Jeff Lash

I think listening is a really important way.

So every role I've had

going around meeting people, spending time with them, treating it like a customer research project.

You should not be talking 90% of the time.

You should be talking 10% of the time.

Asking people questions, building trust, building that relationship to get them to share things, to open up, to be confident, asking them what they think you should do and what you shouldn't do.

I took one role where

I did.

That was a small company.

I didn't really need to do a whole lot of digging.

I went around and talked to about a dozen people and it was pretty clear what was going on in the company.

And everyone consistently said, here's the three things that we need to work on.

So I was able to go back to management and say, here's the three things we need to work on.

Now, you know, I layered my own judgment on that, but I think in that case, they had a pretty good pulse on what's going on.

So I think that's one thing.

Secondly is it also really depends on the situation.

If you are taking over a product that is doing well,

that is very different than taking over a product that is failing.

If you're taking over a product that is not yet in the market versus one that's very mature.

If the business is successful, it's not.