Navigating Your First 90 Days: Building Relationships and Skills for Future Growth

Episode Transcript

Julianna: Hi, welcome back. You are joined by Patricia and Julianna from either the Uncommon Career or Daring to Succeed podcast, depending on where you’re tuning in. And today we’re going to talk about setting yourself up for success in a new role. So most people kind of think about their first 30, 60, 90 days, thinking about how they can get to their first evaluation and really show that they’re shining in their new role. But we’re actually going to delve into planning ahead for your next promotion, which I know for a lot of people seems like, you know, you’re already in a brand new role. Why am I already thinking about my next job, which might not come for another two or more years? but really if you plan ahead for your next role not only are you setting yourself up for long-term success but you’re kind of almost guaranteeing success in your current role as well. Patricia what do you think about that?

Patricia: Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I think sometimes I can feel, I know the times that I’ve mentioned it to clients, like, okay, we’re going to go through the coaching process. And at the end, we, you know, take a look at a strategic onboarding your first sunny days, and how you can set up for your next promotion. And almost every time, right, my clients like, oh, that feels overwhelming. And I’m like, what if I told you it actually makes your first 90 days easier? It’s sort of like you’re being catapulted. So instead of running towards something, you’re actually being moved towards something. It makes things feel almost a little bit more, I’m going to say buttery smooth, right? Because part of that, and we’ll get into this, but part of that is figuring out what relationships to leverage and how to set boundaries and how to figure out what the priorities are. even though it might feel like it’s an extra thing to do, it actually all works together, which I think is really cool.

Julianna: Yeah, and I love how you say that it’s like butterier, because it really is. It’s more of a long-term goal and transition that you’re planning that you’re trying to execute on rather than just trying to make it through the first month, trying to make it through the first quarter and to your first evaluation, which can almost be even more overwhelming because you’re trying so hard to impress and hit really specific goals for the immediate instead of kind of stepping back and saying, yes, I got this new job, but how do I kind of smooth out my transition over the next couple of years so that it’s gradual and it’s not, okay, I’ve proven myself in this role, now what?

Patricia: Now I’ve got to start again to create another expectation, another impression. It’s very much kind of moving from a kind of reactive, surviving kind of mentality to a proactive, you know, how can I thrive as a professional more holistically than just between now and my evaluation, because that will, you know, focusing on your first evaluation makes you think you have to take action immediately, but there’s quite a bit of value that you can demonstrate by learning and taking input versus trying to implement some action when maybe you don’t yet know the lay of the land well enough to have the most strategic action.

Julianna: Absolutely and I wonder Patricia like what is the kind of thought process or conversation that you normally have with your clients trying to talk them through this whole planning process or visualizing themselves into the future?

Patricia: Oh yeah I think I think one of the pieces is most of my clients that I work with tend to appreciate like the concrete stepping stones, like where can I put my foot next and what will come after that? And once they see the whole picture and all the stepping stones put together and like the castle at the end, right? Once they see where it’s leading, then they’re like, okay, now I can kind of go back to the beginning, knowing where I’m walking and knowing what the end goal is because now I have that information. And so usually we talk about learning. And a lot of this, by the way, for me personally, has been inspired both by my experience, but also by this great book called The First 90 Days, where it really helps reinforce and then superpower, like literally give you this huge boost in strategy on how you think about things. And it’s really great and designed for leaders. But even if you’re an individual contributor, we’ve used that book to kind of, you know, give you a boost in specific areas. One of them is learning, right? Being strategic about not just learning about the task, the new task you have to do. Most people go into their workplace and they’re like, okay, I don’t know this software, so let me spend all my time learning it so that I can get these wins, right? But I’m really talking about big picture learning. When you are in those first 30, 60, 90 days, there’s not actually a ton that’s expected of you. And I’ll tell you this, if there is a lot, they want you to hit the ground running, No matter what is expected in the first 30, 60, 90 days, more will be expected after that. So take your time, even if you have to hit the ground running to figure out what’s the best return on your learning investment. Things like learning the organizational chart, the decision making documents, right? All of those pieces are going to be really important. So that’s one learning. The second one is people. We focus very easily on the task. How am I going to check the box so that I can get the award, right? Get the recognition. How can people see that I’m getting so much done? But can I tell you, there is value in you getting something done, but there’s so much more value in other people in your organization realizing that you are considering their input because later on, it’s going to be so much easier to get something done. When you go to the table, there is a you know, uh, tension filled conversation, but you have built relationships that build bridges, right? And so now you’re going to be able to get something done that is organizational and not just on your individual task list. And that’s going to bring so much more value. And it’s going to be visible not only to your immediate boss who sees your task list, but also to the larger organization. So for me, it’s learning and people are the two big ones. And then, you know, what kind of goes along with that is like the understated, the, the politics, the norms, expectations that you set, sort of what you see that is unspoken and what you are giving off that is unspoken are the three things.

