You're in Charge - Now what

I am beating yself up for not being productive today. No work out. Although I did run 12K yesterday in 58 minutes. Last night I attended the wedding of one of my staff. High attention to the smallest detail. Very well planned event. It was a great party. Lots of SYNNEX people attended so it was a bit like a SYNNEX party which I always enjoy.

I read a great book that is of interest to anyone who is starting running a company called, You're in charge – Now What? The 8 Point Plan, by Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin.

The book is a how to guide for first time presidents and CEOs who are taking over a new position. It goes through eight steps to take; however, I am not trying to do a book summary here so I will let you buy the book if you want to know the eight steps.

One thing the book emphasizes is having a 100 day plan. I find this very interesting because I always believed in having 90 day plans and have been a big advocate and used them for a long, long time. I would tend to break a 90 day plan into a three 30 day segments and when I completed the first 30 day segment, I would add another segment so I always have a 90 day rolling plan.

The gist of the message in the book is the first 100 days is for a new leader in the organization to set the tone for the rest of the leader's tenure so they become the most critical. During the 100 days, the leader needs to study well; set and align proper expectations; shape the management team; craft the strategic agenda; start the transformation process.

I strongly recommend the book for anyone who is a new leader in an organization. I question if the audience is large enough to have a book written specifically for new leaders of organizations.

I may have been more interested in it than others because of my position.

I wish I had read this before I started at SYNNEX two years ago.

Although it is interesting that many of the ideas in the book are ideas that I already use.