A CPO's First 90 Days
episode
“HR Heretics” | How CPOs, CHROs, Founders, and Boards Build High Performing Companies
32 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 16 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Alright. Hey everyone, how you doing? Um, Nolan and I are here for another segment hanging out today on a Dear Heretics, Nolan. We had a doozy come in. Actually this morning someone texted me and I was like, Nolan and I are recording today and I don't think we have Anything that's um pressing. So let's let's talk about this one, Nolan. So here's the reading. Hey Kelly, how you doin'? Yada yada yada. I'm feeling excited. I'm thinking of joining this company, yada yada yada, purely selfishly, wondering if you and Nolan have some hot takes or can do an episode on the first thirty sixty ninety days of stepping into a chief people officer role. There's the usual fluency of the business, trust with stakeholders, assessing, etcetera.
The founder is saying that maybe shadowing the CEO for the first four to six weeks is a good idea. Any hot takes or novel ideas you have here or if this is great fodder for an episode? I would love it. Thank you.
Alright, so so this one I have a lot of thoughts on because I have not done it well historically. So when I was thinking about how do how should people think about coming into an organization, I think there's three goals. One is you're building trust and relationships.
What are the three core goals a new Chief People Officer should focus on in the first 90 days?
Two? You're getting quick wins. And then three, you're establishing yourself and your brand. So that sounds great. How do we do that? The first thing is is like talking about the fail state and I think the fail state is Uh like not removing yourself from your last role. So you're like referencing your last role all the time. You're saying like this is how we did things, here's a playbook from you know prior it just like doesn't matter and it doesn't land well with the people at the new company. Um, the next thing is is like you must over communicate with your CEO.
Which common fail‑states should a CPO avoid when stepping into a new organization?
So like you guys have to be on the same page all the time. And the hard part is is like you're building this relationship, but you also want to be able to tell them like what's going on. And so I think the best way to do that is just to send a weekly snippet email. So like here's what I did this week, here's who I met with, like all of the things listed out. Because Kelly, as you and I both know, when humans don't have all the information. They assume the worst thing. The next is building relationships with execs. So you're obviously going to be working with these people for a long time, but like you need more time with these people. And I find that like one on ones don't cut it. Like you need to do lunches, dinners, breakfasts, get outside the office, get to know what's up with them, get to know them as people, and then start to just click in to understand like what's going well and what's not going well.
How can a new CPO effectively over‑communicate with the CEO without micromanaging?
Next is getting to the ground floor. So like execs operate at 70,000 feet. When you first get into an organization, I think you gotta like do both. And that's I think this is the modern exec we've been talking about this. But you need to talk to as many people as you can, especially the top performers and your team. Um one of the things that friend of the show Colleen McCreary did when she joined her null her her new role. Is that she had like a hundred one on ones. In the first ninety days. Like It's actually not that crazy when you think about the calendar and how you can do those things.
What strategies help build deep executive relationships beyond one‑on‑ones?
So I love that tactic. I also love her tactic of sharing those learnings. uh with the exec team and then also potentially the redacted learnings. with the broader company. Um, as part of this you should be like making assessments on your team. I think you gotta be really careful about making assessments for people that are not on your team because you don't really know what's going on. Um in addition to that like getting to the like the ground floor with customers. So joining sales calls. joining customer support calls, like figuring out like what those people are doing and how they're interacting with the customer base is huge. And acting like there's no job beneath you.
How did Colleen McCreary’s ‘100 one‑on‑ones in 90 days’ method accelerate onboarding?
Um, as I mentioned, quick wins, like it's so important to be putting like wins on the board right away because otherwise people just wonder like what the hell are you doing here?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:14–1:31
2
What are the three core goals a new Chief People Officer should focus on in the first 90 days?
1:31–2:08
3
Which common fail‑states should a CPO avoid when stepping into a new organization?
2:08–2:58
4
How can a new CPO effectively over‑communicate with the CEO without micromanaging?
2:58–3:35
5
What strategies help build deep executive relationships beyond one‑on‑ones?
3:35–4:17
6
How did Colleen McCreary’s ‘100 one‑on‑ones in 90 days’ method accelerate onboarding?
4:17–5:03
7
What quick wins and board‑relationship tactics set a CPO up for early success?
5:03–5:36
8
How does the four‑pillar framework (Listen, Execute, Strategize, Build) guide a CPO’s first three months?
5:36–32:29
Speakers
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