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What separates new leaders who succeed fast from those who struggle?

It is not talent. It is not experience. It is what they do in their first 90 days.

In this episode of the Mason Duchatschek Show, Neil Marshall and Kurt Mosley break down exactly how high-performing leaders step into new roles with clarity, confidence, and credibility. If you are a business owner, CEO, executive, or newly promoted leader, this conversation will help you avoid costly mistakes and accelerate your impact.

Stepping into an existing team is one of the most critical and misunderstood leadership transitions. There are unspoken expectations, hidden tests, and cultural dynamics that can either work for you or against you. Move too fast and you lose trust. Move too slow and you lose momentum.

This episode gives you a practical roadmap to get it right.

In this episode, you will learn:

-How to navigate your first 90 days in a leadership role
-The fastest way to build trust with a team you did not hire
-Common leadership mistakes and how to avoid them early
-How to accurately read culture before making key decisions
-Why symbolic actions matter more than words at the start
-How to create early wins without sacrificing long-term success

Key insight:

Leadership is not about asserting authority. It is about earning trust through consistent actions and sound judgment.

Practical actions you can take immediately:

-Meet with team members one-on-one before forming conclusions
-Observe behaviors and cultural signals before making changes
-Focus on small, meaningful wins that build credibility
-Lead by example through visible, values-driven actions
-Communicate clearly and consistently to reduce uncertainty

Whether you are stepping into leadership for the first time or taking on a larger role, this episode will help you start strong, build trust faster, and lead with confidence.

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Keywords:

