When entering a new leadership role, especially in an unfamiliar culture, bypassing small talk for direct questions builds trust quickly. Asking "What's working? What's not?" opens up dialogue and gets to the core issues, creating a foundation for healthy tension and transparency.

A new CEO’s first few months are best spent gathering unfiltered information directly from employees and customers across the business. Avoid the trap of sitting in an office listening to prepared presentations. Instead, actively listen in the field, then act decisively based on those firsthand insights.

When starting a new partnerships role, resist the pressure to show immediate results. Spend the first 90 days on a listening tour with internal teams and external partners to identify systemic patterns and root causes, rather than applying superficial 'Band-Aid' solutions.

In your first 90 days, resist the urge to be the expert. Instead, conduct a "listening tour" by treating the organization as a product you're researching. Ask questions to understand how work gets done, what success looks like, and what challenges exist at a systemic level.

Before officially starting as CEO, Nicolai Tangen interviewed 140 employees with a single prompt: 'What's on your mind?' After about 70 conversations, clear patterns emerged, revealing the three most critical priorities for the organization. This process provides an unfiltered diagnostic and builds early trust.

Instead of implementing a top-down vision, Dr. Arthur's top priority in his newly created CMO role is to learn and listen to the organization's needs. This approach emphasizes understanding existing teams before setting a strategic direction, a key lesson for new leaders.

When a new leader joins, the immediate pressure is to deliver results. However, the most effective first step is to 'wander'—to observe, listen, and deeply understand the existing environment and power dynamics before trying to implement change.

When you're hired into a leadership role, it's because the company needs something fixed. Conduct a "listening tour" specifically to understand the underlying issues. This reveals your true mandate, which is often a need for more innovation and faster speed to market.

A common mistake for new executives is trying to impose the processes of their successful former company onto a new one. The effective approach is to first act as a diagnostician: understand the new context, culture, and history. Only after fully understanding 'why are we here?' should you prescribe changes.