@bbcomCIO

Strange title wouldn’t you say, and a shocking one if it’s you receiving the news.  Just for the record this is a hypothetical post of ‘what if’.  What If – you were told today by your boss that he had just hired a consultant who was a previous (your title here) and that person would be working in your area for the next 90 days.

Would you

1. Freak out and assume your days are numbered
2. Go back to your desk and figure out your approach for the next 90 days and what this person might do if they were given your job today?

That is what I want to talk about in this post.  You’re next 90 days on the job and what you’re going to be doing.  So often it seems that when people are in job for years they get complacent and they do the same thing over and over and never really evaluate what their replacement (should one be hired) would do in the next 90 days.  I ask that question every 90 days to try and keep myself progressive and moving with the company, the CEO and the vision as well as constantly challenging my management and teams to keep getting better.  There is a great book from “Harvard Business School Press” entitled [The First 90 Days] this book is a MUST READ for anyone who is leading in a company, no matter what your position is.

When I get to the office (usually early) I sit down and jot out my notes, look at my schedule, read my twitter feed to get a feel for what’s going on as of late and I put my plan of attack in action for the day and to align with the next 90 days of goals.  I know this seems trivial but it’s key to helping build highly effective goals and teams.  Without goals teams and individuals eventually slip into the normal day-to-day grind.  Goals have many forms: creating a completed user story, a sprint task for development, setting up a router, addressing a problem employee, and just about anything else you can think of could qualify as a goal so long as it fits into the 90 day big picture.   Keep in mind people need to have a goal having a reason, this helps create buy-in and a way to collaborate over the goals or taks and collaboration helps accountability.  The trick, is getting the _TEAM_ or the _PERSON_   setting  goals for themselves in 90 day increments (sometimes 30 days are better depending on the team).

I’m currently re-reading for about the 5th time “The First 90 Days” just because I think it’s THAT good.  There are only a few books on my bookshelf that I feel are like that, another one being [Tactical Transparency] which I just finished for the 5th time also last week.  Why read them over so many times?  It’s like a conference it doesn’t all get into the brain the first time so going over it again and again just like the 10,000 hour rule  [Outliers] helps etch it into the brain as a natural habit.

Here is my typical morning:

5:45 – Up and at the Gym (Running or lifting)
6:45 – At the Office with Starbucks on my desk.
7:00 – TweetDeck open and reading, RSS Reader in the other monitor
7:30 – Catch up  on any emails from day before and last night and respond
8:00 – Write goals for the day that should dovetail into the 90 day strategy you setup
9:00 – First meeting.

Notice I gave myself short chunks of time to be 100% ready to face the day, informed, updated, goals set and ready for that first meeting usually with management teams.

Your day may not be meeting with a management team but it for sure should start with your goals for the day, your road map.

What’s on my goal list?
You might wonder what is on my goal list.  Often it’s the items on my previous days goal list that I was not able to complete due to things that came up ad-hoc throughout the day.  This model is OK because it keeps the goals on track for closure in 90 days.

Do I always complete ALL my goals  in 90 days like I planed? Almost never, but any that don’t get done just go into the next 90 days with new priorities.

What would you’re replacement do in the next 90 days is haunting question, but one that you should be prepared for and working to short circuit so you never hear it.