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Welcome back to House of Leadership
We explore what it really takes to grow and lead successfully in a fast-paced, high-performance environemnt. Every week, we provide a core idea and practical actions to apply right away. If you want the deeper insights, frameworks, and templates that accelerate your career growth and leadership impact, please go premium.
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What You'll Learn Today:
The First 30 Days Framework: Why new leaders fail when they try to impress instead of understand
The Listening Tour Blueprint: How to gather truth without triggering politics
The Credibility Equation: The small signals that determine whether your team trusts you
Quick Wins vs. Right Wins: How to create momentum without breaking what works
Premium Playbook: The 90-day roadmap template, stakeholder mapping tool, listening questions bank, and early trust-building scripts
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Hello team,
A few years ago, I watched a talented leader join an organisation with a big reputation and even bigger expectations. He arrived with a 30-slide strategy deck on day three. By week two, he was restructuring. By month one, he had “fixed” three things that weren’t broken.
By month three, his best performers had mentally checked out.
He wasn’t incompetent. He was insecure.
He thought his job was to prove he deserved the role.
But when you join a new organisation, your job isn’t to prove yourself.
It’s to understand the system you’ve just inherited.
This week, let’s talk about the five steps every new leader should take when they join a new organisation, especially if they want to build long-term credibility instead of short-term control.
1. Start With Humility, Not Authority
The moment you join, everyone is assessing you.
Not just your capability, your intent.
New leaders often fall into one of two traps:
They assert authority quickly to “set the tone.”
They stay overly quiet to avoid rocking the boat.
Neither builds trust. Instead, start with humility.
Not performative humility, real curiosity.
You are stepping into:
Existing informal power structures
Historical tensions
Unwritten rules
Scar tissue from past decisions
You don’t see it yet. But it’s there.
Strong leaders assume they are walking into complexity. Weak leaders assume they are walking into incompetence.
That assumption shapes everything.
If you begin with the belief that smart people built this before you arrived, your tone changes. Your questions improve. Your credibility grows.
2. Run a Structured Listening Tour
When I step into something new, I don’t ask, “What’s broken?”
I ask:
What’s working that we must protect?
Where do you feel friction in your day-to-day work?
If you had my role for 30 days, what would you focus on?
What’s one decision you think leadership consistently gets wrong?
And then I listen.
No defending. No correcting. No explaining context they “don’t understand yet.”
Just listening.
Because here’s the truth: People don’t need a perfect new leader. They need to feel heard by one.
The listening tour does three things:
1. It surfaces blind spots early. You’ll hear patterns quickly.
2. It builds psychological safety. When people feel safe telling you hard truths early, they’re more likely to do it later.
3. It signals maturity. Leaders who rush to solutions signal insecurity. Leaders who seek understanding signal strength.
If you want influence later, invest in listening first.
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3. Map the Real Power, Not the Org Chart
Org charts show reporting lines. They don’t show influence.
Every organisation has:
Informal cultural leaders
Technical gatekeepers
Long-tenured sceptics
Quiet high-performers everyone relies on
If you don’t identify these people early, you’ll misread the system. One mistake I see repeatedly: new leaders only build upward relationships.
They spend time aligning with their boss and peers, but neglect the informal leaders in their own team.
Then they wonder why initiatives stall.
Before you change anything major, ask yourself:
Who does the team trust most?
Who shapes sentiment in meetings?
Who do others go to before escalating issues?
Win those people through respect and inclusion. Not politics. Not flattery. Respect.
If they believe you’re thoughtful, your change efforts accelerate dramatically.
4. Deliver a Thoughtful Quick Win
Momentum matters. But not all quick wins are equal.
Bad quick wins:
Cosmetic process changes
Publicly reversing previous decisions
Fixing visible but low-impact issues
Good quick wins:
Removing friction your team has complained about for years
Clarifying decision rights
Simplifying something that causes daily frustration
The key is this:
Don’t choose a quick win because it makes you look decisive. Choose one because it makes your team’s life better.
There’s a difference.
Early credibility comes from making people’s work easier, not from announcing bold strategy shifts.
And be careful: if you undo too much too quickly, you implicitly criticise the previous leadership. Even if they’ve moved on, their influence hasn’t.
Respect the past. Improve the future.
5. Set Clear Expectations Early
Clarity is kindness.
Once you’ve listened, observed, and built context, you must shift into clarity.
New leaders sometimes delay expectation-setting because they fear backlash.
But ambiguity breeds anxiety.
Your team wants to know:
What does good look like here?
What will you prioritise?
How will you make decisions?
What behaviours are non-negotiable?
You don’t need a full transformation plan. You need clear operating principles.
For example:
“We will prioritise customer impact over internal convenience.”
“We will give direct feedback, not hallway feedback.”
“We will escalate early rather than let problems age.”
When people understand your standards, they can align. Without standards, they guess.
And guessing creates inconsistency.
The First 90 Days Shape Everything
The beginning of your leadership tenure is disproportionately influential.
Early patterns become culture.
If you:
Over-index on control → people become cautious
Avoid difficult conversations → standards slip
Change too much too fast → trust erodes
Change nothing at all → momentum dies
But if you:
Listen deeply
Respect history
Create thoughtful momentum
Clarify expectations
You build a foundation that compounds.
I’ve seen leaders spend years undoing mistakes made in their first 60 days.
I’ve also seen leaders create extraordinary followership because they handled their entry with maturity and restraint.
Your first impression isn’t about charisma.
It’s about judgment.
And judgment is visible in how you enter a system.
A Final Reflection
When you join a new organisation, remember this:
You were hired for your capability.
You’ll be kept for your character.
Anyone can bring ideas. Not everyone can build trust.
Start there.
Until next week,
🔒 Want the First 90 Days Leadership Toolkit?
In the premium section below, I share the practical tools I use when stepping into new roles or coaching leaders through transitions:
The 30-60-90 Day Roadmap Template: A structured plan for listening, alignment, and early momentum
The Stakeholder Influence Map: How to identify formal and informal power centres
The Executive Listening Question Bank: 25 high-impact questions that surface real organisational truth
The Early Credibility Checklist: Micro-signals that build or break trust in your first month
Expectation-Setting Scripts: Language for communicating standards without triggering defensiveness
These aren’t theory. They’re the operating frameworks that prevent early leadership missteps, and accelerate long-term influence.
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