The Leadership Accelerator: The Playbook for Transitioning into Your New Executive Role

CHAPTER 7

Set Goals, Mitigate Risks, Get Resources, and Commit

During transitions, executives typically face a welter of priorities beckoning for their attention. To cope, triage is required. It is important to be highly selective and realistic about the signature priorities you choose to focus on. As discussed in the last chapter, given what comes across your desk daily, it is very hard to meaningfully drive more than five signature priority initiatives at one time.

Before sharing your top initiatives and elevator pitches with stakeholders, it’s a good idea to be realistic about how far you can move them forward in the first six to twelve months. It is also important to really clarify if the resources at hand will help you deliver tangible ...