After joining a new organization or team, the first 90 days hold the most importance. It is because your performance as a manager or team leader is evaluated during this period. Determine the short-term goals quickly and identify the team dynamics alongside. It is where the 30 60 90 day plan comes into play. A 30 60 90 day plan template for new managers puts in place your action plan outline for the first 90 days.
Before creating plans for the first 30 days, do some basic homework. It includes reading the policy guidelines and documents of the company and going through the company handbook.
Also, you must be aware of the competitors and the staff members to whom you shall be reporting. After going through these things, start implementing the plans that you have for the first 30 days. Do you know what you should be planning for the next 30 days?
Go on reading to find out!
Action Plan for the Initial 30 days- Phase of Revelations
Your first month as a manager should be full of revelations and discoveries. For that, you need to bombard your associates and seniors with hundreds of questions. If necessary, try to meet all the stakeholders and employees of the company. If not, at least meet the main stakeholders and key employees.
As a manager, explore all the services/products your company is offering. If your team is responsible for particular products or services, conduct deeper analysis to know their pluses and minuses. The following strategies might help you discover more about your organization and your role as a manager:
- Instead of conducting an indoor survey, ask the customers directly about the products/services your company is offering. It will provide you with honest opinions, which the employees might refrain from sharing.
- Get to know about the budget that is allocated and gauge whether it is sufficient or not. If necessary, go through all the raw materials/inventory and resources required to deliver a product/service. It will give you a rough estimate of the budget.
- Get along with senior managers as you would require their support to perform well. Similarly, build a strong rapport with every employee of your team and try to figure out their strengths and weaknesses.
- If you cannot figure out the exact shortcomings in a product, join the support team and work with them for some time. By doing so, you will know the actual gaps between the products/services and customer expectations. If yours is a client-based company, meet them informally and try to find out what is missing.
- Determine the current goals your team is working on and find whether they are relevant in the present context. If required, redefine the goals and make sure that everyone contributes towards them.
On fulfilling these criteria, our 30 60 90 day plan template recommends these things:
First 60 Days Plan – Start Implementing Changes
After following our recommendations for the initial 30 days, developing a better understanding of the company and its products/services would be easier. You will feel more comfortable and confident about your goals and vision. Also, you would have a fair idea of the things that don’t work for your team.
However, this is the time where you should be extra careful about your strategies. A single wrong decision can spoil your reputation. To avoid any confusion or mistakes, include these things in your template after the first 30 days:
- Start conducting weekly meetings. Set the agenda and actionable items of the meeting in advance. Appoint a few members of the team who would assist you in fulfilling the agenda or goals of the meeting.
- Create written updates after the team meetings and ask your trusted members to share them with everyone. It will increase the accountability of the team members.
- Build goals for the next 90 days and align the team with them. Analyze whether the present reporting, collaborative, and other tools/applications are efficient or not.
- Start implementing small changes in the process after the initial month. Also, keep track of the changes you’ve made and how they have impacted the team performance.
Follow the things above keenly but also start exploring the ways that could help your team achieve growth. This should be your priority in the 30 60 90 day plan template for new managers. Also, the first 60 days are more than sufficient to gather enough data about the company and its processes. Now, it’s time to take actions based on the data, and your next strategies should reflect your vision towards development!
First 90 Days Plan – Focus on Growth
Here are the few tips that you can follow to achieve consistent growth or progress for your team:
- Analyze the performance of each team member and evaluate whether they bring any value to the process or not. At times, you may have to make a harsh decision based on this analysis.
- Create a solid recruitment plan as you would want to add only deserving members to your team.
- Replace the ineffective tools and practices that are hindering the progress/performance of your team. Bring everyone into confidence while making significant changes to the process.
- More of a productivity tip but if you are working with channel partners or have outsourced your tech, it becomes important to evaluate certain performance aspects. Make sure your MSP KPIs are in place and they know what is expected from you.
- Keep the senior management informed about your decisions. It would enable them to reflect on whether your decisions were fruitful for the organization or not.
- Every month choose a date on which you will be talking one-on-one with every team member. Try to understand their issues, expectations, and opinion about the company.
- Create weekly and monthly reports and include everything from your assessment to observations in them. Also, mention the action plan you have taken for solving the current and predicted conflicts.
Conclusion
Keep focusing on things like team management, productivity, collaboration, communication channels, etc. Critical thinking and analytical tools will be your weapons during the first 3 months.
Therefore, don’t forget to work on them while implementing the 30 60 90 day plan template for new managers. Also, identify your role in the team and customize it according to the ongoing situations and challenges.
Recommended Read: A Manager’s Guide to Improve Communication Skills at Work