leadership first 90 days, new leader success, executive onboarding strategy, leadership transition tips, how to build trust as a leader, CEO leadership advice, business leadership development, organizational culture leadership, leadership mistakes to avoid, management best practices, executive leadership training, workforce leadership strategy, team leadership skills
Transcript
00:05welcome to the mason duka check show this episode is brought to you by workforce alchemy
00:11helping leaders improve hiring engagement and retention while uncovering people-related
00:16profit leaks that are hidden in everyday operations neil marshall is a partner and
00:23kurt mosley is the association's practice leader at health search partners where they have spent
00:30nearly three decades recruiting senior leaders into complex health care organizations with
00:38hundreds of executive placements over their careers they have had a rare vantage point into
00:45what really happens when a new ceo walks through the door through candid conversations with executives
00:51and boards they've collected the unfiltered stories behind early wins painful missteps
01:00and the moves that build trust and momentum in the first 90 days really excited to have you guys on
01:06the show talking about this welcome it's good to be here thanks mason we're glad to be here
01:12so what's so important about the first 90 days it sets the tone for the whole time that you're with
01:21the organization people remember things that you did when you walked in the door it is it's the you
01:28know it's it it is the the the building block or the foundation of your time with an organization
01:34so i know you observed hundreds of leadership transitions from your seat there at health search
01:40partners what is a story that perfectly captures how a leader either won or lost credibility in their
01:47first 90 days so we'll do both right uh the first one is lose had a ceo that came in
01:54and he clarified
01:55with the board up front listen there are no sacred cows with regards to people and he so he was
02:01able
02:01to have a free reign and he came in and within a very short period of time identified somebody that
02:07he
02:07didn't feel like and by short period of time i mean in the first 30 days identified somebody that he
02:12didn't want on the team didn't feel like it was a good fit and he made the change and it
02:17blew up it
02:19was one of the most popular and well thought of people in the whole organization and it led to the
02:24ceo's downfall he was gone about 60 days later he didn't even look at maddie days no he didn't and
02:33the lesson to learn there is you can make the changes but make sure that if in fact it is
02:40somebody that is
02:41very well respected and like that you do a lot of pre-work to make sure that there's no damage
02:47to you
02:48after that so that's one i think kurt had one you know i think um one of the ceos we
02:57worked with
02:58and it was a little one but uh day one he said i'm going to make an impression and the
03:02first
03:03general meeting he had he went to the donut shop and got a dunkin donuts just open in town and
03:08he got
03:08dunkin donuts and came walking in laying around the table everybody looked up and he kind of had
03:13these quizzical looks on their face mason and and he didn't know what was going on and afterwards he
03:18got pulled aside and he says listen we've used uh the bakery in town for the last 20 years so
03:23and
03:24which was sort of a misstep but he also loved the point where he said i i never let a
03:28good crisis go
03:29to waste so he went to the right bakery the next time and also he pre-asked what were the
03:33favorites you
03:34know what what people like what and he he corrected it but again it created a little uh concern that
03:39they didn't they didn't even know who their what their favorite donuts and where they shop were so
03:45wow it's it's those little things that matter it is so on the flip side the positive right
03:53and this was the ceo that actually started us on this 90-day journey we were interviewing him his name
03:59is richard parks he was the ceo of a 22 hospital system out in levick texas and uh he said
04:05neil he
04:06said when i take a new ceo job mama stays home sells the house gets the house ready and i
04:12move into the
04:13hospital and i said richard everybody works hard the first 90 days he said no he said i move into
04:21the
04:22hospital for the first 90 days big hospitals have places where the residents sleep like a dorm dorm rooms
04:28and he moved into the dorm rooms and he said my first day there woke up the next morning the
04:33residents were making coffee and i asked him hey like all old people do how'd you sleep and they
04:38said we slept like crap the mattresses are horrible he said i can fix that he called the vp of
04:45facilities
04:46and says we're going to replace every mattress in the residence dorm today let's get five pickup trucks
04:52i'll go with you we're going to go to costco and we're buying 30 new mattresses and by that night
04:57there were all new mattresses and he said that story resonated through the organization the whole
05:03time he was there he said people talked about it i think he was there 12 years people talked about
05:08it
05:08on his last day there wow that's my example for sure too because he's going to pick up on things
05:16that
05:17he wouldn't pick up on otherwise and we all know that a lot of those folks are shielded from bad
05:23news
05:23and good news is over exaggerated in a lot of times so what their and their decisions are only as
05:29sounds of facts in which they're based and if the information they're receiving is covering the the
05:35liabilities and exaggerating the assets it makes it tough by default to make good decisions so kudos to
05:40him for being willing to lead by example and ask nothing more of anyone else than he's willing to do
05:47himself i can see why that would be i think i think the lesson also mason is that early actions
05:53they're interpreted symbolically it's just whether you know whether you intend them to be or not so
05:58it's just those actions are you know good in that so you got to be aware of that so when
06:03a senior
06:03executive steps into a new organization what are the invisible tests that are happening around them
06:10that they may not even realize exist sure people are looking at it do you listen right is what we
06:18say
06:18important to you are you listening to us a big one do you overreact you get bad news and you
06:25start
06:25throwing things and throwing ketchup against the wall or what do you how do you react because frankly
