The First 90 Days Book Summary & Review (2025)

“Work to become, not to acquire.” — Elbert Hubbard

One of the most important books I’ve ever read on how to be an effective leader and a successful corporate warrior is The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, by Michael Watkins.

One of my mentors had suggested it as THE book to add to my leadership shelf.

He saw me in a lot of pain and suggested that I needed some key lenses and knowledge that the most advanced leaders have — and this book would reveal it all.

And it did.

What Advanced Leaders Know That Others Don’t

The First 90 Days was the extreme opposite of any high-level leadership book I had ever read.

Instead of high-level advice that doesn’t always translate to practice, it is a book with extreme knowledge and depth, where the rubber actually meets the road.

The Corporate Warrior’s Ultimate Survival Guide

The First 90 Days is one of those rare books where I can keep learning from it. It continuously unfolds puzzles into clarity and consciousness about how the system around you works, what’s important, why people do what they do, and how you can take your game to the next level.

From the book, I learned how to secure early wins, align goals up and down the chain, anticipate surprises, build coalitions, stay balanced, and avoid vicious downward spirals.

I’ve also learned to have the right conversations with my manager to set myself up for success, and to spot early warning signs.

The beauty of the book is that it’s more than a 90-day survival guide during the most risky of times — transitions — it’s actually a highly effective leadership handbook that helps you be a better leader for yourself and others.

Chapters at a Glance

Introduction: The First 90 Days
Promote Yourself
Accelerate Your Learning
Match Strategy to Situation
Secure Early Wins
Negotiate Success
Achieve Alignment
Build Your Team
Create Coalitions
Keep Your Balance
Expedite Everyone
Conclusion: Beyond Sink or Swim

What’s In It For You

Here is a sampling of some of the challenges that The First 90 Days helps you with:

How to adopt personal success strategies
How to align goals, incentives, and measures
How to avoid common traps of organizational architecture
How to avoid predictable surprises
How to avoid riding off in all directions and avoid fire-fighting
How to avoid vicious cycles that sap your strength
How to build a coalition to support your ideas
How to build an advice and counsel network
How to build a productive relationship with your boss
How to build your skills on the job and grow the skills of others
How to create virtuous cycles that build momentum
How to frame compelling arguments
How to keep your balance and avoid a downward spiral
How to identify supporters, opponents, and convincible
How to improve core processes
How to make group decisions more effectively with “sufficient consensus.”
How to map out the influence landscape to improve your influence and impact
How to perform structure reflection
How to secure early wins
How to set aside time for the hard work
How to set up action-forcing events to get people to make commitments or take action
How to shape your groups structure in terms of units, decision making, rewards, measures, and reporting relationships
How to work with multiple bosses

Key Features

Michael Watkins provides several compelling features with his book:

Core Challenges

My favorite thing about The First 90 Days is that it provides a “backbone” in the form of a framework for getting and staying on track. According to Watkins, the core challenges that need your focus are:

Promote yourself
Accelerate your learning
Match strategy to situation
Secure early wins
Negotiate success
Achieve alignment
Build your team
Create coalitions

A Common Language

Another thing I like about the The First 90 Days is that it builds a common vocabulary and simple mental model for looking at your situation and focusing on what’s important:

The type of transition you’re in using the STARS model: start-up, turnaround, realignment, or sustaining success.
The agenda for technical, cultural, or political learning and the key elements of their learning plan.
Their progress in engaging their new boss in the five conversations about situation, expectation, style, resources, and personal development
Their A-item priorities, goals for behavior change, and ideas where they can secure early wins
Their priorities for strengthening their advice-and-counsel network

See STARS Model of Business Evolution and Startups, Turnarounds, Realignment and Success.

The Five Conversations to Have with Your Boss

One of the most valuable nuggets I got from The First 90 Days is the five conversations to have with your boss.

I use these in every transition, and I use them as appropriate throughout the year, regardless of how long I’ve had my manager – they really help focus, clarify, and get on the same page.

Here are the five conversations according to Watkins:

The situational diagnosis conversation.
The expectations conversation
The style conversation
The resources conversation
The personal development conversation

See 5 Conversations to Have with Your Boss.

How To Build a Productive Relationship with a New Boss

Watkins knows the importance of having a productive relationship and provides clear guidance in the from of Do’s and Don’ts.

Here are examples:

Don’ts:

Don’t trash the past.
Don’t stay away.
Don’t surprise your boss.
Don’t approach your boss only with problems.
Don’t run down your checklists.
Don’t try to change the boss.

Do’s:

Take 100 percent responsibility for making the relationship work.
Clarify mutual expectations early and often.
Negotiate timelines for diagnosing and action planning.
Aim for early wins in areas important to the boss.
Pursue good marks from those whose opinions your boss respects.

Cheat Sheet for The First 90 Days

Check out my Cheat Sheet for the First 90 Days:

The First 90 Days Cheat Sheet

Get the Book

The First 90 Days is available on Amazon:

The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, by Michael Watkins

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