Michael Watkins

This article explores the unique aspects of developing R&D leaders and the implications for prioritizing specific skills and approaches in R&D leadership development programs. Co-authored by Michael Watkins and David Lee.

Embarking on a new leadership journey? While it's crucial to tackle immediate hurdles, this article delves into the art of "future-back" thinking. Learn how to channel your inner Stephen Covey and "start with the end in mind." Discover the power of envisioning your leadership legacy and crafting a narrative that defines your impact. Explore ways to create future possibilities, strategizing your path beyond your current role. By balancing "now-forward" planning with "future-back" visioning… Show more

Embarking on a new leadership journey? While it's crucial to tackle immediate hurdles, this article delves into the art of "future-back" thinking. Learn how to channel your inner Stephen Covey and "start with the end in mind." Discover the power of envisioning your leadership legacy and crafting a narrative that defines your impact. Explore ways to create future possibilities, strategizing your path beyond your current role. By balancing "now-forward" planning with "future-back" visioning, you'll pave the way for a successful transition and set the stage for enduring career growth. Show less

This case series looks at Lufthansa's handling of the tragic crash of its Germanwings flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf on March 24th 2015. The A case looks at the event from the day of the crash to the news that it was not a tragic accident but instead the deliberate actions of the co-pilot. The B case looks at the handling of the crash in the following weeks as the truth was revealled.

This case follows Mary Barra, CEO GM. Within 3 weeks of taking over as GM's CEO, Barra faced a crisis of immense proportions as a result of a faulty ignition switch first used in GM vehicles in 2002 but not addressed. The A case looks at her handling of the crisis and the B case the results of an independent investigation. The C case, more than a year later, focuses on the resolution of the federal prosecution against GM.

This completely disguised case looks at how a senior executive carefully planned his transition into a new leadership role before he officially started, and his milestones and goals for his first 30/60/90/one year beyond. The B case looks at how he restructured his team, while the C case looks at how unforeseen events can be effectively managed with authentic leadership

The First 90 Days® is the world's most trusted guide for leaders facing a career transition. Authored by Michael D. Watkins, it offers practical strategies and tools to conquer the challenges of starting a new role. With checklists, self-assessments, and practical tools, readers can avoid common pitfalls and achieve early wins. Whether it's a new job or a CEO position, this essential guide helps readers successfully navigate through the crucial first 90 days.

The world’s most trusted guide for leaders in transition

Transitions are a critical time for leaders. In fact, most agree that moving into a new role is the biggest challenge a manager will face. While transitions offer a chance to start fresh and make needed changes in an organization, they also place leaders in a position of acute vulnerability. Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize or even derail your success.

In this updated and… Show more

The world’s most trusted guide for leaders in transition

Transitions are a critical time for leaders. In fact, most agree that moving into a new role is the biggest challenge a manager will face. While transitions offer a chance to start fresh and make needed changes in an organization, they also place leaders in a position of acute vulnerability. Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize or even derail your success.

In this updated and expanded version of the international bestseller The First 90 Days, Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for conquering the challenges of transitions—no matter where you are in your career. Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions and adviser to senior leaders in all types of organizations, also addresses today’s increasingly demanding professional landscape, where managers face not only more frequent transitions but also steeper expectations once they step into their new jobs.

By walking you through every aspect of the transition scenario, Watkins identifies the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter and provides the tools and strategies you need to avoid them. You’ll learn how to secure critical early wins, an important first step in establishing yourself in your new role. Each chapter also includes checklists, practical tools, and self-assessments to help you assimilate key lessons and apply them to your own situation.

Whether you’re starting a new job, being promoted from within, embarking on an overseas assignment, or being tapped as CEO, how you manage your transition will determine whether you succeed or fail. Use this book as your trusted guide. Show less

“Whether you’re going for that promotion, looking to jump ship, or change careers entirely, Michael Watkins’ Your Next Move is a book you’ll want to read.” So starts the positive review of Your Next Move on the influential 800 CEO Read website. It’s true that all leaders – no matter how seasoned – need guidance through the professional changes that define a career. In fact, transitions into new roles are the crucibles in which leaders get their toughest tests, and they're the defining factor in… Show more

“Whether you’re going for that promotion, looking to jump ship, or change careers entirely, Michael Watkins’ Your Next Move is a book you’ll want to read.” So starts the positive review of Your Next Move on the influential 800 CEO Read website. It’s true that all leaders – no matter how seasoned – need guidance through the professional changes that define a career. In fact, transitions into new roles are the crucibles in which leaders get their toughest tests, and they're the defining factor in professional careers today. Yet far too often, leaders fail to transition effectively into new roles. The resulting costs are high, for individual careers and for organizations.

