Your first moves as the new CEO

You’ve just been parachuted in as the new CEO. You need to hit the ground running and build credibility fast. Where do you start?

Priority 1: Diagnose the situation

Your first step is to gain a deep understanding of the internal and external challenges and the opportunities that your new role presents. A precise, data-driven diagnosis will show you where to focus your efforts in the coming weeks and months.

Define a plan to accelerate your learning.

Match your strategy to the situation – understand the business challenges ahead and adapt to them.

Priority 2. Define your goals and build your team

Create alliances and gain support from key stakeholders by having critical conversations to align with them.

Establish your priorities, strategy, and vision.

Build your team: assess, reshape, and align your key people. Ensure that everyone is on the same page and identify the individuals who can help drive your agenda.

Priority 3. Identify early wins

Identifying early wins is essential to build momentum and credibility in your new role, and small, impactful changes will help build trust and credibility.

Focus on simple improvements but ones that are highly visible; for example, by improving the customer experience.

Manage yourself: maintain your equilibrium and keep faith in your ability to make good judgments. Remember: you got this job for a reason!

Key takeaway

First impressions are critical for any new leader. Diagnosing the situation accurately, securing early wins, and aligning and evolving the leadership team around your strategy and vision will enable you to hit the ground running, build up a head of steam, and sustain critical momentum.

Michael Watkins

Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change

Michael D Watkins is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at IMD, and author of The First 90 Days, Master Your Next Move, Predictable Surprises, and 12 other books on leadership and negotiation. His book, The Six Disciplines of Strategic Thinking, explores how executives can learn to think strategically and lead their organizations into the future. A Thinkers 50-ranked management influencer and recognized expert in his field, his work features in HBR Guides and HBR’s 10 Must Reads on leadership, teams, strategic initiatives, and new managers. Over the past 20 years, he has used his First 90 Days® methodology to help leaders make successful transitions, both in his teaching at IMD, INSEAD, and Harvard Business School, where he gained his PhD in decision sciences, as well as through his private consultancy practice Genesis Advisers. At IMD, he directs the First 90 Days open program for leaders taking on challenging new roles and co-directs the Transition to Business Leadership (TBL) executive program for future enterprise leaders, as well as the Program for Executive Development.