171 What to Focus on in Your First 90 Days as a Director or Executive Female Leader | The Ultimate 3-Phase Checklist to Hit the Ground Running

Lucy Gernon (00:02.86)

Picture this, you’ve just landed your dream senior leadership role in the company of your absolute dreams. Maybe that’s your current organization or maybe it’s another company. You’re excited, but you’re also wondering, like, how do I make an impact fast without working myself into the ground? Well, lovely lady, if this sounds like you, you are in the right place because in today’s episode of the 360 Leadership Podcast, I’m giving you the exact roadmap to set yourself up for success in your first 90 days.

 

as a leader without burning out, overthinking or looking like you don’t know what you’re doing. So tune in for today’s episode. I hope you enjoy.

 

Now I need to make this so I can read it.

 

Lucy Gernon (00:47.95)

What was that ping? Sorry, Ali.

 

Lucy Gernon (01:01.27)

Okay, this is hidden a little bit. I’m just trying to bring it up so that I’m not looking down when I’m reading my notes. So sorry, Ali.

 

Lucy Gernon (01:30.486)

Right, to start that again.

 

Lucy Gernon (01:35.5)

I just wish I could.

 

get rid of this bar that I’m seeing right now. So skip all of this. Okay, we’re going to start. I hope this is okay. Like when I’m looking at the camera, it doesn’t look like I’m looking down. I wonder if I just tilt this a little bit. that a better? Let me just see and make this a bit bigger. Yeah, I think if I tilt my camera down.

 

Lucy Gernon (02:05.674)

see what this episode looks like when it’s tilted down a bit. think it will just…

 

Lucy Gernon (02:19.138)

Picture this, you’ve just landed your dream senior leadership role. You’re excited, but you’re also wondering how do I make an impact fast without working myself into the ground? Well, lovely lady, you are in the right place because in today’s episode, I’m giving you the exact roadmap to set yourself up for success in your first 90 days as a leader without overthinking, without looking like you don’t know what you’re doing so that you stand out as a strategic, confident, competent leader from the start. Hope you enjoy today’s episode.

 

Lucy Gernon (02:48.526)

Hi there and welcome back to another episode of the 360 Leadership Podcast. You are very welcome. My name is Lucy Gernon, the host of the show. I’m a multi award winning executive coach and ex-pharma for the last for like 17 years. And yeah, today we are going to be talking all about what to do when you start a new role. Why is this even important? Well, number one, 92 % of leaders say that their first 90 days actually determines long term success and

 

Most transition plans for women into new roles actually miss what really, really matters so that you can really step in and step up into your next level of leadership. So today on the show, I’m going to be breaking all of this down so you walk away literally armed with everything that you need to be more strategic, to lead with confidence without sacrificing that all important work life balance. Now, even better, and I’m to be telling you about this in a second, is I’m giving you a free checklist with

 

everything you need to do in the first 30 days, 90 days. It is so comprehensive and I’ll share a little bit more about how you can get that later on. So I decided to record this episode for you today because I remember when I was stepping up into my first more senior leadership role and I really felt this weight of proving myself because I had a budget to look after. I had multiple teams, multiple stakeholders to manage and I really wasn’t

 

Sure. Like, where do I even start? For me, especially because it was an internal promotion. Sometimes that can be even harder because you’ve established a personal brand for yourself in one aspect of the business. And now you’re trying to reestablish yourself as something different in another area. So today, that’s why I wanted to kind of record this for you was to give you the exact road map that I have used myself with that also I have given to my clients and they find so, useful.

 

and I decided to give it to you for free. So if you want to download the checklist, all you’ve got to do, it’s totally free, go to lucygernon.com forward slash new role, okay? lucygernon.com forward slash new role. And I’m literally gonna walk you through the checklist right now. So if you’re driving, don’t do it, but if you can, literally go over, grab that resource, pause the podcast, come back, and I’m literally gonna walk you through step by step by step.