Julianna: Yeah, that’s so amazing and I take a similar approach with really focusing on the people in the relationships before what I’ll call the competencies and like you said, learning all the software because the way I kind of position it with my clients is thinking not just for your new boss but the whole team that you’re joining right so they’ve already got an established dynamic on that team in the department in the company and if you’re not careful and you don’t understand what you’re stepping into you could get yourself into a lot of trouble just by not knowing what those dynamics are not understanding you know who’s the person who is hoping for the promotion that you got or who’s the person who is really proud of being the go-to person and then all of a sudden you’re stepping in and showing off well they think you’re showing off and like being like I’ve suddenly become a whiz in this software whatever it is where if you know where everybody is on that team as well as the teams that you work with you focus on understanding what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses, what are they proud of, and what are they worried about, you can really easily sidestep those like hidden landmines that are so common for new people to a team where building the right relationship, they’ll see you as like a partner, an advocate, somebody they can actually trust rather than just this new person coming in and trying to outperform everyone.

Patricia: Oh my goodness. I literally, you probably saw my expression as we’re recording here, Julianna, like I just had this like brain, what is it? Like mind blown emoji moment because you’re so right. You know, if you think of it as a new business going into this new market, You can try to compete with the people and the businesses that are already there, but that’s a losing battle because they have historical knowledge, they have relationships built, they have all these pieces, but when you notice a new company going into a space and figuring out where there is the gap that I can fill. There is no competition. Well, not in the same way because now you have this gap, right? So every other organization, the giants, right? The giant organizations that have been there forever, they can’t turn on the dime the way you can. And so you have this new perspective. So that’s what I would do in an organization. I love that you brought this up, Julianna, because it’s kind of like you go into this team and I remember specifically this happened to me where I kind of go into this team and I’m like, okay, I’m with some rock stars, like there’s some amazing talent here. And so for me to try to be like, look how great I am, I’m just going to burn bridges. So let me take a look at the strengths in my leaders, the strengths in my peers, the strengths in my counterparts, and let me figure out like, what can I do in each of these spaces, and it’s different. This is one thing that I learned to be pretty strategic about is there was this organization, they called it Instructional Planning Council, IPC. And this organization basically decides what positions are hired for across the institution, especially for faculty positions and how money was spent in the instructional side of things. That is a really important committee. And so I was, by the grace of God, placed into that committee. And so I go into that committee and I realize, oh my goodness, there’s some really smart and talented people here. I can’t compete. And that was the moment that I was like, either I’m going to be the small fish in the big pond, or I’m going to be a koi fish in the middle of, I don’t know, salmon, whatever, right? Bad analogy. Didn’t prepare that one well. Like, it’s kind of like, okay, what can I do that’s differently? And so I started paying attention. And I don’t think I realized this when I was doing it. But I started paying attention to like, oh, okay, he’s definitely the, you know, strong leader. And she is the savvy person who who gets things done behind the scenes. And nobody ever really knows that she’s actually running some of the pieces, right. And this person over here is very tactical, always brings in that focus. And this and there’s so many people And the beauty of it was that because there were so many people, I had to really dig in. I literally had a sheet of paper where I was like, okay, this is how this person talks, right? And once I took some time, I mean, it did take me some time, maybe like 30, 40, 50 minutes of thinking and then a week of just simmering. But eventually I was like, oh, it came up. I’m the person who says things when nobody else wants to say them. I may not be the smartest in the room. I may not be the quickest in the room. I may not be the leader and I may not be the one who turns the king’s head right behind the scenes, but I am the one who asks the question that nobody wants to ask and everyone is relieved is asked. And so once I realized, okay, I can bring that to the table, that was my starting point. That’s not who I am and everything that I bring, but now I have a starting point that got other people to say, it’s so refreshing to have her on this team. and now I’m like great let’s find another gap to fill and continue to grow my influence in that space in that way.

