One thing any new manager should have in their 90 day plan is an Employee Retention strategy. This is truer than ever today, when the hot labor market is making it easier than ever for employees to leave for greener pastures. And let's face it: none of the other strategies you want to implement in your 90 day plan are going to work if the people around you keep leaving. So work on that retention plan. This should include Employee Development; periodic performance evaluations, with positive incentives for good evaluations; regular check ins to see how all staff are doing; and morale boosting perks such as lunches, yoga classes, or early Fridays. One of the most important things you can do is a manager is to make sure that your team, stays your team.
Wellness checks are essential for supporting and empowering a new manager. I suggest hosting them weekly as a moment to review recent lessons on the job. This type of dialogue can also serve as a great opportunity to answer questions they might not want to ask in front of their subordinates, other workers, or customers. A wellness check is a wonderful chance to demonstrate commitment and ensure that the training process is working as desired.
New managers should assess how they can improve cost effectiveness for their team budget in the first 90 days of being at an organization. Teams can be evaluated on budget allocation and spending habits within a three month time span. Managers should map out their plan for adjustments to budget spending after being able to make substantial observations during their onboarding and initial entry period. This is an effective facet to a 90 day plan that can make a significant impact solely through the new manager’s own initiative. Executive leadership will appreciate the boost in efficiency and team members will benefit from a more effective budgeting plan. Managers should plan to improve cost effectiveness for their team budget in the first 90 days.
Wait, you signed up for onboarding, what's reboarding? Reboarding is the process of re-constituting your role, processes and teams within the broader organizational context. While onboarding tends to be a one-off event, reboarding can occur continuously. And for organizations where priorities, teams, or structure are shifting, one off training will rapidly be outdated. Additionally, behavior scientists note that in many contexts one-off (or non-continuous) training doesn't lead to lasting behavior change. Thinking in terms of an iterative, cyclical training and how this fits into a manager's role should definitely be established within the initial 90-day plan for a new manager.
When a new manager arrives, there are often fears from team members that they will be micromanaged, therefore, to alleviate this concern, managers should begin the process of delegating work as a part of their 90 day plan. Nothing demoralizes a team more than suddenly having management look over their shoulders every minute of the day, and many studies have shown that micromanagement has a detrimental effect on productivity. A manager who quickly delegates duties, allows employee freedom, and relinquishes control of his team members' responsibilities, will engender trust, and establish confidence in the manager’s abilities. In addition, by refraining from micromanaging, more time will be available for a new manager to attend to more appropriate responsibilities. By staying away from this habit, a recently hired manager can quickly reinforce a positive work environment.
Transitioning from an individual contributor role to a management role is a career change. It requires a different set of skills to be successful. Pairing a roadmap that contains clear goals each month with a coach is a winning formula. The roadmap ensures that the manager understands what is expected of them and provides a way to track progress. The coach provides guidance and a safe space for them to discuss their challenges and experience that is free of judgement.
Teambuilding. During the first 90 days, a new manager should be focused on getting to know their team. Learning the team members' strengths, how they like to work, a bit about their personal life and what their professional goals are. This is a major step in building a new manager’s sense of place, connection, and company commitment to ensure there is a smooth future for the team and the company.
Any successful onboarding should occur over the span of 90 days, with regular check ins for a new manager on their 30, 60 and 90 day anniversary. In this case, the manager should receive feedback from their supervisor not only on how they are achieving business results, but also their success in managing their direct reports. Too often people are hired or promoted to manager because of their technical skills, but people management is a skill set in and of itself. The new manager should also be encouraged to have regular check ins with their direct reports so those individuals can give feedback to their new manager, and they can identify strengths and areas of improvement they need to focus on as they integrate into the organization. At the conclusion of a manager's first 90 days, they should have a clear idea of how they are performing both in results delivery and people management, and have set SMART goals on how they will continue to deliver satisfactorily in those areas.
Don’t downplay the wins. When you’re bringing in new leadership, you need to highlight their accomplishments in the first 90 days and use them as encouragement and teaching tools. Sometimes new or young leaders can doubt themselves, especially when entering unknown territory, and that doubt can cause serious cracks in the structural development of a person. When accomplishments are highlighted and acknowledged early on, a new leader can feel supported and empowered in taking on their managerial position.
