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Making the Most of Your First 30 Days on the Job with Charley Longfellow (Ep. #67)

The BetterManager Team
Building Better Managers Podcast Episode 67 - Charley Longfellow

Building Better Managers Podcast Episode #67: Making the Most of Your First 30 Days on the Job with Charley Longfellow

Your first 30-to-90 days as a new leader in an organization can make or break you. It’s so easy to get caught up in “Here’s how I’m going to fix things!” But do you really know the situation well enough? It’s often much better to align with your team on a general vision and direction first, and use that first month to listen, observe, and assess why things are the way they are. This puts you in a great position to build and execute a successful plan based on what’s actually happening.

In this episode:

Meet Charley Longfellow

  • Charley is the former Head of International sales for Momentive.ai (SurveyMonkey) and current Chief Revenue Officer at Channelsight. Charley is from the West Coast of America but currently resides in Dublin Ireland for the past 5 years. Channelsight is a platform dedicated to helping brands connect with their customers. We offer an industry leading insights portal that connects all points of the customer journey.

Preparing for Your Transition

  • Start with lots of observing and reflecting. Spend some time categorizing and remembering the key traits of successful leaders you’ve worked with in the past (and the behaviors of those that weren’t that great!)
  • Adopt the most effective strategies you find that still reinforce your authentic self.
  • Avoid the trap of trying to mimic too much. You still need to apply the tactics that work for you.
  • Also easy to get caught up in “here’s how I’m going to fix things," but it's better to align on a general vision/direction, and then use the first 60 days to listen, observe, assess and build a plan based on what's actually happening.
  • There may be some immediate things that need attention but honestly a good trait of a leader is knowing which fires to let burn and which need immediate addressing.

The First 90 Days - What's Your "North Star?"

  • The first 90 days as a leader in a new company sets the pace for the future.
  • First, stay true to yourself and seek to leave people better than you found them.  
  • Second, adopt the attitude of service leadership, bringing the team along in the journey vs pointing and ordering. Get in the weeds and help when you need to!
  • Building high performing teams affords your teams lots of advancement through their careers.
  • Have a vision and be able to articulate that clearly.
  • Create strategies that are easily bounced off that vision.

The Beckhard-Harris Change Model (DxVxF>R)

  • The Beckhard-Harris change model describes the conditions necessary for change to occur. The model specifies that organizations and individuals change when:
    - There is DISSATISFACTION (D) with the current state (of whatever the focus of change might be)
    - There is a clear and shared VISION (V) of a preferred future and
    - There is an acceptable FIRST STEPS (F) ROADMAP to achieving the Vision
  • When the product of (D x V x F) is greater than the RESISTANCE (R) to change among those whose support is needed to make the change happen, you are in much better shape to be successful.

Downloads & Resources

Follow Charley on LinkedIn, and at Channelsight.com.

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform!

Check out our blog articles on Leadership here.

Charley Longfellow

Charley is the former Head of International sales for Momentive.ai (SurveyMonkey) and current Chief Revenue Officer at Channelsight. Charley is from the West Coast of America but currently resides in Dublin Ireland for the past 5 years. Channelsight is a platform dedicated to helping brands connect with their customers. We offer an industry leading insights portal that connects all points of the customer journey.

Episode Transcript
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