 

Lucy Gernon (05:12.544)

where to focus in your first 30 days, where to focus in in the first 60 and then in the first 90 in total. OK, this is based on tons of research and it’s proven to

 

Lucy Gernon (05:40.984)

Okay, let’s start off with phase one, which is your first 30 days. And this is where you are going to be setting the foundation for your leadership with purpose and power. Now the goal is really for you’re going to set the tone while you’re also going to be gathering some crucial insights that are going to inform your strategy. Now many women leaders feel the pressure to prove themselves immediately. And I invite you to resist this urge.

 

because strategic observation is your superpower and you’ve got to think about playing the long game, okay? So if you’re multitasking, come back to me. When you start a new role, it’s all about playing the long game. It’s not about like immediately trying to take over everything. You’ve got to be strategic about this. So within the first 30 days, the key outcomes that you’re gonna create are you’re gonna have a, if you follow my roadmap, okay, you are going to have a clear understanding of organizational dynamics.

 

You’ll have a really robust stakeholder map and a plan to nurture those key relationships. You’re going to have a baseline assessment of team capabilities and early identification of quick wins so you can actually hit the ground running and become visible right away. How does that sound? I hope you said it sounds good because it’s super good. Okay, so you’re in your first 30 days, you’re going in there like where do you start? First of all, you grab my checklist, lucygarland.com forward slash new role and you go through this.

 

The first thing that I invite you to do is to really get clear on the landscape. Now, if you are in a new organization, this is critical, but equally it’s a step that you’ll probably overlook because if you’re in an organization already, we make assumptions that we know everything about certain parts of the business. But when you step into a more senior role, you are leading from a different perspective, right? You’re leading with more strategically. You are now going to be

 

open to things that maybe you wouldn’t have seen at the level you were prior, right? So you want to learn about critical business challenges and priorities. That’s the first thing. Then you want to start really understanding a little bit more about past initiatives. So what’s worked? What didn’t work? How you do that is you build the relationships, right? You ask the questions. You want to really understand the current performance metrics and expectations. So how

 

Lucy Gernon (08:02.146)

Did your predecessor measure success? What’s your organization’s, I suppose, expectations around success measurements? Because sometimes, yes, they will have higher metrics and KPIs at very senior levels, but you may want to implement some other measures of success that are indicators prior to the one that the board sees. And that’s exactly what you need to do, is you need to look into all of this. So what I invite you to do is in your first 30 days,

 

is create a strategic insights journal. This can be in a journal or it can actually just be in a Word doc or a Google doc, whichever you use. And use this to document observations, patterns and questions, because this is really going to be invaluable when you move to phase two, which is after your first 30 days. Okay. So it’s all about being an observer in your first month. Second area I invite you to focus on is relationship building.

 

So this is where you want to schedule your one-to-ones with your direct reports, your key stakeholders, listen more than you speak, gather insights and perspective from others. Sometimes as leaders, we think to assert authority, we’ve got to go in all guns blazing and have a clear strategic direction immediately. You will be so much more informed if you play the long game, right? And you ask the questions, gather the insights so you can formulate your own opinions and

 

come up with your own strategy. Observe the team dynamics as well, both within your own team and cross-functionally, and even that with clients or customers, if that’s the kind of role you’re in. And look at the communication patterns. Now, observation is your superpower. And I know this because when I trained to be a professional coach back in 2020, we had to do a lot. And I mean, like, I’m sure it was like over 100 hours of coaching. And I pretty much

 

have it down in terms of the whole area of active listening. It’s now something that’s very natural to me that I would really be astute. I always think, God, if I really had have used that when I worked in the corporate world myself, how much easier my life would have been. Because when you can pick up on who has a little beef with who or where there’s like an underlying kind of current of negativity or which departments or which people seem to working really well together.