A 90-day plan for a new manager includes building an ever-changing team. Team building for new managers takes a specific mindset, and for the new ones who previously worked on their own, it needs a total mind shift toward the collective. As you are the new manager, you will be a star-maker. In various cases, a new manager will take over a whole team with the anticipation that it will stay intact. Or the new manager is tasked with creating their team. Therefore, every teammate must be playing to their strengths. The new managers must keep in mind busy with creating their teams and the hiring process.
The initial few days in the new role will present its own set of obstacles. Managers who are well-prepared and enthusiastic about their new ideas must avoid coming out as arrogant. It's critical to resist the need to change everything right away in order to create a positive impression. Learning and listening should come first, and perfection should not be the enemy of good.
90 day plan for a new manager should include self-evaluation based on feedback from your employees. This simple, yet effective, solution is a key to success and growth in your role. Be attentive and stay open to your employees' needs and comments from the very beginning. Give them a chance to share their feelings and opinions on your actions. Fruitful feedback pays off. One-on-ones are a great way to get it.
I like to include weekly “sanity breaks” for new managers. The assumption of so much responsibility so fast can be overwhelming, so I schedule a regular time every week in a 90-day plan to have an open dialogue with them. This can be professional to address the learning curve and demands of the job, but it can also be a simple time for personal decompression. I’ll often leave them alone to have a few quiet moments to themselves if we feel we’ve sufficiently covered the relevant topics. Beyond my routine “sanity break” meetings, I also encourage them to take smaller, daily sanity breaks on their own as well.
As a new manager, it is crucial to get the trust and confidence of your team members. You can only be effective if you show your people that you know what you are doing. It is also essential to listen to them by being receptive to feedback and open to suggestions. Within the first 90 days, work on getting to know the best way to handle your people. Always be visible, and often talk to them. Go with them during lunch, have a casual conversation, and connect to them personally. Once you have everything figured out, it will be easy for you to lead them because they will not hesitate to follow your steps.
A plan should include things such as training and development, setting goals, and creating a development plan. A manager should be sure to set goals and review them at least every quarter to ensure that the employee is on track and receiving the proper training. A manager should also be sure to include things such as delegating and prioritizing tasks so that an employee does not get overwhelmed and can focus on their development.
A new manager must consider Parkinson's Law in their 90-day plan because this law will help them achieve a lot in less time. By the lesser time, I refer to the higher productivity levels and managed systems around them. If a manager sets a particular deadline on a task, no matter what they do, the task will only get completed at the end of the deadline. Thus, setting a small deadline encourages you to work more efficiently and effectively. It will boost their productivity at work.
New managers should make a continuous effort to get to know their new teammates. It’s important for managers to understand their teams’ strengths and weaknesses in order to use each person’s strengths to the best of their abilities. This can come in the form of 1 on 1 meetings between managers and individuals or in team meetings designed specifically to gain an understanding of their how particular teams meets its operations goals. A new manager isn’t them to disrupt a team, they’re goal should be their team towards success. By making sure new managers take the time to learn about the people they’ll work with, they’re provided with the best possible start for seamless integration into a team structure.
New managers need some time to onboard, and one of the key efforts in their first 90 days should be to have formal 1 on 1s with their team members. Those meetings should be on the calendar, consistent (weekly or every other week), and should have an agenda created by both the manager and the team member. A 1 on 1 builds the relationship, makes sure the manager isn't losing track of priorities, and gives them experience interacting at a personal level.
There are several important functions that should be included in a 30, 60, and 90-day plan for a new manager. One of the most important things that should be included in a 90-day plan is getting to know their team and assessing their performance. With this assessment, the budget should be reviewed and adjusted for the team. Finally, new hiring managers can begin replacing any methods or tools that were identified as ineffective. Of course, these functions may vary depending on your field and role, but they are a good overview for any new manager to help them create long-term and short-term strategies.
In the age of agile businesses, it is more important than ever to hire managers who know of and can help our employees collaborate more seamlessly. We also make a collaboration test part of a 90-day plan for each new manager. This test lets us know which members of our teams will blend effortlessly with the new manager and who will take some time to accustom. Planning for future hires and infrastructure investment thus becomes easier to plan for.