The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: BookShelf - By Michael Watkins, Harvard Business School Press - Brief Article - Book Review

The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels. By Michael Watkins. Harvard Business School Press, 253 pages. $24.95.

This book builds from a premise that takes something of a leap of faith: the author's contention that, on average, a new manager takes 6.2 months to reach "the break-even point" at which he or she will have contributed as much to the organization as they have taken from it. Obviously, such a statistic isn't measurable; it's certainly debatable, and it doesn't jibe with conventional wisdom that new hires are on "probation" for 90 days to prove their worth.

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Watkins, the author or co-author of several other management books, is a professor at Harvard Business School who specializes in...