In Your Next Move, leadership-transition guru Watkins shows how you can survive and thrive in all the major transitions you will face during your career—including promotions, leading former peers, on-boarding into a new organization, making an international move, or turning around or realigning an organization. With real-life examples and case studies, Watkins illustrates the defining hurdles associated with each type of transition. He then provides the insights, strategies, and tools you'll need to accelerate through these crucial turning points and continue moving up in your career.

The necessary complement to the author's bestselling guide The First 90 Days, which has been translated in more than 20 languages worldwide, Your Next Move offers the keen observations, tried-and-true management wisdom, and practical good sense Watkins is renowned for. It's a vital resource for any manager or executive seeking to maintain career momentum. Show less

Even the best-run companies can get blindsided by disasters they should have anticipated. These predictable surprises range from financial scandals to operational disruptions, from organizational upheavals to product failures. In "Predictable Surprises", Max H. Bazerman and Michael D. Watkins show you how to minimize your risk by understanding and lowering the psychological, organizational, and political barriers preventing you from foreseeing calamity. They then describe the powerful tools -… Show more

Even the best-run companies can get blindsided by disasters they should have anticipated. These predictable surprises range from financial scandals to operational disruptions, from organizational upheavals to product failures. In "Predictable Surprises", Max H. Bazerman and Michael D. Watkins show you how to minimize your risk by understanding and lowering the psychological, organizational, and political barriers preventing you from foreseeing calamity. They then describe the powerful tools - including incentives and formal coalitions - that business leaders can use to ferret out and fend off threats invisible to insiders. Failure see what's coming exposes your company to predictable surprises. Given the stakes involved, this book should count among every business leader's most trusted resources. Show less

In today’s new economy, business leaders are increasingly aware that government laws and regulations can determine the very viability of their businesses. The same Constitution that sets limits on government power and protects individual rights also gives federal, state, and local governments the authority to make the rules under which your business must operate. Make no mistake–the key to your business’s survival could depend on your ability to influence the officials who make and enforce the… Show more

In today’s new economy, business leaders are increasingly aware that government laws and regulations can determine the very viability of their businesses. The same Constitution that sets limits on government power and protects individual rights also gives federal, state, and local governments the authority to make the rules under which your business must operate. Make no mistake–the key to your business’s survival could depend on your ability to influence the officials who make and enforce the rules of the game.

Winning the Influence Game is your must-have guide to navigating the morass of competing, overlapping jurisdictions and diverse legislators, regulators, and judges so you can help to shape the laws and rules that will affect your success. Here, a crackerjack author team from Harvard Business School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government–who have access to the key players on this issue–reveal the latest tools, techniques, and thinking behind influencing government so businesses can take control.

This timely book presents a model that can be applied to influence games at any level of government–local, state, national, or international. From diagnosing government’s impact on your business to organizing to influence to building coalitions to leveraging the power of the Internet, the authors provide specific guidelines and real-world strategies that will work for all types of businesses. Show less

In Shaping the Game: The New Leader's Guide to Effective Negotiating, Michael Watkins draws from extensive research and practical consulting work to reveal four fundamental objectives that should guide new leaders' actions in every negotiation they undertake: create the most possible value, capture that value for yourself and your company, carefully tend to key relationships, and preserve your reputation. Watkins lays out hands-on strategies for becoming a world-class negotiator, including how… Show more

In Shaping the Game: The New Leader's Guide to Effective Negotiating, Michael Watkins draws from extensive research and practical consulting work to reveal four fundamental objectives that should guide new leaders' actions in every negotiation they undertake: create the most possible value, capture that value for yourself and your company, carefully tend to key relationships, and preserve your reputation. Watkins lays out hands-on strategies for becoming a world-class negotiator, including how to match your negotiation strategy to the situation, influence the perspectives of key counterparts, shape negotiation outcomes in your favor, and create the learning discipline necessary to become a world-class negotiator. Navigating the myriad complex, high-stakes negotiating challenges that confront new leaders, this book provides all the tools readers need to make the right moves up the career ladder—and succeed in those roles once they get there. Show less

More than 250,000 public sector managers in the United States take on new positions each year and many more aspire to leadership. Each will confront special challenges - from higher public profiles to a greater number of stakeholders to volatile political environments - that will make their transitions even more challenging than in the business world. Now Michael H. Watkins, author of the best-selling book "The First 90 Days", applies his proven leadership transition framework to the public… Show more