06:32if you overreact people stop bringing you bad news right and last you know are you consistent
06:39do you treat everybody kind of the same and do you do things consistently or that way people can
06:45predict what you're going to do and if you're not acting consistently and people can't predict again
06:51they stop bringing you bad news can you share maybe an example of a leader who created early momentum
06:56in a practical and repeatable way that others may be able to put to good use
07:01yeah so one of my favorites got by the name of jay robinson he's a ceo of uh uh one
07:09of the
07:09regions for kaiser out on the west coast long-term hospital ceo said um uh what i do what i
07:18did
07:18is i went in and met with all 246 of my senior leaders 246 and he said i don't schedule
07:30them and
07:30call them into my office i go meet with them in their office and i i asked you know a
07:37series of
07:38questions and i always end with if we are successful in the first 90 days he said what
07:44will be different interesting and then he takes all of that and and you know the good stuff bubbles to
07:50the top right uh there the consistent things are going to bubble to the top and he he looked at
07:56the
07:56patterns um and then he was able to solve a couple of really high level visible friction points almost
08:02immediately because of that so is there a common early move that feels smart in the moment but
08:09tends to backfire from time to time any examples of anything like that no go ahead no go ahead no
08:15um i think a couple of things number one relying too much on where you were before and talking about
08:23it here's what we did here this is what we did here trying to prove and show that you're smarter
08:31than your predecessor a lot of times new leaders are going to come in hot the board's pushing them
08:36to to make changes so they're restructuring they're replacing people they're changing processes
08:41they're stumbling over sacred cows and while it feels decisive it kind of communicates insecurity
08:48um uh you know our our advice there is uh is move a little slower build trust set tone
09:00do some symbolic acts rather than coming in and changing everything day one especially when you
09:07don't know the culture sure i'm sure you've had candid conversations with ceos after they were
09:14already in the role what is something that you have heard more than once that they wish they had done
09:21differently you know i think i like the quote from john wooden who the ncaa coach uh very successful
09:29you know one of the winningest coaches in history he used to tell his players he said be quick but
09:33don't hurry you know and i think first 90 days as neil said there's a lot of expectations borders are
09:40expecting movement you know it's a brand new day you know new vision let's see what's going to happen
09:44but in a lot of cases they they act before listening i think that's really one of the key factors
09:50and
09:50what the point is is that quick leaders they have a plan and hurried leaders skip uh steps at the
09:57first start so they may be doing something like as meil mentioned earlier eliminating a popular
10:01senior executive and not understanding where they're going and clear not clarifying their vision
10:07early i mean they come in they don't they don't say here's what i'm going to do they start acting
10:11and then most importantly uh i think showing calm and chaos because there's going to be a lot of chaos
10:16at the start you're you're a new person they're getting used to you you're getting used to them
10:21your demeanor sets the tone for the entire organization in that first 90 days showing
10:25calm and chaos and my next question was going to be about what type of tips do you have for
10:29establishing credibility and you've just literally given me a few of them calm and chaos
10:35listening hurrying but not rushing are there any other any other particular tips you have that would
10:39help well a new executive ability quickness shows confidence mason it really does and haste
10:47reveals insecurity and you don't want especially that first 90 days you don't want to fill your
10:51your peers and yeah your direct reports that they're that you're insecure about your situation your
10:56position so you talked about a little bit about the the sacred cow and the example of the individual
11:04that the ceo got rid of quickly and how it blew up how should a leader approach an inherited executive
11:11when they are still forming opinions about who to trust i think that's a great question
11:16and i'm going to answer it in two parts okay the first part is exactly what you said look at
11:22an
11:22inherited executive assume competence before suspicion spend a lot of time one-on-one with
11:28them learn who they are ask what's working before you focus on what's broken also watch who influences
11:36the room right who has influence with the other executives and just don't label them too quickly
11:43your first impression is probably going to be incomplete a corollary to that is let's say the
11:51example is you you had a ceo that got fired and he's got an executive he or she's got an
11:56executive
11:57team and let's say there are two executives on that team that are his people his henchmen his
12:04and everybody knows it and nobody wants him in the organization okay they're remnants of the old group
12:12and they're tied to this old ceo what i would recommend my people do is negotiate that up front if
12:21there's something that everybody knows has to be done don't wait for the new ceo do it before they
12:29show up because that's something like that because that's almost like leaving the trap for the ceo
12:34and exactly has to be hopefully attentive enough to be able to perceive that that exists and they're
12:41overwhelmed with so much other change anyway you could see where a ceo would miss that what are some
12:46negotiated up front or or the other one is let's say everybody knows that you're going to have to do
12:51a
12:51riff right you're going to you and everybody's we're going to wait for the new ceo but they're going to
12:55do a
12:56five percent riff no no no no no no no no no you do the riff before i show up
13:02if i have to go back
13:03and fix a little bit of that i can do that but you do it before i show up so
13:07it's not on me good move
13:09i hope the executives listening pay specific attention to that that's an excellent tip so what
13:16are some subtle culture signals that a new executive should pay attention to before they make any big moves
13:21well i think uh in a lot of cases we hear from the people that we interview mason that you
13:27know
