First 90 Days as a New Leader

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Most new leaders spend their first 90 days trying to prove themselves. Elite leaders spend that time defining what "proof" looks like.

The difference is everything. Because if you let others define success after you've started, you're playing a game where the rules change whenever you're winning.

In corporate roles, success definitions are political. In startups, they're chaotic. In both, the first 90 days decide whether you control the narrative or get written out of it.

Here's what nobody tells you: the moment you accept a leadership role without explicitly negotiating success metrics is the moment you hand control of your reputation to people whose definition of success may be impossible, contradictory, or deliberately vague.

Corporate leaders discover this when they're six months in and their boss says "I expected different results." Entrepreneurs learn it when investors move the goalposts after every milestone. The pattern is identical: implicit expectations become explicit disappointments.

The solution is not working harder or hoping for the best. The solution is treating your first 90 days like a negotiation, because that's exactly what it is.

Why Most Leaders Skip This Step

Three reasons new leaders avoid the success definition conversation:

Fear of appearing uncertain. You think asking "what does success look like?" signals you don't know what you're doing. The opposite is true. Elite leaders know that clarity is competence.

Assumption of alignment. You assume everyone wants the same outcomes. They don't. Your boss wants political wins. Your board wants financial metrics. Your team wants stability. These aren't the same thing.

The urgency trap. You're drowning in immediate problems and think you'll "figure out expectations later." Later never comes. You get evaluated on standards you never agreed to.

Here's the reality: taking three days in week one to negotiate success definitions saves you three months of misdirected effort.

The Success Definition Gap