The Manager's Handbook

2The 100‐Day Window

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.

—Ronald Reagan

For nearly a decade, Augusto Álvarez ran a financial services company in Mexico. He and his partner had hired a highly experienced person, Héctor Ochoa,¹ who they hoped would accelerate the organization's expansion across Mexico. Relieved to have completed their multi‐month search, the partners transferred all of the relevant responsibilities to Ochoa starting on his first day. “The last thing we wanted to do was micromanage Héctor,” Álvarez thought at the time. “He was the expert.”

The problem was that Ochoa was given all of the operating responsibilities from day one, but almost no awareness of the culture of the company, the informal norms, and the business operations. By being strictly hands off, Álvarez had set Ochoa up to fail. Despite Ochoa's impeccable credentials, within six months Álvarez asked Ochoa to resign.

Vigilant, clear, and supportive onboarding is as important to successful hiring as interviews or reference checks. The Harvard Business Review reports that 40–60% of new hires fail within 18 months.² Much of this has to do with poor onboarding. Today we know that employees who go through a structured onboarding process are nearly two‐thirds more likely to be with the company after three years than those who don't.³ Given the effort required to hire someone, a proper onboarding process ...