13:28uh culture doesn't matter anymore and i think people that uh that have that uh mentality if you
13:35will uh so it's looking at it from a standpoint they're going to discover the cultures and i think
13:40it's holding their strategy together when they start to learn it and i think uh new ceos rarely stumble
13:46because they lack technical skills they got the job because they're good at it but they stumble
13:50because they misread the culture if that makes sense and i mean i think stepping into a new
13:55hospital and we talked about this before but they misread the culture it causes turnover in a lot
14:00of cases and also my pushback when people say culture doesn't matter culture is really an invisible
14:06infrastructure it's how you operate in your first 90 days and it either accelerates or undermines
14:12every strategic initiative that you try to implement interesting so for leaders moving from an internal
14:19role into the top job what new challenges tend to surprise them the most i think the one is they're
14:26shocked by kind of the isolation people stop telling you the unvarnished truth your former peers stop
14:33being fully candid conversations change the scrutiny increases everybody the level of scrutiny that
14:40you're going to get everybody's watching not what you say but what you do what are your actions that's why
14:48that's why we're big proponents of the symbolic act right figure out something that symbolizes the tone
14:58that you want to set i'll uh i'll give you a yeah i was giving my example of that symbolic
15:06act so this was
15:07actually i had forgotten all about it this was actually us of my one of my first ceos when i
15:13graduated from college i was in an executive training program we and they fired our ceo and there were five
15:19of us they called us trainees and so they brought in a new ceo and his first day we're all
15:25looking out
15:26the window you know waiting for him to come and he pulls into the parking lot gets out of his
15:31car and
15:31walks through the parking lot and he picks up trash doesn't come in picks up all the trash in the
15:37parking lot walks over puts it in the garbage can never says a word mason never says a word but
15:44we
15:45all got the message okay and that's the last time grover martin ever picked up a piece of trash
15:52because all of us got there 15 minutes before him and we walked the parking lot and if you saw
15:58trash
15:58you picked it up again a symbolic act never said a word there was another hospital ceo that uh it
16:06was
16:06over 20 hospitals here in dallas um uh and uh everybody knew that when he showed up if he was
16:14walking through your hospital and there was a burned out light bulb he didn't point it out he didn't yell
16:20at anybody he stopped you called facilities you brought a ladder and he went up and changed the light
16:28well he didn't have to do that too many times before everybody knew if doug hawthorne was coming
16:35into your facility you're walking around making sure that everything is tip-top shape because he's
16:42going to stop and get it done right then and there and if i can add mason my father told
16:48me this earlier
16:49in life and it really parallels what neil was talking about but he told me he said it's hard to
16:53talk your
16:54way out of something you behave yourself into let me say that again it's hard to talk your way out
16:59of
17:00something you behave yourself into and we talk about early wins and we talk about these ceos
17:05and again it's it's a prk your behavior how you act will overshadow any strategic initiative you had
17:14at the start i think what's really important like dan castillo he was a former ceo of la county
17:20usc medical center his first time he showed up his first time at the hospital he showed up at 2
17:25a.m
17:26and did night rounds and nobody expected no staff did but that little his action built trust faster
17:33than any internal newsletter or anything he could send out so a lot of people like i said some people
17:38say well i'm going to do this this this and this but that behavior doesn't match you lose your
17:42credibility and again you lose trust for those actions and i think that's very important to understand
17:49so in your experience what you mentioned trust what separates leaders who build long-term trust
17:54from those who are only capable of creating short-term enthusiasm i know you hit on hit on it a
18:00little bit but i was wondering if you'd sure well i i think uh uh timing at the start if
18:07your timing's
18:07off and you're saying you're going to do something and the behavior doesn't uh lags behind i think
18:13transparency at the very start i think that's key let them know you know what you're doing how you're
18:18going to do it um and also listen and also admit you know if you made a mistake at the
18:23far i know
18:24it's hard to do sometimes but you say listen you know what i told you was completely wrong it backfired
18:29i mean here's what i'm going to do to correct it and i'd like your input most importantly but again
18:34i think it's really important that leaders understand that they have integrity it's a new
18:40job it's a new start integrity is in moments and it's not memos and that's what we see all these
18:44people come out and send out all these new directives and initiatives but their behavior
18:49doesn't correlate with that and that creates mistrust skepticism second guessing and i think
18:57one of the worst things is to be honest if something happens you know silence creates mistrust
19:01you know stories start to happen if there's silence out there people create their own story
19:05we all know that from social media and everything everybody's uh right now their social media
19:10algorithms you know say that so again those are those are those are some uh key points so if you
19:18were advising a ceo that's stepping into a turnaround situation what would you tell them to do or what
19:24would you tell them to prioritize in the first 30 days you know we talked about it but set a
19:29tone
19:29symbolic act so i just thought of one and i hadn't thought about this in forever mason literally just
19:34came to me you'll probably remember the commercial it was a commercial it was a ceo he's got his
19:39his team around him i don't know what kind of organization it was and he's got a stack of plane
19:44tickets in his hand and he said we're not in touch with our customers anymore and we need to get
19:51in
19:51touch with our customers so every single one of us is we're going to go visit customers and he's
19:56handing out plane tickets to all of his thing his people right and he he holds up one and he
20:02said and
20:02i'm going to see our first customer ever and find out why he's not doing business with us so symbolic
