Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goala giving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to this seven minute leadership podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven oh eight. Let's talk about the moment
Speaker 2: that quietly decides whether you win or struggle as a leader.
Speaker 2: Your first ninety days, not your first year, not your
Speaker 2: long term strategy, not your vision board, your first ninety days,
Speaker 2: because in those first three months, people are not listening
Speaker 2: to your speeches, they are studying your behavior. They're asking
Speaker 2: one question, over and over again, is this leader for real?
Speaker 2: And here's where most leaders get this wrong. They walk
Speaker 2: in trying to prove something, trying to impress, trying to
Speaker 2: fix everything, trying to leave their mark, and that instinct
Speaker 2: that urge to immediately take control is exactly what sets
Speaker 2: them back. So today I want to walk you through
Speaker 2: what actually matters in your first ninety days, Not theory,
Speaker 2: not corporate buzzwords, real leadership moves that change your trajectory.
Speaker 2: So let's start with this. Your first job is not
Speaker 2: to talk. Your first job is to listen. And I
Speaker 2: don't mean surface level listening where you gnad your head
Speaker 2: and wait for your turn to speak. I mean real listening.
Speaker 2: You are diagnosing, not fixing. You are asking questions like
Speaker 2: what's working here, what's broken? What gets in your way
Speaker 2: every day? Because if you walk in and start changing
Speaker 2: things without understanding the system, you're not leading, You're just guessing,
Speaker 2: and guessing creates resistance. Now, while you are listening, something
Speaker 2: else needs to be happening. At the same time. You
Speaker 2: are building relationships, not group relationships, individual ones. Leadership is
Speaker 2: not built in team meetings. It's built in one on
Speaker 2: one conversations. Trust does not show up in a staff meeting.
Speaker 2: It shows up in a quiet conversation where someone realizes
Speaker 2: this leader actually gets me. If you skip this step,
Speaker 2: nothing else you do will stick. You can have the
Speaker 2: best plan in the world, but if people don't trust you,
Speaker 2: they will not follow you. And now here's where momentum
Speaker 2: comes into play. In your first ninety days. You need
Speaker 2: a quick win, one visible problem that you can solve early,
Speaker 2: not ten problems, not a full system overhaul, just one,
Speaker 2: because momentum is everything. When your team sees something improve quickly,
Speaker 2: they start to believe change is possible, they start to
Speaker 2: believe in you without that early when everything feels like talk. Now,
Speaker 2: while you're building momentum, you're also doing something most leaders ignore.
Speaker 2: You are studying the culture, not the written culture, the
Speaker 2: real one, the unwritten rules. Who actually has influence, what
Speaker 2: behaviors are rewarded, what behaviors are quietly tolerated. Because if
Speaker 2: you try to rewrite the culture before you understand it,
Speaker 2: you will get blindsided, you will fix the wrong things,
Speaker 2: you will challenge the wrong people, and you will lose
Speaker 2: credibility fast. And let me give you another critical move.
Speaker 2: You need to get aligned with your boss. Arly, what
Speaker 2: does success actually look like in thirty sixty ninety days?
Speaker 2: Not what you think success is, not what the team thinks.
Speaker 2: Success is what your boss defines as a win. Because
Speaker 2: if you are operating on different definitions, you are setting
Speaker 2: yourself up for frustration. Clarity here saves you from months
Speaker 2: of misalignment. Now let's talk about one of the biggest
Speaker 2: mistakes new leaders make. They walk in and start redecorating
Speaker 2: new rules, new systems, new expectations, new everything. And here's
Speaker 2: the problem. Change without context creates resistance. People do not
Speaker 2: generally resist change they resist confusion. If you cannot explain
Speaker 2: why something needs to change, your team will create their
Speaker 2: own explanation, and it will not be a good one.
Speaker 2: So slow down, earn the right to change things. Now,
Speaker 2: here's something that will separate you immediately. Over communicate your intent.
Speaker 2: If you're not explaining the why behind your actions, your
Speaker 2: team will fill in the blanks, and people are very
Speaker 2: good at filling in blanks with worst case scenarios. So
Speaker 2: say it clearly. Here is what I'm doing, Here's why
Speaker 2: it matters, and here's how it affects you. Clarity builds confidence.
Speaker 2: Silence creates stories. And we can even add another layer.
Speaker 2: Find someone who understands the internal dynamics better than you,
Speaker 2: a peer mentor someone who knows the politics, the history,
Speaker 2: the land minds, because no matter how experienced you are,
Speaker 2: you are new to this environment and having someone who
Speaker 2: can quietly guide you will save you months of trial
Speaker 2: and error. Now, let's talk about a simple framework that
Speaker 2: will keep you grounded. Stop, start, continue, What needs to
Speaker 2: stop because it's dragging the team down. What needs to
Speaker 2: start because it is missing. What needs to continue because
Speaker 2: it's working. If you can clearly answer those three questions
Speaker 2: within your first ninety days, you are ahead of most
Speaker 2: leaders and finally, something that gets ignored more than anything else,
Speaker 2: your own well being. You cannot lead clearly if you're
Speaker 2: running on empty You can't make good decisions, if you're
Speaker 2: burned out. You cannot show up strong if you are
Speaker 2: constantly depleted. So protect your energy because your leadership performance
Speaker 2: depends on it. Now, let's bring this all together. Your
Speaker 2: first ninety days are not about proving yourself. They are
Speaker 2: about positioning yourself, listening before speaking, building trust before demanding results,
Speaker 2: creating momentum before making massive changes, understanding before rewriting, clarifying
Speaker 2: before executing. Because if you get these first ninety days right,
Speaker 2: everything after that becomes easier. Your team will trust you faster,
Speaker 2: your decisions carry more weight, your changes stick, and your
Speaker 2: leadership actually works. If you get it wrong, you spend
Speaker 2: the next nine hundred days trying to recover. So here
Speaker 2: is your talent challenge. Take the next seven minutes and
Speaker 2: ask yourself this, am I trying to prove something? Or
Speaker 2: am I trying to understand something? Because the answer to
Speaker 2: that question will determine the kind of leader you become.
Speaker 2: So your first ninety days are your foundation. Build it
Speaker 2: right and everything stands stronger. Rush it and everything cracks
Speaker 2: under pressure. Slow down, listen deeper, and lead with intention.
Speaker 2: And if you want more free leadership resources, head over
Speaker 2: to paulfalovalito dot com and click on free Stuff. I
Speaker 2: have over twenty five free leadership documents you can download
Speaker 2: and start using today. This has been the seven minute
Speaker 2: Leadership podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com