Happy Friday Friends,

Two years ago I got head-hunted to join a young tech startup as CEO. The investors recruited me to help the Founder/CTO build for scale.
A handful of times before this role I joined companies to head up a department, sometimes many departments. 

Every time with a similar goal - consolidate and plan for scale.

When the dust has settled, everyone joining a business in a senior leadership role will ask themselves the same first question. 
“Where do I begin?”
It’s the common question I asked myself in every one of those situations. 

In startups we have a term for the first few weeks, “it feels a bit like drinking from a fire hose”. I can promise you this is not only reserved for startups. Join any business at any time and you’re going to drink from the hose for the first few weeks. 
Get used to it!

I’ve realised that this is one of my favourite parts. Sadistic I know. But for me, it’s the moments when I know the least that get me fired up. New experiences, new knowledge and new skills. Strange to think I hated school and university.

One of my core skills is the ability to absorb lots of information quickly. And then convert it to usable knowledge.
I plug myself into every department because if you’re leading a business you must understand how each department works. Not only by itself, but more importantly how it fits together in the larger company puzzle.

So where do I begin each time I join a new company?

This is where my strength in organisation and systems starts to pay off. I always put some structure and discipline around my own onboarding.

In the coming weeks, I’ll focus on a game plan you can deploy to help you get over the speedbumps quicker. If you’re a CEO or founder I’d suggest passing this on to any new senior leader joining your organisation.

3 Must Dos for week 1&2:

1. Build my 30/60/90 day plan.

2. Meet EVERY person in the company.

3. Set a basic structure for company meeting cadences.

30/60/90 Day Plan 

The Outline

I know that the founder and/or board will want to see a basic plan for how I tackle my first 3 months. Luckily for me (and them), I love a bit of project management.

Even if PM is not your strength, using a structure like this is a definite game-changer. I’ll share a link with a template at the end of the post. I start by simplifying a high-level focus for each 30-day block.

• 1st 30 days = learning and landscape assessment

• 2nd 30 days = review and assess learnings to create a change playbook

• Final 30 days = implement changes

Some of the low-impact implementations happen earlier than 90 days but that’s ok. And, of course, I will continue learning more about the business way past the initial 30 days. But, this process forces me to go slow and learn the business before pulling any triggers. It’s worked for me in the past.

The Structure 

The best way I found to structure my 3-month plan is to break it down into categories and departments. 
Below are the categories I use (in priority order for me).

• People

• Systems

• Strategy

• Product

• Cash

The categories above then fit into each department of the business; Sales, Customer Success, Marketing etc. 
An example of tasks for the People category are:

• What is the current culture like?

• What is the current org structure?

• What is the hiring strategy?

• How are we onboarding new hires?

Here is an example in my template table:

It might seem a little over the top and complicated but it makes it much simpler to get my head around things. There will of course be some cross-over. For example, I’ve put Salary Review under the Cash category but, it could as easily sit under People. 

From experience, I’ve found that 3 months is the perfect amount of time to learn, review and implement. Of course, you can change the time frame depending on your situation. 

Maybe you can get it all done quicker or, if you’ve joined a massive organisation, you’ll want 6 months. The timeframe isn’t as important as the structure and system you apply.

Creating a 30/60/90 structure like this kills 2 birdies with 1 little but powerful stone.

1. You will get your priorities in order and know where to start.

2. You’re going to manage the CEO or board (depending on your role) in the best way possible. You will give them confirmation you know what you’re doing. And, you will manage their expectations in real time by simply sharing your progress each month.

You now have the perfect structure to start any management role or lead a company.

Click the button below to get access to the 30/60/90 Day Starting Template

Tune in next week for Part 2 - learning and assessment.

Peace, love and growth.

Jarren

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