Your First 90 Days as a New Manager: What to Do and When
Starting a new management role is both exciting and overwhelming. You've earned the promotion, but now you're wondering: what exactly should I be doing in my first 90 days as a manager?
Research shows that 60% of new managers receive no formal training before stepping into leadership. Most organizations promote talented individual contributors into management roles and expect them to figure it out on their own. If you're feeling underprepared, you're not alone.
This guide breaks down exactly what to focus on in your first three months as a manager, helping you build credibility, avoid common mistakes, and set yourself up for long-term success.
Why Your First 90 Days as a Manager Matter
Your first three months as a manager establish patterns that shape your entire tenure in the role. The relationships you build, the expectations you set, and the credibility you earn during this period determine whether you'll thrive or struggle.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management, 47% of employees leave their jobs within the first 90 days. For new managers, the stakes are even higher—you're not just adapting to a new role, you're responsible for your team's performance and engagement.
The first 90 days are critical because you have permission to ask questions and make mistakes. After three months, people expect you to have answers. Use this grace period wisely to learn, listen, and establish yourself as an effective leader.
The 30-60-90 Day Framework for New Managers
The most successful new managers follow a structured approach divided into three phases:
Days 1-30: Learn and Listen Focus on understanding your team, stakeholders, and organizational culture before making changes.
Days 31-60: Build and Align Clarify priorities, establish team norms, and deliver quick wins that build credibility.
Days 61-90: Execute and Deliver Demonstrate measurable results and prove you can lead effectively.
This framework prevents the biggest mistake new managers make: trying to prove themselves immediately by changing everything. Instead, you earn the right to lead by first understanding what you're leading.
What to Do in Your First 30 Days as a New Manager
Meet with Your Manager First
Schedule a 90-minute conversation in your first week to align on expectations. Ask:
What are my top 3 priorities for the first 90 days?
What decisions can I make autonomously versus what needs your approval?
How will my success be measured?
What should I continue from the previous manager?
What needs to change?
This conversation prevents the most common reason new managers fail: misaligned expectations with their own boss.
Conduct One-on-Ones with Every Team Member
Meet individually with each person on your team within your first two weeks. Use these 60-minute conversations to understand:
What they're currently working on and what success looks like
What's working well that you shouldn't change
What frustrations exist that you could address
What they need from you as their manager
Their career goals for the next 6-12 months
Listen more than you talk. Resist the urge to offer solutions immediately. Your job in month one is to gather information, not fix everything.
Map Your Stakeholder Landscape
Identify everyone who influences your team's success: your manager's manager, peer managers in other departments, key partners your team depends on, and anyone who has decision-making power over your resources.
Meet with each stakeholder and ask:
What does my team do that impacts your work?
What's working well in how we collaborate?
Where do you see opportunities for improvement?
What should I know about the culture here that isn't obvious?
These conversations build relationships before you need them and reveal political dynamics that aren't documented anywhere.
Observe Before Changing
Attend existing meetings as an observer. Shadow team members doing their actual work. Watch how decisions get made, who speaks up versus who stays quiet, and what topics create tension.
When you see something that seems inefficient, don't eliminate it immediately. First understand why it exists. Many new managers destroy processes that were actually solving important problems, then spend months fixing the damage.
What to Do in Days 31-60 as a New Manager
Clarify and Communicate Team Priorities
Based on your first 30 days of listening, work with your manager to confirm your team's top priorities. Then communicate them clearly to your team.
Most teams try to focus on too many things. Limit yourself to three main priorities:
The non-negotiable outcome that absolutely must be delivered
The opportunity that would significantly improve results
The investment in future capability (process improvements, training, relationship building)
Explain not just what the priorities are, but why they matter and how success will be measured.
Deliver Quick Wins
Choose 2-3 small improvements you can make quickly:
Remove a bottleneck in an approval process
Fix a broken tool or outdated resource
Eliminate an unnecessary meeting
Clarify a confusing policy
Publicly recognize great work that's been overlooked
Quick wins demonstrate that you listen and can make things better. They build credibility for bigger changes later.
Establish Team Norms
Create explicit agreements about how your team works together. Cover communication expectations (when to use email versus Slack versus meetings), decision-making processes (what you'll decide alone versus what requires team input), and meeting standards (what's mandatory, how you'll run one-on-ones, preparation expectations).
Being explicit about norms prevents future conflicts. When everyone knows the expectations, accountability becomes easier.
Start Delegating Intentionally
New managers either do everything themselves (unsustainable) or randomly dump work on people (demotivating). Instead, delegate strategically by matching tasks to people's development goals, strengths, or learning opportunities.
When delegating, be clear about the outcome you need, the deadline, what authority the person has to make decisions, and when you want to check in on progress. Vague delegation leads to work coming back wrong.
