New Manager: Your First 90 Days

Most new managers fail in the same two ways: they keep doing the IC job, or they over-correct and stop touching the work entirely. The middle path is deliberate.

The shift

What to stop doing

• Doing the high-leverage IC work that only you can do
• Reviewing every PR / pitch / deck personally
• Saying yes to every project request
• Avoiding the hard conversation because you’re ‘new’

What to start

• Weekly 1:1 with each report by end of week 1
• Shared 1:1 doc per person
• Manager-skip-level cadence agreed with your manager
• Read your team’s last two performance review cycles
• Identify one ritual to keep and one to retire

Week-one conversations

1. Each direct report: ‘What’s working? What’s in the way? What do you want me to do differently from your last manager?’
2. Your manager: ‘What does success look like in 90 days?’
3. Your peer managers: ‘What do you wish I’d know about this team / this org / this company?’
4. One stakeholder: ‘What does your team need from mine?’