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THE FIRST 90 DAYS: PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR GETTING UP TO SPEED FASTER AND SMARTER (UPDATED AND EXPANDED EDITION). WATKINS, M. W. 2013. BOSTON: HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING.
Reviewed by Jerry P. Ross
The first few months are often the most crucial for a new registrar (or, really, for any new leader). It is the time to learn the campus community and its culture, but it is also the time to integrate oneself into the new office and to begin to set expectations. Every new registrar encounters a different situation when he undertakes a new position. Some are hired from outside the institution and are given explicit directions to change the culture whereas others are promoted from within in order to maintain continuity. Regardless, every registrar encounters challenges during the transition into the new role. Transitions are difficult under the best of circumstances, and organizational dysfunction makes the challenges even greater. Every day, new leaders are faced with trials from both inside and outside their organization. They often have to balance the expectations set when they were hired against the inner needs of the office even as they rely on their own experiences and instincts to lead.
There is no playbook to guide new registrars through each step of their transition to a new role, but The First go Days is a valuable resource for this most crucial time. In its ten chapters, the book covers topics such as accelerating one's learning, conversations with one's boss, building one's team, and creating alliances. The goal of the book is to help new leaders get up to speed faster and smarter in order to make the transition more successfully. And although the focus of the book is on the business world, it has applications for higher education as well. The thesis of the book is that transitions must be intentional and thoughtful. The transition really begins when one is interviewing for the job: that is the first opportunity to communicate a vision for the organization.
Each chapter of The First go Days is structured in much the same way and begins by articulating the chapter's key concepts. Other features are tools and a checklist for ap- plying the concepts to one's own situation. Finally, there are questions related...