More than 250,000 public sector managers in the United States take on new positions each year and many more aspire to leadership. Each will confront special challenges - from higher public profiles to a greater number of stakeholders to volatile political environments - that will make their transitions even more challenging than in the business world. Now Michael H. Watkins, author of the best-selling book "The First 90 Days", applies his proven leadership transition framework to the public sector.Watkins and co-author Peter H. Daly address the crucial differences between the private and public sectors that go to the heart of how success and failure are defined, measured, and rewarded or penalized. This concise, practical book provides a roadmap to help new government leaders at all levels accelerate their transitions by overcoming nine transition challenges, ranging from clarifying expectations to defining goals to building a team to managing personal stress. The authors also offer detailed strategies for avoiding major "transition traps. "Zeroing in on the challenges facing new government leaders, "Getting Up to Speed in Government" is an indispensable guide for anyone seeking to lead and succeed in the public sector. Show less

Breakthrough Business Negotiation is a definitive guide to negotiating in any business situation. This smart and practical book by Michael Watkins, a leading expert in negotiation at Harvard Business School, presents principles that apply to any negotiation situation and tools to achieve breakthrough results. Step by step, Breakthrough Business Negotiation demonstrates how to diagnose a situation, build coalitions, manage internal decision making, persuade others, organize a deal cycle, and… Show more

Breakthrough Business Negotiation is a definitive guide to negotiating in any business situation. This smart and practical book by Michael Watkins, a leading expert in negotiation at Harvard Business School, presents principles that apply to any negotiation situation and tools to achieve breakthrough results. Step by step, Breakthrough Business Negotiation demonstrates how to diagnose a situation, build coalitions, manage internal decision making, persuade others, organize a deal cycle, and create strategic alliances. Watkins also explains how to prevent disputes from poisoning deals. Show less

This fascinating and instructive book offers a revealing, blow-by-blow description of secret, headline-making negotiations in the Middleast, Korea, Africa, and Bosnia, as well as an invaluable guide to conducting such a difficult process of tremendous practical application to a wide variety of conflict resolution professionals.

Based on extensive interviews and research with key players at the highest level, this book not only tells some incredibly dramatic stories but shows how to use… Show more

This fascinating and instructive book offers a revealing, blow-by-blow description of secret, headline-making negotiations in the Middleast, Korea, Africa, and Bosnia, as well as an invaluable guide to conducting such a difficult process of tremendous practical application to a wide variety of conflict resolution professionals.

Based on extensive interviews and research with key players at the highest level, this book not only tells some incredibly dramatic stories but shows how to use these demonstrated strategies, skills, improvisational interventions and other techniques. Detailing breakthrough negotiations which brought the Israelis and Palestinians together for the first time in Oslo, built the Gulf War Coalition, ended the great divide between North and South Korea, and terminated the war in Bosnia, the authors employ a compelling narrative and didactic style to explain how to understand and apply sophisticated, field-tested methods of dispute resolution in a variety of situations. Show less

Have you recently been handed a new leadership challenge? Are you about to start a new job, or are you expecting a big promotion? With today's surge in start-ups, spin-offs, change initiatives, and reorganizations, chances are that you'll be in a position to accept a leadership role sometime soon. Before you do, let "Right from the Start" show you how to balance the tensions and challenges inherent in any leadership transition. It will prepare you for the often-treacherous task of navigating an… Show more

Have you recently been handed a new leadership challenge? Are you about to start a new job, or are you expecting a big promotion? With today's surge in start-ups, spin-offs, change initiatives, and reorganizations, chances are that you'll be in a position to accept a leadership role sometime soon. Before you do, let "Right from the Start" show you how to balance the tensions and challenges inherent in any leadership transition. It will prepare you for the often-treacherous task of navigating an organization's strategy, politics, and culture so that you can smoothly and effectively get to work on your new agenda.Whether you are succeeding a much-admired boss or charged with implementing sweeping, potentially unsettling change initiatives, a new role is fraught with obstacles that can undermine your efforts to establish authority and build support. In "Right from the Start", authors Ciampa and Watkins lay out an action-oriented framework to follow during the first six months in a new job. The tactical advice is supplemented with absorbing profiles of CEOs, COOs, and EVPs who candidly discuss their experiences - the successes and the failures - with transitioning to a new leadership role. Make no mistake, say the authors: the planning you do before you take the leadership reins is critical to achieving your goals. "Right from the Start", with its timeless lessons of leadership, succession, and transition, is for everyone who wants to ensure that their first steps in a new job will be the ones that lead to enduring success. Show less