Part 2 : My First 90 days : Maneuvering The Landscape

This is in continuation with my earlier post that marked the first 30 days of my first 90 day journey in a new group, in a role that has been created for the first time. My second set of 30 days in Interglobe Group as the Group CIO, gives me the confidence to bat on the front foot for the time being. Having gone through the induction and the learning process on the key businesses of the groups, it was time to get to know the people better. A lot comes out as you do one-on-one with your peers, their one-downs and your direct reports.

3 things have been achieved at the end of 60 days:

1. Re-validation and the associated satisfaction of having joined the right workplace.
2. Firm understanding of business strategies, priorities and goals
3. A fair amount of understanding of the formal and informal structures that is responsible for the enterprise's success

The moment the satisfaction of having joined the right workplace sets in, what hit me immediately is that the organization must be seeking similar satisfaction for themselves on my appointment! This is a fine line one needs to walk on. I am in a new domain and need time to get my head around the business operations, goals and the strategy. At the same time the organization is extremely keen to quickly test the strength of their investment. I listed down three initiatives I need to run, while as a parallel process I formulate and co-create the digital strategy for the enterprise along with my team. Engaging on small initiatives, is a great way to showcase your mettle and also understand your environment and eco-system. Dealing with various individuals helps you discover both the fruitful and the wrong engagement techniques. Each person is different and needs to be approached and engaged with in a different manner, till you firmly establish your leadership and by virtue of that respect, people start aligning to your needs on engagement. Architecting this turnaround is very key both for political reasons and for your influence sphere to be effective. This should not be mistaken for arrogance. There is a huge distinction between the two. 

It would be foolish to take everything at face value and dis-respectful if your behavior displays this intent! This is a fine line that needs to be walked again.  There are many aspects of the new organization that you want to learn by putting it to test. Small simple tests can reveal the underlying fabric of agility, pride levels and engagement strengths of the organization. These three attributes are very important to me and hence I tend to look out for these and so I mention them here. One might argue, is integrity not a key value and should one not test that ?  It is, but that is one aspect a person should research before joining the organization. Once in, it would be foolish to either question or test integrity of the organization. At leadership levels, once in, one should take integrity and ethics as a given workplace strengths and move on to re-enforce these, and not test these. Attempts to test these in the initial phase of your new job at the leadership levels, gives way to various interpretations that will most adversely affect your personal brand. Always remember that you are the new guy. Any perceptions on your personality or brand that get created for in the first 90 days, will last for a very long time. In good organizations, respect for leaders who cannot manage their perception in the early days, is very scant. A few places might entertain benefit of doubt, but most performance driven organizations don't. The leadership is always hoping on riding on the new leader's brand to get a few things done in the first few days. Usually the announcement of your appointment , specially the part where they articulate your strengths,will carry traces of hints on their agenda. If you hurt your personal brand, you tend to be of little use to them in the first 90 days.

It helps to quickly see if there is someone out there who will hold your hand as you maneuver the new landscape, align with the culture and the way things are done, identify the formal and informal structures in the organization that the responsible for the organization's success and discover the most effective modes and means of communication. I found a fantastic guide for myself in this journey. This person had already made up his mind before I stepped in, to play this part. That is an attribute of a very mature workplace. The first thing to do is to cement this relationship with trust, friendship and integrity. My efforts in this direction will reveal their results in the next 30 days to come. But, best not to let the expectations go high on this, or rather on any support system in the organization in the first 90 days. 

Armed with whatever I could learn and internalize, I was nervously excited about my first leadership committee meeting at Interglobe, where I was to present my three initiatives. I wanted my first official pitch to set the tone for the next couple of months and lay the foundation of my brand equity as a strategist and direction setter. I was sure, I would be treated with kid gloves and loads of forced warm smiles, patronage and plenty of flowery language laced with nicety; none of which should affect me. Thankfully, the talk was cordial but straight and I walked away with the feeling that very soon, the language will reflect acceptance of my abilities at the table. None of "this is how things are done around here-you are new-you will learn." talk, rather they were looking forward to me setting a direction as the Group CIO. One of the key aspects I have to still work on is the interpretation and hopefully my guide will pitch in here as well.

Quality time one-on-one with business leaders was a must and I did get that to clearly drive my point home, that I am here to give a new direction and set agenda for driving business change, solicit their partnership in driving this change and striking the chord on the fact that its as much their change agenda as mine.

I am completely new to the domain and the following are very clear to me:

1. They know their business much better than anyone else (including their competition as they are market leaders) and hence I will learn the ropes from them.
2. I am an outsider and hence can quickly see where frog in the well syndrome is playing up and hurting the organization. This is my key strength at the moment and I bring this to the table.
3. I am neither boxed down by the organizational thought processes nor have been conditioned to the organizational constraint perceptions. This boosts my strengths further and is my trump card.
4. I am the new guy on the block and new ones at any level get some leeway. The new guys at leadership levels get loads of leeway for exceptionally short period of time.

So that's 3-1 in my favor as of now and for a very short time, as I add to my strengths, build relationship bridges and lead. That pretty much sums up the second 30 day block of my first 90 days in the new job!