The First 90 Days

Six core topics covering the full leadership transition arc — from understanding the context and building relationships through securing early wins, shaping your team, and leading yourself through the uncertainty.

What's inside

This collection covers six transition topics that follow the natural arc of a leadership transition, plus a reusable transition checkpoint designed for 30, 60, and 90-day reviews. Every topic includes a micro lesson, blind spots, journal prompts, and a five-day habit builder.

The six transition topics:

Know What You're Walking Into — Understanding the transition context: what kind of role shift this is, what the organisation expects, and the traps that catch new leaders who assume this transition is like their last one.

Learn Before You Lead — Active listening, asking the right questions, and resisting the urge to arrive with answers. Understanding the culture, the politics, and the unwritten rules.

Build the Relationships That Matter — Stakeholder mapping, managing up, building trust with direct reports, and understanding the informal power structure.

Secure Early Wins — Choosing the right priorities, balancing quick impact with long-term credibility, and avoiding the "prove yourself" trap.

Shape Your Team — Assessing the team you've inherited, having honest conversations about expectations, and deciding what to change and what to leave alone.

Lead Yourself Through the Transition — Managing energy, confidence, and identity during a period of high exposure and low certainty.

How to use this collection

As a structured 90-day programme, work through the collection alongside the transition itself — one topic every one to two weeks. Use the Transition Checkpoint tool at 30, 60, and 90 days to track progress and recalibrate priorities.

For targeted transition coaching, use individual topics based on the client's immediate needs. Each topic works as a standalone coaching unit — a leader struggling with team dynamics can jump straight to Shape Your Team.

As session preparation, assign the micro lesson and journal prompts as pre-work before a coaching session so the client arrives having already reflected on the topic.

Available to registered Coaching Workspace members. You'll be asked to sign in if you're not already.