The importance of your first 100 days in a new role is the difference between success and failure in this new role – and that has consequences for your whole career.

If you have a successful first 100 days, it naturally follows that you are setting yourself up for a successful first 12 months, then it is likely that you will make a success of your whole role. You will want to succeed in this role for its own sake – because this is your new promotion, and this is the job that you are being as to do.

But look at the bigger picture too. If you get this role right, if you succeed in this role better and faster than expected, then it naturally follows that you are more likely to get promoted sooner to an ever better role, even fast, and you can continue to enjoy accelerated success in your career ambitions.

Having worked with many leaders during their first 100 days, here is my view of the critical success factors for personal success in the first 30 days.

Bring forward a clear vision

The leader in the first 100 days has to bring forward a clear vision. Even if a vision has already been set by the predecessor, what is the point of having you in the job versus anybody else if you can’t add, build, refresh or reinvent the vision? So what is your vision?

To put it another way, when you leave the role, what do you want people to say is your legacy? It’s another way of starting with the end in mind – think about leaving the role, and what you want to have left behind. Then you can set out your vision.

Have no fear (Be confident) 

Everybody – regardless of seniority or experience – suffers a confidence loss in the first 30 days. This is natural. After all, they have never done this role before, so of course they would feel nervous. Confidence is very importance because you need to be able to make good decisions and not panic in the overwhelmingness of the first 100 days. Fear is the great enemy of confidence. Fear paralyses performance.

But remember that fear is only imagining something that has not happened. Our thoughts create reality, so cancel all fear thoughts and replace them with confident thoughts. If you are gripped with fear, speak with your rational self, and choose to imagine a positive outcome instead. Another technique: imagine a fire, and every time a fear thought comes into your mind, put it into the fire and watch it burn.

Exercise patience and resilience

A leader in a new role is psyched up to perform and make changes as fast as possible, given their new authority and mandate. Unfortunately, resistance to change appears to be the status quo of even the best organisations. So, be realistic that, while you are in gung-ho mode, your team and those around you may be suffering change fatigue and may be both consciously and unconsciously resistant to your ideas.

Accept that resistance to change is the more likely situation and devise strategies for overcoming these resistances. In other words, try not to get frustrated by the slow pace of others. Instead, accept that it is (unfortunately) the human condition to resist change bu at the same time work to overcome it. Be patient with yourself and with other. Be resilient in the fact of challenges and obstacles.

Be a fast learner

The industry, mark and organisation will keep on moving, and there is no pause whilst you get up to speed in the first month. So you have to be committed and able to learn as fast as possible. Negotiate extra latitude and time from loved ones so that during the first 30 days, you are fully focused on narrowing content gaps and learning the ropes as fast as possible.

Don’t be afraid of your mistakes

We all make mistakes. That is never going to change. So don’t be afraid to make mistakes – especially in the first 30 days. Mistakes are a rich source of learning and make up the sum of our total experience in wisdom.

The important thing about mistakes is how you handle them – very often a mistake can be an opportunity to build a deeper relationship with someone we work with because those around you may be very forgiving of early mistakes.

Also, you have to move forward with courage and without perfect information so it is inevitable that mistakes will be made – so just accept it, and don’t worry about it!