Julianna: Yeah that’s such a great approach and really getting to understand everyone else’s style is so important because you also don’t want to try to we’ll say overuse a skill set that you have that is already in abundance on the team. Right? Because obviously the manager who hired you onto the team saw something in you that is needed on the team, whether they have it already and they just need a different flavor of it, or it’s just something that hasn’t been on the team for a really long time. Like you’ve got to think that this leader is actively thinking about how you can contribute to the team and If you’re not already getting that clear, clear message, because some leaders are really good at, hey, I brought you on for A, B and C specifically, I want you to do these things. But then there are other leaders who may think about that during the recruitment process, but somehow neglect to share it with the person they’ve hired, just it’s their style, whatever. And that’s where the onus is on you to do what Patricia mentioned and kind of get to know everybody on the team to see where are all their strengths, where can you add in that contribution that everybody’s been like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. I’m so glad we’ve got this person on the team now to do this one thing that no one else is doing.

Patricia: Yeah, yeah. It’s finding that gap. And that’s just your opening. That’s not all you bring. That’s just the initial opening, right? So yeah, I mean, coming back to the main, the core, right, which is how are you setting up for promotion? What you’re doing is you’re finding spaces where you can find that opening, build that bridge. And again, it’s a stepping stone. So it’s like your first stepping stone, then you go on. And so if you are able to spend time strategizing, right, let me get to know the major decision-making documents. Because if you know the decision-making documents, for example, and the org chart and the dotted lines, right, now you add that information along with your observation of people. So-and-so seems to be a little bit, you know, unsatisfied with their role because this other person seems to always take XYZ. Well, how did this person get there? Like basically asking the question of how did we get to where we are? And this could be… you know, when you’re diagnosing like something that’s like a conflict and you’re not quite sure why it’s there, or a recent, you know, challenge that maybe you’re really successful in as an organization or maybe you’re not. Either way, that question of how did we get here was a question that I think that, you know, First 90 Days book, for me, solidified. Like, how did we get here? I don’t know that I thought about that as clearly as I do now that I’ve kind of really read through that book. It’s going in there thinking, what role do I want next? And with that in mind, in the back of your head, then it’s figuring out, let’s look at the learning documents. Let’s look at the relationships. Let’s figure out what space I can bring the most value in without needing to check a bunch of boxes. And then kind of, you know, going from there to hopefully, I guess my next thought is to bring in a potential mentor to position yourself for someone to want to mentor you or even become a sponsor in the future.

