Five Critical Things to Do in Your First “Next” 100 Days 

What got you here as a leader, won’t get you there. 40% of new leaders fail in the first 18 months.

by Robert Hargrove

It’s Not the 100 Days You Were Thinking Of

Ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt, we have shrunken the first 100 days into the only 100 days you have to bring about transformational change. After that, you must content yourself with incremental improvement.

The fact is that many leaders have used the concept of the 100 Days to bring power and velocity to reaching their goals whenever it suits them. George Washington used his FIRST 100 days to start a new country, Lincoln used his NEXT 100 days, which occurred 18 months after being elected, to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, promising to end slavery before 100 days was up.

FDR used his FIRST 100 days to stabilize the economy and his SECOND 100 days to pass an Economic Bill of Rights for all Americans, and his THIRD 100 days to mobilize the country for World War II.

So whether it is your first or second or third (or next) 100 days, there are five critical things you need to do.

1. Find a Coach

Whether you are a rising star in politics in your first, second, or next 100 days, one of the most powerful things you can do is to find a coach who stands in your greatness, and who will work 24/ 7 to cause your success if needed.

This isn’t not new-fangled idea, but a very old one. George Washington had Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln had William Seward, Franklin Roosevelt had Louis Howe.

As FDR said of Howe, who arranged his Happy Warrior Speech at the 1924 Convention and lived in the Lincoln bedroom in the White House throughout FDR’s presidency, “Howe has a sixth sense about many things” that influenced thousands of his decisions.

You are going to need a coach who can help you choose the better angels of your nature and reign in negative impulses.

You are also going to need a coach to help you to match your vision to the political situation, and make sure you are wily enough in dealing with support and opposition to actually get something done.

Lead from your bright side personality and mitigate the risks of your dark side.

2. Get 360 Bright-Side, Dark-Side Feedback

Each of us have bright-side leadership strengths and dark-side leadership derailers, as well as light-side characteristics where we need to develop new skills and capabilities.

The combination of these three aspects, in conjunction with the demands of being a president, governor, mayor, etc, becomes our reputation.

The biggest reason for leadership transition failure is defaulting to your dark-side personality under stress and pressure, without being aware of it.

Barack Obama was an historic candidate, who had many bright-side strengths, amongst them being a wonderful orator. “I don’t want to be President of Red States or Blue States, but President of the United States.

When he got elected president, his bright-side leadership traits manifested in seeking to drive a national initiative that would deliver healthcare to ten million people who never had it before.

What he did not realize when he got elected president was that he unwittingly defaulted, without realizing it, to unilaterally pursuing his agenda and “jamming” Obamacare through congress without courting a single Republican vote.

This caused Speaker McConnell to say, “My whole purpose for the next four years is to prevent Barack Obama from being reelected.”

We have discovered in our research that most of us move back and forth between out bright-side and dark- side without being aware of it.

Unfortunately, the things leaders do that get them in trouble, they do unconsciously. Without coaching and feedback, there is very little light at the end of the tunnel.

Getting feedback provides insight into how you are perceived and helps you to learn to lead more consistently from your bright side. It allows you to manage your reputation and to keep the conversation about you that’s out there in the media from spinning out of control.

3. Learn to lead from the power of your words

Great leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan all discovered you lead through the power of your words.

In World War II, Winston Churchill’s ability to lead with the power of his word is how he saved England from the brink.

Every time Churchill took to the airwaves, it was as if he were injecting adrenaline-soaked courage directly into the British people.

In the winter of 1940, as Germany’s brutal bombing campaign against Britain dragged on, Joseph Goebbels poured out his frustrations in his diary. “When will that creature Churchill finally surrender?” Churchill’s speeches were so rousing that Germans, including Goebbels himself, listened to them faithfully.

What most people still don’t realize is that Churchill would spend many hours writing speeches about England’s darkest hour, then practice with a speech coach, who not only gave him feedback on the delivery, but also on the speech itself.

Find someone who can help you both in crafting an inspiring and empowering message that reflects what you passionately care about, and then who help you in delivering the message, as well as in stay on message.

Great leaders ask:What time is it? Is it time for transformational or transactional change?

4. Match the vision to the political zeitgeist

The best leaders ask, “What time is it?” Is it the time for transformational change, or is it the right time for transactional change, or is it the right time for what FDR called enlightened administration?

We spoke to one big city mayor at the beginning of the Covid 19 crisis who was trying to focus both on making some transactional changes and transformational changes, but discovered that what he really needed to focus on was enlightened administration.

In this case, he needed to put his long-term vision of creating economic opportunity zone and his midterm goals of building a new high school aside, so as to be able to focus on having enough hospital beds in the city hospital’s intensive care unit. The media had a hay-day with this mistake.

The 100-day plan is a powerful promise you make public so as to create  accountability.

5. Brainstorm to build a 100 Day Action Plan

Dwight Eisenhower once said that plans are nothing, planning is everything. Taking the time to create a 100-day plan gives you the opportunity to think about your most important goals and priorities, and to develop a clear strategy for how you will reach them, as well as get ready to implement it.

We believe that creating a 100-day action plan should start with practicing Pause Leadership, stepping back and reflecting about why you ran for office in the first place, in order to lead forward.

The most important question to ask yourself is: “If I could only accomplish one thing in the next 100 days, what would it be?”

However, we also believe that creating a first 100-day plan is a social activity that should be designed to capture the collective intelligence of your team.

Get your team together for a 100-day brainstorming session that taps the power of multiple minds in answering the following questions.

♦  What are the most important goals for to accomplish in the next 100 days?

♦  How will we accomplish these goals? (Come up with a strategy that is general, not too specific).

♦  Whose help do we need to accomplish these goals?

♦  What resources do we need to accomplish these goals?

The 100-day plan is actually a powerful promise that you are willing to make public so as to create a context of breakthrough and accountability.