I once placed a highly sought-after Finance Director, 48 years old, into a prestigious MNC.
Three months later, he called me, not to thank me, but to ask if I had another job for him.
He had barely survived his probation.
“I thought my track record would speak for itself,” he said, swirling his coffee. “I didn’t think I needed to prove anything.”
He thought wrong.
You see, after decades of placing senior executives, I’ve learnt this much: the first 30 days in any new role is an audition, and most people don’t even realise the impressions have already been made and judgements executed… that you’re either “The Chosen One” or “The Frozen One”.
So how do you make sure you nail it?
1. Listen More Than You Talk
Every organisation has its own unspoken rules, political landmines and tribal knowledge that will never appear in any induction manual and the fastest way to learn them is to shut up and observe.
I know of a 44-year-old VP of Operations who joined a logistics company and immediately started implementing the systems that had worked brilliantly in her previous role. Within 15 days, she had alienated three department heads and triggered a revolt from her own team.
“I came in with all the answers,” she told me, exasperated. “I forgot to first understand their questions.”
Your first 30 days should be about listening, learning and building relationships, not proving how smart you are, since you’ll have the rest of your tenure to do that. Unfortunately, failure to do so will limit that said tenure.
2. Find Your Quick Win, and Make it Visible
Nobody likes a new joiner who talks and runs around in circles for months with nothing to show for it.
You need one Quick Win, something concrete, visible and, ideally, something your predecessor never got around to fixing.
And it doesn’t have to be monumental. I coached a 38-year-old Regional Manager who won over his entire new team simply by solving a recurring data reporting problem that had been irritating everyone for two years. It cost him only 1 weekend using ChatGPT.
“Everyone thought I was a genius,” he laughed. “It was just a problem nobody bothered to prioritise.”
Find your version of that, deliver it by Day 30, and thank your team publicly for helping you get there.
3. Manage Upwards, Early and Often
Your boss hired you to solve a problem, but do you actually know which problem?
I’ve seen many talented executives assume they know what success looks like in their new role, only to discover six months later that their boss had an entirely different definition.
When I left Shell for GE Plastics, my previous company’s KPI was always about “Sell more, Volumes Matter, Narrow Margins are OK” because we were moving millions of tons of oil. But when I joined GE Plastics which was a specialty thermoplastics company, I used the same strategy only to discover that the bosses were looking at “high margins, even if we have to sell less”, causing me to miss my first quarter targets.
“Because I didn’t clarify my KPIs, I lost by winning…what a Champion!”
Instead of waiting for your performance review, have a frank conversation with your boss on Day 1 and ask directly: “What would make you say, at the end of my first year, that hiring me was the best decision you made?”
Their answer will tell you everything.
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Your first 30 days sets the trajectory for everything that follows. Get it right and you’ll have the political capital, the relationships and the goodwill to weather whatever comes next, but get it wrong and you’ll spend the next two years trying to undo a first impression that has already set like concrete.
Start strong, because behind all the smiles and warm handshakes, everyone is watching ‘The New Guy’ with judgemental eyes.
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