In business leadership it is very often the case that the skills and approach that made a leader successful in one organization will not guarantee the same results in another, or as Marshall Goldsmith put it, “What got you here, won’t get you there.” Over the course of a typical leader’s career there will come a time, […]
The Cheeky Scientist Podcast with Michael Watkins: Mastering the Onboarding Process
Below is a summary of an interview with Michael Watkins on the Cheeky Scientist podcast. You can listen to the podcast here (skip to 00:57:16). Isaiah: So why did you decide to write books about onboarding? Michael Watkins: I was teaching at the Kennedy School of Government. I was very interested in organizational change-type work. I was teaching […]
Success Strategies for New Leaders
In episode #11 of the Super Managers Podcast, Michael Watkins discusses some of the strategies that new leaders can adopt to be successful in their roles and climb up the learning curve. We also talked about the self-doubt phase, and why almost 90% of leaders deal with the urge to prove themselves when they start […]
Transitioning is a Core Leadership Skill
At HBR Live: Master Your Next Move, held in London, UK in October 2019, Michael Watkins spoke to an audience of senior executives and talent management professionals about the eight common transition challenges that most leaders encounter in their professional lifetime. According to Watkins, “leaders go through a lot of transitions… So transitioning is a core […]
How To Ace Your Job in The First 90 Days
In this Forbes article, Michael Watkins offers his advice for successfully navigating the first crucial days in a new role and underscores the importance of making a good first impression. The article is based on an interview he originally gave with LearnVest. LearnVest: Why are the first 90 days on the job so important? Michael D. Watkins: Lots […]
How Transition Coaches Accelerate Executive Onboarding
Many companies think they are doing a good job of onboarding newly-hired executives when they actually aren’t… In “Onboarding Isn’t Enough,” a recent Harvard Business Review article co-authored with Mark Byford and Lena Triantogiannis from Egon Zehnder, we showed that many companies think they are doing a good job of onboarding newly-hired executives when they actually aren’t. […]