 

Lucy Gernon (10:26.698)

It’s going to inform so much about your leadership strategy and how you’re going to actually get your team to perform at a high level, which is something that I know you want. You want to also begin by identifying potential allies and challenging relationships. And this is something I love supporting our 360 Leaders Club members with, because a lot of the ladies actually join when they have just started a new role or when they’re transitioning into a new role, because it’s quite a vulnerable time, right?

 

especially if you’re a senior leader and you’ve already established yourself and you’ve been an authority at a certain level. Well, what got you to here is definitely not going to get you to there. And that’s why a lot of our members invest in themselves at this transition phase so that I can be there to give you the executive coaching, the guidance, the support, the tools, encouragement and the little steer that you need so that you really hit the ground running in your new role. So if you want to learn more about 360 Leaders Club.

 

just simply go to 360leadersclub.com and you can see all the information there. The other thing then I invite you to do, and again, this is really important. This is all in the first 30 days, by the way. So you’re going to be a busy bee without implementing, right? Is you’re going to do your stakeholder map. And in the free checklist that I spoke about, the 30, 60, 90 day new rule checklist, which you can get at lucygarden.com forward slash new rule.

 

You are going to see I’m actually wasn’t going to give this to you because I normally charge for this. But I know if you’re listening to this podcast today, you are meant to be here. And I really just want to give you free value so that you really can excel because we need more women in leadership in your voice. So in the guide, there is a stakeholder mapping tool where you can see the power interest grid. And this is a super tool. One of our 360 leaders club members use this. She had just started.

 

And she told me she was like, Lucy, I was sitting there with a blank document, not even knowing where to start mapping out this. And I did a strategic leadership training with them. I gave seven tools. This was one of them. I’m giving it to you for free today. So definitely go and get the checklist and do your power interest group mapping in the checklist. You’re also going to focus on establishing your leadership presence. So you’ve got to set initial expectations with your team.

 

Lucy Gernon (12:49.012)

and begin shaping your communication style. I mentioned Parcel Brand earlier as well, because you’ve got to be strategic and intentional about how you want to be perceived. How do you want to show up and what do you want to be known for? This is not something that like you get to control the narrative is what I’m saying. So I recommend that you take the time to think about that. OK. And also boundaries is another really, really important one, really important one.

 

And I did a full episode of this podcast back in episode number two, I believe. So if you are listening to this on Spotify or Apple podcasts, go back to episode number two. It won’t be available on YouTube because it was prior to the YouTube channel days. And then also, I think it’s really important that you start as you mean to go on. So think about your non-negotiables.

 

Think about your working hours, your meeting protocols, your response times. And again, in the guide, guys, I give you all of this with space to actually write this out. It’s like I’m coaching you in this checklist because you’ve got to literally set your boundaries from the beginning because you teach people how to treat you. Phase two, then we are moving on. So you’ve got your first month down. You’ve done all your observations. You’ve had your strategic insights journal or your document and your

 

You’re documenting the dynamics and the communications and you’ve set your boundaries and you’ve decided how you want to show up. Like there’s a lot, right? Now we are going to move more into you finding your voice and beginning to make a strategic impact. Now, a reminder, we’re only in month two here, guys, right? We’re playing the long game. So this is all good. Now, this is where a lot of women I find can sometimes find it the most challenging time.

 

because you are shifting from being an observer into taking the bold action and managing that whole narrative of like being too bold versus being too quiet versus like, you know, she’s too dominant versus she doesn’t speak up enough. So it’s about trying to find that balance. And again, that’s something that I can help you with. OK, that’s something that we talk a lot about in 360 Meters Club. So again, I’m encouraging you to go and check it out if you feel like it’s.

 

Lucy Gernon (15:08.91)

for you, please just submit your application because we only take on a limited number of members as spots become available and we will always go with those who are on the wait list or in the application process first. All right. And this is back to like what we were talking about is finding your voices. This is where it’s really important to have established your personal brand so that you’re able to showcase your strategic value while being authentically you. Right. We want you to be you.