20:09act do you remember the commercial i don't yeah it was yeah it was airlines was it airlines yeah uh
20:17but
20:17a symbolic act right he didn't yell at people because they weren't close to their customers he said
20:23we're going to go see our customers and i'm going to be the i'm the first guy going okay so
20:29a symbolic
20:29act clarify reality okay try and figure out what's really going on and then make sure that everybody
20:36has the same reality another thing that i really like is identify an early win and i i don't recommend
20:44it be a win for you personally figure out a stakeholder group your employees whatever the stakeholder
20:51group at the board figure out an early win the other thing about the early win that i like
20:56mason is you can actually negotiate that early win when you're negotiating your comp package i have a
21:02comp package checklist give me an example of someone who's done that give me some give me an example of
21:06someone who's done that yeah so um uh like i said i've got a template of a of a comp
21:12that here's what
21:13we're doing when we negotiate make sure we get everything and one of them is an early win and i
21:18was
21:18talking to this guy and he said well here's my early win neil he said this organization they're
21:24not paying their nurses enough and everybody knows it and they've done nothing i said then you need to
21:31go to the board and say for me to take this job i need to be able to and you
21:36you know you can kind of
21:37figure out where i need to be able to offer between a five and an eight percent uh raise to
21:43all of our
21:43nurses and he negotiated up front the board said yes you can do it and he was able to in
21:48a very short
21:49period of time start talking about it and implementing it in his first it wasn't 30 days
21:55because it's a little bit more complex but at least he was able to talk about it and it was
21:59a big win
21:59for his people that's a good the last thing is whenever there's a a turnaround situation it's a um
22:06it's a crisis you got to regulate fear people are always looking around for threats
22:11be calm be visible that's going to matter more than being brilliant so for executives that are
22:19aspiring to larger leadership roles how should they go about preparing now for the scrutiny
22:26and expectations that are going to come later number one start it today the 90 day starts today
22:35you also need to be comfortable get comfortable being visible which also means starting to do that
22:40visibility early on as a matter of fact i was talking to somebody that i placed recently
22:46and i asked her about thought leadership i said how does the organization handle thought leadership
22:51and she said well they've got people that do that but and i said you need to start focusing
22:57because they're not going to come to you and ask you to do thought leadership you need to be going
23:04to
23:04them with well thought out plans so that you are raising your visibility via thought leadership do most of
23:12the work for them and then hand it to them um practice listening without fixing they also say that's good
23:20for marriages too right but listen you don't necessarily need to fix everything but but listen also work
23:29on kind of your emotional discipline right day one isn't where leadership starts leadership starts
23:36today you you need to become the leader that you want to be today so this is always my favorite
23:44question i look forward to this question every single time i get to do a podcast i was watching
23:50tony robbins an interview with him and i'm a huge fan of his his stuff and he has consulted with
23:55world
23:55leaders and icons and sports and and arts and whatnot and someone asked him he said if you could
24:02only give one piece of advice knowing what you know which was obviously a lot if you could only give
24:07one piece of advice to people listening today what would it be so and i was fascinated to hear the
24:12answer and his answer was awesome but i'm going to turn the tables and ask the same question of you
24:16based on your life experience and your wisdom if there was only one piece of advice that you could give
24:22to people listening today what is the most important piece of advice you could give and why is it
24:26important well kind of around the the the the 90 day theme right is you need to earn trust before
24:36you
24:36can lead okay so set that tone before you worry about strategy it's about trust if people don't trust
24:44you you can have the greatest strategy ever and they're not going to implement it so earn trust
24:52earn trust in similar to what i said earlier about behaving you know hard to talk your way out of
24:59something you behave yourself into i think my advice would be that uh in sort of uh tag on what
25:06neil said
25:06that trust comes from consistency and it's you know leaders who do what they say what they'll do
25:15repeatedly and that's important be consistent especially when it's inconvenient for them but being
25:20consistent doing it every time the right way and handling it the right way each time and with a
25:26consistent nature today's conversation has been incredibly insightful and i hope that the people
25:33watching and listening today are taking away as much value as i certainly have i appreciate both of you
25:39and your knowledge and your wisdom and thank you so much for sharing it if people want to know more
25:43about you your company and the work you do what's the best way for them to connect and learn more
25:49sure um you know both kurt and i are on linkedin um and we're fairly active on linkedin and our
25:55people
25:55are active for us right also go to our website healthsearchpartners.com just like it's um uh and
26:03you know obviously if uh if you're stepping into a new role especially around kind of a health care
26:08hospital theme and you want to talk about the first 90 days feel free to reach out to us
26:15great and i can just add we have a lot of thought leadership on our linkedin sites in our our
26:20own
26:20personal linkedin sites as well as our company linkedin sites so we have a lot of thought leadership
26:25that deals above and beyond just the first 90 days like burnout issues with status in the hospital and
26:33factors that are affecting health care industry today and in the future so there's a lot of good
26:36information on there so i'd encourage listeners to investigate a lot of those articles wonderful
26:42guys thanks so much for your time today it's been a pleasure having you hey thank you mason we enjoyed
26:48it
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