Julianna: Yeah and that actually brings me to one of my favorite topics networking where I’ve actually had a couple clients recently who have gone into new jobs leading up new teams and we’re kind of tightening up their their onboarding plans like their own onboarding plans and they’re always shocked that I suggest that they start networking right then at the start because their focus is so much on the team, impressing their manager. But whether you are in a leadership position or not, you need those people outside of your immediate network for when you’re ready for that next role. So I always suggest starting early because it’s a little bit more of a natural step to go out there and introduce yourself to all these people in the company that you’d be interacting with that your team interacts with so it just feels like okay this person is just introducing themselves and then you can cast a really really wide net and just see what comes back What I’m hearing right now is people are so busy and like juggling hybrid is still kind of in flux that when they go out and try to network with a whole bunch of people they’re getting very few responses back. People are just not responding to like the coffee catch-ups or whatever and leveraging your role as the new person kind of gives them something we’ll say novel to latch on to. Hey there’s this new person maybe I want to know what their their deal is or at least or at the very least they want to be friendly and just at least reply to your email even if they’re busy. So you should be able to get a little bit more uptake right from the beginning to take that step, introduce yourself, let them know that you just kind of want to learn about what they do at the company, their role, that kind of thing. And then from there you should be able to sort out who are the people who seem like they’re actually interested in building a relationship and focus on those people. Because like Patricia said, at some point you’re going to need a mentor, you’re going to need an advocate who can speak on your behalf and be there in the rooms that you’re not in.

Patricia: Oh, that’s so helpful. That’s so helpful to consider. Let me cast a wide net. Let me get to know everybody. You’d be surprised. Sometimes it’s… And I always think about in movies… I’m trying to think of a good name of a movie. I think Otto might be one of them, O-T-T-O, I want to say. There’s so many movies where there’s this character that tends to be like the grumpy old man, right? But in almost every single one of these movies, what makes them so great is that you get to really get to know this character and someone who you initially may have thought was mean and grumpy and cold really is a very caring, strong character of a person. And it just makes me think, when we first go into these scenarios, it can be so easy to make snap judgments on both ends, right? Who’s this person coming in to do X, Y, Z job of this colleague that I really loved and got laid off, or you know what I mean? There’s so many, whether it’s politics or negative situations, loss, all these things, right? And so taking advantage of Julianna, what you just mentioned is it’s kind of like when you’re a student, when you’re a student, everybody wants to talk to you. Everyone wants to tell you the chisme, the gossip, right? Everyone’s just so open and everything you do is gold. I remember I was a student on a Friday and no matter what I did, good job and this is great. You’re developing so well. I graduated on Saturday, came back on Monday and all of a sudden the exact same work was not good enough because now I was a professional. Right? And now I went out to, as a professional, I go out in a network to, you know, talk to people, right? And my response rate, my acceptance rate, all of a sudden dropped because I’m no longer a student. I’m no longer an intern. Now I am a professional. And so think of those first 30, 60, 90 days as your timeframe. The earlier you can get into conversations, the less assumptions have been made and the more leeway they’ll give you so that you can get to know them on your terms as opposed to kind of tainted by whatever situations happen.

Julianna: Yeah, I think that’s such good advice because… Especially as you get more entrenched in your new team, your new role, people kind of already have an idea of who you are. And it’s too late to change their mind after that, however long it takes for that to happen. And like I’ve worked through with some clients who are struggling because they’re like, OK, well, I’ve been here for a while. I’m trying to network, but people just aren’t getting back to me. And it’s like they it’s because they’ve already decided there’s nothing you can give them or you might need something from them or whatever they’ve decided to translate in their mind for you just wanting to get to know them, right? So like Patricia said, using your first 30, 60, 90 days as your student time, when they still think that you’re new enough that they can impart wisdom upon you or share things with you and you’re not really there looking for anything, you’re just trying to meet the new people in the company. or the team or whatever, I think is a really good way to start. And then you can hopefully form those really critical, more personal relationships so that when you go to them and you do need something, even if it’s just an introduction or their advice, it’s so much easier because they already see you as a human person, not just this person doing this role with this title who needs to get work done.

