Michael Watkins has spent the past two decades working with leaders, both corporate and public, as they transition to new roles, negotiate the future of their organizations, and craft their legacy as leaders. A recognized expert in his field, he ranked among Thinkers50’s top fifty management influencers globally in 2019. He is the best-selling author of The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, the globally acknowledged handbook for leadership and career transitions, which recently earned the accolade of Amazon’s Top 100 Leadership Books. He is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at the IMD Business School in Switzerland and previously served on the faculty at INSEAD and Harvard University, where he earned his PhD in Decision Sciences.
Leadership transitions are deceptively hard. On the surface, stepping into a new role often looks like a logical next step—more responsibility, broader scope, greater influence. Organizations assume that because someone has succeeded before, they’ll succeed again. And yet, research and experience consistently show that a significant percentage of leadership transitions underperform or fail outright. Not […]
This article was originally published in Dr. Michael Watkins’s LinkedIn Newsletter, The Leading Edge, on June 2, 2025. Note: The article was co-authored with Aidan Slack-Watkins, co-founder of Veita.ai. Artificial intelligence is evolving beyond tools that respond only to human commands. The next generation, known as agentic AI, consists of semi-autonomous systems capable of assessing, planning, […]
This article was originally published in Dr. Michael Watkins’s LinkedIn Newsletter, The Leading Edge, on May 30, 2025. Over the past few years, as I have coached leaders through complex transitions, I have observed a fundamental shift in the challenges they face. Gone are the days when periodic transformations were sufficient. Now, there is a continuous […]
This article was originally published in Dr. Michael Watkins’s LinkedIn Newsletter, The Leading Edge, on September 11, 2024. Note: This article resulted from discussions with Marcel Hilgers, a participant in my current Transition to Business Leadership (TBL) Program at IMD, who did similar work with his team. Team emotional intelligence(TEQ) is the shared emotional awareness and […]
This article was originally published in Dr. Michael Watkins’s LinkedIn Newsletter, The Leading Edge, on September 4, 2024. Given the turbulence we are experiencing, being an effective senior executive has never been more crucial or challenging. Top leaders today must navigate complex global markets, disruptive technologies, shifting consumer behaviors, and rapid societal changes. Organizations’ success and […]
This article was originally published in Dr. Michael Watkins’s LinkedIn Newsletter, The Leading Edge, on May 9, 2025. Tomorrow’s leaders will navigate a world of unrelenting change. Digital/AI-driven transformation, global turmoil, shifting workforce expectations, and stakeholder activism are enduring features of the business environment. Organizations must proactively cultivate leaders who anticipate, shape, and sustain the future. […]