 

You do not need to lead like somebody else or be a secondhand version of, you know, your previous boss that you learned from. Learn to really channel inwards and connect with who you really are. And trust me, I know to my core that when I truly stepped into my power, which was around the time that I actually just before I quit about a year before I quit the corporate world, I decided.

 

I’m just going to be me. It was actually my 40th birthday and I’m 44 now. So about four years ago, I was just transitioning out and I just went, do you know what? I’m just going to be me. And I started showing up differently in work. I did all of those things and all of the people who like I wore my pink blazer, like things I just wouldn’t have done before. All the people that I was worried about judging me were actually the ones who were coming over to me and saying, God, we see a huge shift in you.

 

And that’s when I knew that actually when I was able to step into who I really was as a female leader and really own my power and claim my space, that’s when everything changed for me. I’ve been able to build a multi six figure business. I’ve worked with some of the best organizations in the world. I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of the most amazing women in corporate leadership and entrepreneurs as well for I get to be their executive coach. I get to train them.

 

I get to be in their corner and I get to introduce them to the most unbelievable, like minded women who are also there to support them in 360 leaders club. So I just want you to know that while your version of success may not look like quitting the corporate world to start a business, I’m living my dream right now. And it’s literally because I decided to be me. So what you’re going to do in this phase, I’m not going to go through all of it because there’s so much in the checklist, but essentially in this first, the second stage.

 

Lucy Gernon (17:33.484)

you are going to be talking about your strategic moves, right? We’re talking about turning all those observations from phase one into actual action. All right. You’re going to be looking at a couple of high impact initiatives where you can lead and get visible. So if you’re multitasking, come back to me. No point being in the detail and doing all this busy work if no one’s seeing what you’re doing. So you’ve got to be strategic and pick a couple of initiatives and you’ve got to create your…

 

cannot emphasize this enough about being strategic about like how you want to position yourself and who needs to know about you and what you’re working on. And again, this is something that we talk about a lot in 362. So in the checklist as well, I am giving you my strategic influence framework. Now this is a, let me count, many is in this? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13 word framework, okay? The strategic influence framework is a 13 word

 

framework that you absolutely are going to love. And this is how, in just 13 words, you are going to be able to articulate in a way that makes you sound strategic. Okay? Because you actually are being strategic. You’re just probably not communicating in that way. Okay? So go and grab the guide. You’ll get that strategic influence framework. It’s going to be game changer. The second thing you’re going to be doing is you’re going to be learning how to navigate those key relationships.

 

Again, a lot of the women who work with me in 360Liters Club would be navigating a lot of male dominance and also red energy, male or female. OK. And when I say male dominance, I mean male energy. All right. Because men and women, that’s all to do with energy as opposed to the actual sexes. OK. You’re going to start to come up with a mitigation around any resistance or pushback you’re getting. And really, you’ve got to get

 

good at conflict management. You have got to get good at conflict management in this phase because there’s gonna be conflict. And this is where a lot of women give away their personal power is they shy away from conflict. I don’t want that for you. And lucky for you, I actually quite enjoy conflict. As a past people pleaser, I used to hate conflict. Whereas now I have a six step proven framework that I teach my clients and I guide them through when we do challenges.

 

Lucy Gernon (19:56.684)

where it makes it easy and dare I say it, actually fun. OK, so you’ve got to get good at managing conflict. You want to get deeper with your team as well in your one to ones. And again, in the guide, I’m giving you my learn, learn, align and inspire framework for your one to ones where you’re going to use these three powerful questions to really get more information from your team. And again, you can go check that out at lucygarnier.com forward slash new role. You want to be.

 

going back to those boundaries as well and you wanna be working in your executive presence and you want to, again, having established your personal brand in the first phase, you want to be really approachable and also have the balance of also being authoritative. I always find that word so hard to say. I don’t know about you. So that’s it for the second phase. And then finally, we are going into phase three.