Patricia: Oh my gosh, absolutely. It’s like you’re laying the foundation that may not, again, check that box on XYZ got done, but you will be able to navigate the organization so much easier as you move forward. And I know you and I had talked about the kind of like how to position yourself as a mentee. And just before we switch, because I was thinking right now, okay, let’s talk a little bit more about like the tactical, like how to target that next position. I thought, well, it might be helpful to just include a couple of the pieces that I know, Julianna, you and I have talked about before. And that’s, you know, leading with curiosity, like getting your foundation, you know, showing that your investment, right? Here’s the research I’ve done. Here’s how I read the documents. Here’s how I had some conversations with some peers. and gotten to understand the lay of the land. I’ve had some conversations maybe with my direct leader. But then you start having conversations with people. This is why you attend conferences and mixers and all these things, right? So you can get some face time with your boss’s boss or leaders in the organization that are at other higher levels for your future. Because then you can say, you know, I’ve already read through this document. I’ve already done this research. I’ve already looked at everything that’s on the surface. But I would love to know your take as somebody who has done X, Y, and Z, because again, you researched them. And so now you’re coming in. I did the investment. I still have a question and only you can answer this question. So now you’re coming in with curiosity. And when you do that, it creates two things. One of them is that you position yourself as a mentee. Basically, a good mentee is someone who does their homework, someone who isn’t asking for a handout, someone who’s prepared, and also someone who specifically wants what you have to offer. But then at the same time, because they get to share their wisdom, they’re not talking to you. And psychologically, it’s like this positive emotion of like, my legacy in some ways, right? Like giving back, right? Especially the more senior, you know, these professionals are, if you’re a director, executive, you know, even CEO, vice president, depending on your organization, right? The more senior you are, the more you realize I have so much wisdom and at some point I’m going to move out of this space and I would like to pass on all this wisdom. And so being able to do that, you know, research, show your investment, bring up curiosity and let them know that they are the person you want the answer from. It’s not just a general, I just need an answer. Can you tell me where the library is? It is, you have very specific experience that I would love to learn from and I have just two specific questions or three questions, can we just go out to coffee really quick? Or even just ask them, if you ask them a question, low commitment at an event they’re already at, they’re more likely to have that experience there and then you can bring them into a little bit more commitment later. Yeah, so I wanted to bring that up because I thought, man, we’re just like right on the money with the mentorship piece. But Julianna, this is something that I think you’re fantastic at. So I’m going to give like two or three top thoughts and then pass it over to you. But, you know, I was thinking like, okay, can we share? some very specific and concrete things that people can do to start to look toward their next promotion. And the two cents I’ll drop in here is number one, figuring out what’s the gap between this position and the next one. It’s kind of like when you want to dress like the position you want. Let’s assume the position you want isn’t the one you just got, but the one after that, right? So what is missing? The people who are in those positions What do they know? How do they talk? What kinds of metrics and accomplishments do they share? All of these pieces, what are the projects that they own? And then also figuring out from there, you know, who are the people who make decisions for those roles and then going after those folks but not before doing your research and figuring out what matters to them because you don’t want to talk about how you’re so successful in your current role when you’re having conversations with these people who that role isn’t really under their purview and it’s not quite as important. So Julianna, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Julianna: Yeah, thanks Patricia. So I think I’ll start with what I’ll say are fuzzy next career roles. So not everybody obviously has a very concrete idea of, okay, after this role, I want this role, and then I want this one, etc. Sometimes it’s just okay I want to continue to expand the breadth of my knowledge in the space or yeah I do want a promotion but I’m flexible on what type. So if you’re not entirely locked into what you want to do as your next role, going back to Patricia’s comment about curiosity, use that time to meet with people and figure out like what are your options, what are all the different roles, how do people get to the roles that they’re in now that are interesting to you and that will help you kind of trace not only your career path but also that gap that Patricia mentioned with like what are the skills that you need to pick up to get there. And from there you can kind of look to see, okay, based on all these conversations, what people like and don’t like about their jobs, what’s expected, what’s the maybe one or two that I really want to focus in on? And then once you get to that point, or if you were already at the point where you knew exactly what you wanted, That’s where the real work happens. So I always recommend that you kind of focus on the skill sets that are needed for both your current role and your next one. So that you’re kind of getting the two birds with one stone situation. a lot of people try to pick up every single skill set that they need to be like a 100% stellar employee in their current role but then they find that half of that stuff they don’t even need them for the next role that they’re moving on to and they’ve just spent two years building out skill sets that are basically just throw away. Right, like what comes to mind to me all the time is learning how to do like macros in Excel and other things like that. If you are a super technical person and that leads you to becoming a developer and you’re not in that space yet, absolutely go for it. But if you’re more on the people leadership side or a specialist in the business itself, like the type of work that the business does, those macros aren’t really going to help you. And as you move up the chain, that’s just going to be a lot of wasted time that somebody else on your team could do.

