Becoming a manager for the first time is exciting and disorienting in equal measure. One day you are focused on your own work. The next, you are responsible for other people's work, growth, and wellbeing. The first 90 days in this new role will shape how your team sees you, how much trust you build, and whether you set yourself up for long-term success or spend months digging out of early mistakes.
Here is a month-by-month guide.
Month 1: Listen, Learn, and Build Relationships
Your first instinct as a new manager might be to prove yourself by making changes. Resist that urge. The first month is about understanding, not action.
Set up 1:1s with every direct report in your first week. Use these initial meetings to learn, not to manage. Ask questions like:
- What is working well on the team right now?
- What is the biggest challenge you are facing?
- How do you prefer to receive feedback?
- What should I know about this role that is not obvious from the outside?
Meet with your stakeholders. Talk to your own manager, peer managers, and key cross-functional partners. Understand what they expect from your team and where the pressure points are. You need to know what success looks like from every angle, not just your own.
Learn the existing systems. Before you change anything, understand why things work the way they do. There is usually a reason behind every process, even the ones that look inefficient. Ask "Why do we do it this way?" before proposing "Here is how we should do it instead."
Establish your 1:1 cadence. By the end of week two, every direct report should have a recurring 1:1 on the calendar. Weekly is the right default for a new manager. These meetings are your primary trust-building tool.
Month 2: Identify Patterns and Start Building Trust
By the second month, you should have enough context to see patterns. Which processes work? Where are the bottlenecks? Who is thriving and who is struggling?
Give your first pieces of feedback. You have had enough 1:1s by now to start offering specific, constructive feedback. Use the Situation-Behavior-Impact framework: describe the situation, the behavior you observed, and the impact it had. Keep it grounded in specifics, not generalizations.
Clarify expectations. One of the most common failures for new managers is assuming their team knows what is expected. They often do not, especially if the previous manager had different priorities. Be explicit about what great work looks like, how you measure progress, and how decisions get made.
Identify one or two quick wins. These should be small, visible improvements that address something the team has been frustrated about. Maybe it is fixing a broken process, removing an unnecessary meeting, or getting a resource the team has been requesting. Quick wins build credibility and show your team that you are paying attention to what they told you in month one.
Start a feedback log. Track the feedback you give and receive in a shared tool or document. This habit pays off enormously when review time comes and prevents the common trap of only remembering the last two weeks of performance. Tools like Culture Wheel make this easy by giving you a place to capture notes, recognition, and feedback throughout the year.
Month 3: Set Direction and Establish Your Rhythm
By month three, you should have a clear picture of where the team stands and where it needs to go.
Share your observations with the team. Summarize what you have learned about the team's strengths, challenges, and opportunities. Be honest without being critical. This signals that you have been listening and positions you to make changes with the team's buy-in.
Set team goals for the next quarter. Collaborate with your team on two to four goals that align with company priorities and address the gaps you have identified. Make them specific and measurable. Involve the team in the goal-setting process so they feel ownership over the direction.
Establish your management rhythm. By now, your recurring cadences should be locked in:
- Weekly 1:1s with every direct report
- A weekly or biweekly team meeting focused on priorities and blockers
- A monthly skip-level or team retrospective
- A quarterly goal review and planning session
Ask for feedback on your own performance. Reach out to your direct reports and your manager and ask: "What is one thing I could do better?" This is uncomfortable, especially early on. That is exactly why it builds trust. It shows that you hold yourself to the same feedback standards you expect of your team.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Trying to be everyone's friend. Your job is to be a fair, supportive manager, not a buddy. Being liked is nice. Being respected and trusted is what matters.
- Avoiding difficult conversations. The longer you wait to address performance or behavior issues, the harder they get. Have the conversation early while it is still small.
- Doing your old job. It is tempting to jump back into individual contributor work because it is familiar and rewarding. Your job now is to make your team effective, not to be the best individual producer.
- Making big changes too fast. You need at least 30 to 60 days of context before making structural changes. Early changes without context often create more problems than they solve.
The first 90 days are not about having all the answers. They are about building the relationships and understanding that allow you to lead effectively for the months and years ahead.