The New Leader’s Journal: Milestone update II

Second milestone meeting – worked much better.

People circulated updates in advance.

Each person highlighted their group’s wins, learnings, and where they needed help in the first half of the meeting.

Then we had some good discussions about the top priorities in the second part of the meeting.

We’re also starting to work some of the projects outside of these meetings.  And Jack (my boss) is starting to pull me into some of the broader organizational issues.

Reflections

As I noted last week, milestone management is a process, not a one-time event.  In some ways, the 100-day action plans are really about jump-starting the strategic, operational, and organizational processes.  Milestone management is a core operational process.  Hugely valuable.  Requires persistence to get operating right.  Nice that the second meeting worked better.  On to the third.

Need to strike the right balance between leading my team and playing on Jack’s team, especially early on.  Want to add value everywhere, but I know I’ll earn my credibility by delivering on the marketing side before I start trying to influence things cross-functionally.


The New Leader’s Journal is a fictional exercise illustrating the prescriptions and tools in the 3rd edition of The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan.  Click here to request an executive summary of the book.  Click here to pre-order/order a copy.

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