 

which would be where you are moving into those final 61 to 90 days. And this is where you are really, really going to be focusing on doubling down on all in your leadership, accelerating your strategic impact. You’re going to be looking at presenting your strategy to more senior leaders. You’re going to be having implementing your metrics for success. You’re going to be starting to really showcase those strategic wins that you have been strategic about. And you’re going to begin longer term planning.

 

So what’s really important to remember, and I think I said this at the start a couple of times, was it’s about playing the long game, right? Resist that urge to get in and fix immediately to make an impact because you’ve got to use those insights to inform everything else. And that, my lovely lady, is how you’re going to set yourself up for success. OK? So just to recap on this week’s episode of the show.

 

Firstly, I did not go through all of the ins and outs of the checklist. if you want, especially in the last 90 days, there’s quite a few other notes I’m just looking at here now that you need to get into. So if you go and grab it at lucygarner.com forward slash new role, you’ll see everything on where you need to focus in the month three. But I just don’t want to overwhelm you right now with everything. Number one, you’re going to go through my checklist and you are going to make it your own. If there’s something that you don’t like or you want to switch out, feel free to do it.

 

Lucy Gernon (22:18.05)

The most important thing you’ve got to remember is phase one is resist the urge to fix and become an observer. Keep your notes. You’re going to feel so powerful. You’re going to learn to actively listen and soak it all up. OK, you’re not expected to know everything straight away. So just remind yourself of that. And then you’re moving on to phase two where you’re going to start to really focus on those relationships and making your impact, finding your voice, learn to navigate that conflict and all of that good stuff.

 

And then phase number three is where you’re really going to start to accelerate your strategic impact and really make your brand known by month three, which is so, exciting. So that is it for this week’s episode of the podcast. I really invite you just to remind yourself of these five things. Number one, do not rush to prove yourself too soon. Number two.

 

Please set your boundaries early because you teach people how to treat you. Number three, do not underestimate the power of forming strategic relationships strategically. Number four, please don’t try to figure it all out alone. You do not need to do this when you are a senior woman in leadership. know, seek mentorship, seek support. Come and join 360 Leaders Club. Allow me to be your coach. Find that support that you need.

 

to succeed in your new role. And then also think like.

 

Confidence in leadership. Confidence doesn’t come first before action. It’s the total opposite. You’ve got to take action and then confidence comes because you’ve got the social proof behind it. So please just don’t sit and wait. Please learn who you are. Step into your power. And if you are ready to take the next steps with me and you want to work with me, I would love to hear from you. Just you can DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn.

 

Lucy Gernon (24:18.602)

or if you’re ready to join 360 Leaders Club, literally just go to 360leadersclub.com forward slash apply, and I’ll pop the link in the show notes for you anyway. And do not forget to get the free checklist at lucygarnon.com forward slash new role. And then finally, when you do download that checklist, I would love for you to pick one power move in phase one. So I think there’s three in each of the phases. I give you power moves that are really gonna move the needle for you.

 

pick just one of them and commit to doing it this week. And always DM me, I love hearing from you. Let me know which one you picked and how it went. And I’m always there to answer any questions that you have as well. So, lovely lady, congratulations on the new role, whether you’re in it just a week about to transition or you’re thinking about moving. I just want you to remember that you are where you are for a reason. You do not need to earn your seat at the table because it’s already yours.

 

Now, let’s make sure you own it. If you found this episode helpful, I would also really appreciate if you would share it with a fellow woman in leadership who may need to hear this. And don’t forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode as we have so much gold coming up. And finally, if you are not already subscribed to my Sunday night newsletter for women in leadership, you’re missing out because every Sunday I deliver a value packed email.

 

designed to get rid of those Sunday night scurries. All you’ve got to do is go to lucygarnon.com forward slash newsletter and you can sign up there. And I promise you it’s an email that you are going to want to read every single Sunday so that you step into your power for the following week ahead. That’s it for this week’s episode of the show. I really hope you find it valuable. Until next time, same time, same place. Bye for now.