The first hundred days of a new chief executive
What a new CEO chooses to listen to, and what they choose to leave alone, sets the tone for everything that follows.
The first hundred days carry a weight out of proportion to their length. Teams, investors and boards form their view of a new chief executive quickly, and early impressions are hard to reverse. The strongest transitions we see share a common feature: the new leader treats listening as the main task, and resists the pressure to announce change before understanding the business.
Meet the people who were not consulted about your appointment. The executive team matters, but so do the managers two levels down, the customers who stayed loyal through a difficult period, and the employees who remember why past initiatives failed. These conversations reveal the organisation's real operating system.
Be deliberate about what you do not change. Every organisation has practices that look inefficient from outside and turn out to carry load. New leaders who reorganise in the first month often spend the next year repairing the damage. Marking a decision as 'revisit in six months' is not indecision; it is sequencing.
Agree expectations with the board early and in writing. What does success look like at twelve months? Which decisions need board approval, and which are yours? Ambiguity here causes more early conflict than any strategic disagreement.
Finally, look after your own capacity. The transition period is a marathon run at sprint pace. Leaders who protect time to think — and who have a trusted adviser with no stake in the outcome — make measurably better early decisions.
