You're In Charge — Now What?

Getting a new job or a big promotion is like building a house: You need to get the foundation right for both. With a job, the quick-drying cement is how well you do in your first hundred days, since they establish the foundation for long-term momentum and great performance.

Tom Neff and Jim Citrin are two of the world''s leading experts on leadership and career success. As key figures at Spencer Stuart (hailed by the Wall Street Journal as the number one brand name in executive search), they must understand the criteria for success when they recruit top executives for new leadership positions.

Through compelling, first-hand stories you will hear from people such as Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, on how his career has been a series of successive first hundred days. Larry Summers, president of Harvard University, talks candidly about what he could have done differently in his early days to avoid dissipating goodwill among the diverse constituencies important for his future success. Gary Kusin of Kinko''s shares the specifics of the hundred-day action plan he crafted for himself before he started his new job. Paul Pressler of Gap Inc. shows how he developed a general strategic agenda that established fundamental principles and goals, waiting to prepare a more detailed strategic plan until later in his tenure.

Tom Neff and Jim Citrin''s actionable eight-point plan will be the foundation for your success—whether you are moving to a new organization or being promoted — showing how to:

• Prepare yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally from the time you accept until the time you begin
• Manage others'' expectations of you—bosses, colleagues, and subordinates
• Shape and build the team that will work with you
• Learn the lay of the land and find out how things "really work around here"
• Communicate your story effectively to people inside and outside the organization
• Avoid the top ten traps that confront every new leader, such as disrespecting your predecessor, misreading the true sources of power in the organization, or succumbing to the "savior syndrome"

When you start a new job you are in what AOL''s Jon Miller calls a "temporary state of incompetence," faced with having to do the most when you know the least. But with the eight-point plan of You''re in Charge — Now What? you'll understand and be able to take action on the patterns that will build your success.

• Introduction
• One: The Countdown: Preparing for the Race Before You Reach the Starting Line
• Two: The First Steps: Aligning Expectations
• Three: No One Can Do It Alone: Shaping Your Management Team
• Four: Crafting Your Strategic Agenda
• Five: Culture Is the Game: Starting to Transform the Corporate Culture
• Six: Answering to a Higher Authority: Establishing a Productive Working Relationship with Your Boss (or Board)
• Seven: Communication: The Key to Implementing Your Agenda
• Eight: Resisting Temptation: Avoiding the Top Ten Traps for New Leaders
• Conclusion: Next Step to Enduring Success — The Next Hundred Days
• Appendix
• The Spencer Stuart 8 Point Plan for the First Hundred Days
• Gary Kushin's First Hundred Day Plan for Kinko's
• "On Becoming an Associate"

An interesting book, that is also an easy read. A bit oversold, as I don't believe it is the final word on taking charge of a public company, and the authors seems to be partly selling temselves and their services (they're headhunters).

If you don't expect anything eartshattering, it is an OK book to read.