Recently, I was asked to complete the 2nd stage of a job interview with a 10-minute presentation on what I anticipated to be “my first 90 days” working with the company.

With limited time, I went straight into mapping out a visual on what slides I wanted to show. I knew I could incorporate the personal branding “tool” that I created earlier for myself but this “my first 90 days” was so new to me that it kind of left me a little stumped when I got the brief. Remember, interviews are already stressful let alone now, having to progress to the next round with a presentation!

After a quick google session — I found out it was Michael Watkins who wrote about the 90 days concept. And, after reading excerpts and slide shares, almost clearing my data limit on my phone — I knew exactly how to work this 10 minute project.

So, to answer the main question — that is, my slide 4 — this was the outcome of “my first 90 days” road map, a time line that looked like this:

I began this slide with a bit of charisma — an old chinese saying : “all paths lead to the top of the mountain, the view is just the same”. The purpose of doing so is, to remind the 4 business partners (who I presented to and who could eventually be my line manager) that although this roadmap was a starting point, I would need to work with them to at least get the pacing right for my first 3 months.

As you can see, there is one key element that stands out for the remainder of the life of one’s employment at a company — and that is “stakeholder relationship management”. Why it’s prevalent throughout the whole time is due to my 3 main reasons:

• Stakeholders’ are the central most important part of any organisation, in fact it is imperative for an organisation’s effectiveness as a business overall;
• Particularly for growing business’ stakeholder management can help with operational, business and corporate strategy alignment;
• And, when you build relationships then can you build a network.

Moving on to the Love Heart.

I have to admit, this was the fun part. Actually — one of my mentors (an ex-MD of a TV Channel) who I pre-tested this with immediately discounted it as “bad humor” — stopped me in my tracks and gave a me a mini lecture on “impressions”, but I was persistent— and I told him what it was meant to stand for and he was impressed. The 4 business partners who I actually presented this to in my interview laughed for a second too— until they realised that I was onto something and gave me their eyes and ears.

So, what is this Love Heart? When you start at a new company what you should do first is what I coined “Build a base on L.O.V.E”:

L — Learn (the culture, the processes, the business, ask questions etc)

O — Observe (the dynamics amongst stakeholders, influence, power etc)

V — Visualise (the current situation, the ideal situation etc)

E — Expectations (set expectations, milestones etc)

The next is the long term view which is a no brainer really — so, I’ll keep it short. Once you build this base, you will then be able to collaborate, develop joint wins, take ownership and become a valuable strategic link within the business. By mid-year, if you get the pacing right, you should eventually be able to create wins, and be seen as a credible source of actionable, informative intelligence. You’ll then have the capacity to generate an internal idea hub or network within the business and build or be part of team that delivers intelligence. In doing so, you can positively impact key decision making and hopefully, contribute to the corporate strategy. Eventually, your value added presence will achieve what I perceive as “stakeholder lifetime value” not only for the company, but for anyone and everyone as you are now an important asset. That is, it’s not about what the amount you provide, but the value that input has on the outcome.

Catch you all later.

Listening to Track : “Audiotreats — Best Friends - Beautiful”

Written by Leanne C (2014)