Patricia: Yeah, that’s such a good point.

Julianna: Right, like thinking ahead to say, OK, there are skills that I need now and there’s skills that I need in the future. What’s the overlap that I can find and really target that overlapping area? Because then not only is your boss going to be supportive of you developing that skill for right now, you’ll be able to use that for roles in the future.

Patricia: Okay, that is super insightful because I don’t think we notice until we’re at the finish line, right? That we’re like, oh, that’s not actually the race I wanted to win. I got here really fast, but this is not actually where I’m targeting. So, okay, before we kind of start to wrap up, for you, what do you think are the most important things that you would want, you know, everyone to remember? You know, like, for example, if you’re listening right now, you’re probably thinking, okay, that was a lot of really good information. Like, where do I start? Or how do I create a framework? What are the top X number of things to do, right? How would you summarize that, Julianna?

Julianna: I would say start from maybe the midpoint between where you are now and where you want to be as your goal because things will change along the way but if you if you aim that goal too short if it’s only like two months from your start date you’re going to get that you’re going to get there in no time you’re going to do all these things you’re going to kill it And then it’ll be like, now what? And you just kind of end up going about your daily routine until you find yourself bored and needing something else and then starting all over again. But if you set that goal far enough ahead that it’s a comfortable, happy, successful spot in this new role that you’ve gotten, you can kind of build towards that and leave a little bit of flexibility for the organization changes, you change your mind, whatever comes at you. So that you’re not planning so far out in the future that you feel like you’re kind of aiming too far ahead and you’re forgetting about your current job. But you’re still aiming far enough in the future that you’re setting up for your future persons, your future youth success, not just making it through the week, making it through the quarter. So I think goal setting would probably be the biggest. like anchor point for your planning piece um and then really just get out there and meet as many people as you can and obviously don’t overdo it remember to do your job but but don’t get discouraged when people aren’t getting back to you or the conversation falls flat those early early days and establishing yourself as you know just somebody who’s curious and wanting to help and wanting to learn is so so critical in making sure that you’ve got that strong reputation that you need to rely on for when you are ready for your next role.

Patricia: Yeah yeah I like that. Thank you for bringing us back to goal setting, because it’s so easy to jump right into the action taking and next thing you know, you’re in the pool, but you don’t actually know where you’re swimming to. So this is great. So setting some goals for sure, setting some goals, figuring out where are you, where you want to go, or if you’re not 100% sure that halfway point that you mentioned is really helpful. You know, learning and relationships, making those two things a priority while balancing your current work priorities as well. And then, you know, with the relationships being strategic, but also making contact with as many people as you can. Knowing that, like you said, many won’t get back to you and that’s okay because they’re busy. But what happens is since they didn’t get back to you in your first day, when you were just an early, you know, on your first few days, right? When they do have to have a conversation with you, or when they do get a chance to reply to that email, you already have some free built in trust because they’re like, Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry that I didn’t connect with you. You know, let’s connect now. Right. And so you’re starting sort of at a bit of an advantage relationally, if you will. But this has been such a great conversation. This has been such a great conversation. I just, you know, I appreciate the time that you and I get to have a conversation, Julianna, because everyone that is here with us can kind of benefit from these conversations that sometimes we have when we’re not recording. But when we do record, we’re like, ah, we’re so glad that we caught this on the podcast. And so to everybody listening, thank you so much for joining us. We hope that you have a wonderful week and we will talk to you soon.