Amazon.com
According to Dan Ciampa and Michael Watkins, 64 percent of executives hired form the outside won't make it in their new jobs. While executives from within the ranks know the challenges, culture, and politics of a company, newcomers face a corporate minefield. Right from the Start is Ciampa and Watkins's survival manual for leaders taking starting work at a new company. "Leadership is never easy," they write. "This is never truer than when a new leader enters an organization from the outside and must change its culture in fundamental ways." Through interviews with dozens of corporate leaders who have succeeded or failed in such transitions, the authors provide a strategy for getting it right from the outset.
Ciampa, an independent consultant, and Watkins, a Harvard Business School associate professor, advise three key missions for new leaders: Create momentum; master the ability to learn, convey a vision, and build coalitions; and know and manage yourself well. A fast start is especially crucial. In fact, they say, the most important period starts with the recruitment or interview process and runs through the first six months in a new role. Right from the Start provides plenty of real-life examples of successes and failures, in everything from building coalitions to changing corporate culture. The stories tend to suffer sometimes because the executives remain anonymous. Nonetheless, the book is instructive for business people assuming new management roles. --Dan Ring
BookPage, July 1999
"This book can help the recently promoted cope with those frightening career moments that arise as soon as you get what you're after."
Training, August 1999
"An ordered approach to new leadership assignments that holds value for anyone at the executive level."
Computerworld, August 23, 1999
"Offers practical advice and inspiration for new managers to help them get off on the right foot and make the most of their new positions."
Book Description
Have you recently been handed a new leadership challenge? Are you about to start a new job, or are you expecting a big promotion? With today's surge in start-ups, spin-offs, change initiatives, and reorganizations, chances are that you'll be in a position to accept a leadership role sometime soon. Before you do, let Right from the Start show you how to balance the tensions and challenges inherent in any leadership transition. It will prepare you for the often-treacherous task of navigating an organization's strategy, politics, and culture so that you can smoothly and effectively get to work on your new agenda. Whether you are succeeding a much-admired boss or charged with implementing sweeping, potentially unsettling change initiatives, a new role is fraught with obstacles that can undermine your efforts to establish authority and build support. In Right from the Start, authors Ciampa and Watkins lay out an action-oriented framework to follow during the first six months in a new job. The tactical advice is supplemented with absorbing profiles of CEOs, COOs, and EVPs who candidly discuss their experiences-the successes and the failures-with transitioning to a new leadership role. Make no mistake, say the authors: the planning you do before you take the leadership reins is critical to achieving your goals. Right from the Start, with its timeless lessons of leadership, succession, and transition, is for everyone who wants to ensure that their first steps in a new job will be the ones that lead to enduring success.
Download Description
Execubooks are eSummaries of books for mobile professionals, available in single-copy or by subscription, and optimally formatted for onscreen reading on laptops or handhelds - so you can stay abreast of leading business wisdom, wherever you have a moment! As a new leader, it’s very important to make a great first impression. Right From the Start shows readers how to take charge in a leadership role. It contains a step-by-step framework to follow during the first six months of a new job. This useful guide is perfect for anyone who wants lessons for leadership, success and transition.
From the Back Cover
"Leadership transition is one of the most important and difficult tasks a manager will face. Ciampa and Watkins' insights-particularly about the 'early days'-and their advice for meeting these challenges are indispensable." -Henry Schacht, Director and Senior Advisor, Lucent Technologies "Ciampa and Watkins' analysis speaks to leadership in the private sector, but every page in the book yields help and insight for those of us in the public or nonprofit world as well. Right from the Start intertwines telling vignettes with advice that leaders will want follow-before it's too late." -Robert L. Gallucci, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, and Dean, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University "This book makes a great gift for friends who have just been appointed to new jobs. Right from the Start covers all the essentials for managing a smooth transition, a process critical to attaining leadership success. Read it now. Then read it again when you get your next promotion." -Major General Perry M. Smith, Author of Rules and Tools for Leaders, and President, Visionary Leadership Ltd. "Right from the Start skips the abstract theories and tired platitudes of so many leadership books and gets to what works-a tried-and-true practical framework for making the bottom line hum. Those who take leadership seriously cannot afford to overlook this book." (Gerard R. Roche, Chairman of the Board, Heidrick & Struggles) "Right from the Start is a superb handbook for executives in transition-a trenchant, engaging, and continuously rewarding guide through the crucial start-up period for a new leader." (Kevin Klose, President and CEO, National Public Radio)
About the Author
Dan Ciampa is an adviser to leaders moving into new positions and on creating a culture that sustains new technology and operational improvements. Michael D. Watkins is the founder of Genesis Advisers, a leadership and strategy consultancy. Watkins is the author of The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at all Levels.
Home
