclusion we include worksheets and downloadable tools the reader can use to further fine-tune their action plans. For example, we believe it is important for new leaders to interact with key stakeholders after accepting a job, but before day one, so all expectations are clearly understood. We provide an
easy-to-complete chart helping readers create their “Interaction Plan” that maps out their engagement strategies for key stakeholders.

Why is the New Leader Smart Tools iPad application an effective tool for new leaders?

Jorge Pedraza (JP): While there are leadership-related apps available, this is the only one developed exclusively for new leaders and their teams. Team functionality is critical to a new leader’s success. Leaders fail on their own and succeed only with their teams. Thus the app is made up of action-oriented smart tools that provide both the leader and team members with daily goals and reminders so they can get done in 100-days what would normally take 6-12 months. Bottom line, the app is itself the most assertive mentor any leader and team have ever had.

How should leaders utilize social media?

JP: We live in a highly connected world and to address the changes social media creates for leadership communication, we discuss how any new leader's outreach campaign must utilize multiple touch points in various venues to connect with relevant stakeholders. These points of connection, from Facebook and LinkedIn, to Twitter, blogs and more, can be effective in forming relationships with different target audiences and achieving varying objectives. 

Why must a leader get a pulse on the corporate culture prior to joining a company?

JC: There is a lot of talk about corporate culture. But how can one get a pulse on it and why it is important for leaders to do so are two important questions generally removed from the conversation. Prior to beginning any new leadership position, the context and culture of the company must be examined before instituting change. Context involves the business environment and the company's competitive position. Understanding context helps assess the importance of and urgency for change. Analyzing the company's culture is more difficult and involves reviewing its behaviors, relationships, attitudes, values and environment. This allows the leader to get a pulse on the organization's readiness for change, which informs how slow or fast it can be implemented without facing irreparable backlash from employees.

How does this book address the issue of crisis management?

GB: We added a new appendix for crisis situations: the 100-Hour Action Plan. In a crisis or disaster, leaders must achieve in 100 hours what normally takes weeks or months. Executives can lead through a crisis instead of merely out of a crisis by making choices that move the company toward its purpose and not away from its core vision and values. This iterative approach to crisis management has already been adopted and deployed by the American Red Cross: it has enabled it to significantly improve its disaster response timeframe by starting to do on the second day after a disaster what it previously was not doing until the sixth day.

Who should read your book?

JP: We are all new leaders all the time, and as such this book is relevant whether you're a veteran CEO taking over a new organization or a novice moving into your first leadership role. So, whether you’ve been with an organization for years or are embarking on a new strategic initiative, you’ll find our advice on how to get a head start, manage the message, and build the team particularly useful.