Address Performance Issues Early
If you've identified performance problems, address them now. Waiting doesn't help anyone. Use specific examples of the problematic behavior, explain the impact it's having, and set clear expectations for what needs to change.
Many new managers avoid difficult conversations, hoping problems will resolve themselves. They don't. Early intervention prevents small issues from becoming termination-worthy offenses.
What to Do in Days 61-90 as a New Manager
Demonstrate Measurable Progress
Identify 2-3 metrics that show your team is improving: project completion rates, quality measures, efficiency gains, or team engagement scores. Track progress and report it to your manager.
In your 90-day review meeting, come prepared with specific results you've delivered, challenges you're navigating, insights about the team, your plan for the next quarter, and any support you need.
Take On a Strategic Initiative
By month three, you should be ready to lead something significant beyond day-to-day management: a process improvement affecting multiple teams, strategic planning for next quarter, a workflow redesign, or a high-visibility project.
This demonstrates you're not just managing tasks—you're thinking strategically about the future.
Gather Team Feedback
Conduct a team retrospective to reflect on the last 90 days. Ask what's improved that you should keep doing, what's still frustrating or blocking progress, and what should change in the next 90 days.
In individual one-on-ones, ask how the transition has been, what's working well in how you work together, and what you should do differently to support them better.
This feedback loop shows you're committed to continuous improvement and care about your team's experience.
Common Mistakes New Managers Make in Their First 90 Days
Trying to Prove Yourself by Changing Everything
Announcing major changes in week two feels decisive but usually backfires. You don't yet understand why things work the way they do, and you haven't earned trust. Your team sees you as reckless, not visionary.
Learn first, change second. When you do make changes, explain your reasoning based on what you learned.
Avoiding Difficult Conversations
Hoping performance problems will improve on their own rarely works. Poor performance spreads, top performers get frustrated, and you lose credibility by not addressing obvious issues.
Address problems within your first 60 days using specific examples and clear expectations.
Maintaining Peer Friendships Unchanged
If you were promoted to manage former peers, trying to maintain identical friendships creates awkward boundaries and undermines your authority. You can be friendly without being friends.
Be warm but clear about what's changed. Make decisions based on what's right for the team, not who likes you.
Micromanaging Instead of Delegating
Getting involved in every decision and reviewing everything before it goes out creates a bottleneck and prevents your team from developing. You'll burn out trying to do everything yourself.
Delegate outcomes, not just tasks. Focus on results, not controlling every step of how work gets done.
Failing to Keep Your Manager Informed
Your manager can't support you if they don't know what you need. Don't wait until small problems become crises to ask for help.
Update your manager regularly on progress, challenges, and resource needs. Bring solutions when possible, not just problems.
Building Credibility as a New Manager
Credibility isn't demanded—it's earned through consistent actions.
Do what you say you'll do. The fastest way to lose credibility is breaking commitments. If you promise to follow up, follow up. If you commit to a deadline, meet it.
Make transparent decisions. When you make calls people disagree with, explain your reasoning. People can accept decisions they disagree with if they understand the logic.
Admit when you're wrong. You will make mistakes. Own them quickly: "I made the wrong call on this. Here's what I missed, here's how we're fixing it, and here's what I'm learning."
Give credit, take responsibility. When things go well, credit your team specifically. When things go wrong, take responsibility yourself. Never blame your team publicly or take credit for their work.
Protect your team from above. Push back on unreasonable requests, fight for resources they need, and shield them from organizational chaos. When your team sees you advocating for them, credibility builds fast.
Your 90-Day Success Metrics
By the end of your first 90 days as a manager, you should have:
Completed one-on-ones with every team member and established a regular cadence
Aligned with your manager on priorities and success metrics
Identified and delivered 2-3 quick wins
Established clear team norms and communication expectations
Addressed any urgent performance issues
Demonstrated measurable progress on key priorities
Built relationships with critical stakeholders
Gathered feedback from your team on your leadership
These outcomes prove you're not just filling a management role—you're actively leading.
Moving Beyond Your First 90 Days
Your first 90 days as a manager set the foundation, but leadership development is ongoing. The patterns you establish now—how you make decisions, give feedback, delegate work, and build relationships—become your leadership style.
Successful new managers don't try to be perfect. They're purposeful about learning, honest about what they don't know, and focused on making their team successful.
The transition from individual contributor to manager is one of the hardest career shifts you'll make. Most organizations fail to provide adequate support during this critical period. But with a structured approach to your first 90 days, you can build the credibility and capabilities you need to thrive as a leader.
Note: This article was created in collaboration with Claude, an AI assistant by Anthropic. All content has been reviewed and edited to ensure it aligns with my expertise and perspective on leadership coaching.