Showing up for your first day of work comes with all kinds of excited-nervousness because you’re walking into something completely new. It’s normal to go into the first week with a laser focus on learning the basics of your new role, but what about beyond that? What are your plans after your initial training?
When you’re first starting in a new role, it’s understandable to have a little bit of tunnel vision because the only way you’re ever going to get to a point where you excel and stand out is by learning exactly how to do your job. This training is essential to your success at the company, but you’ll be even more successful if you start thinking and strategizing for the long term from the very start.
Believe it or not, you can set yourself up for success within the first 90 days in your new role. Ninety days seems to be a magic number in business because interviewers often ask candidates what they picture themselves accomplishing in their first 90 days in a job. There’s also the 30-60-90 day plan, which is commonly used to help new employees set goals and map out how they will accomplish them in this time frame. It is with this plan that you’ll blow your new boss and team away.
What Is The 30-60-90 Day Plan?
The concept is simple. It’s a map of what you plan to accomplish at the 30, 60, and 90-day marks after you’ve started a new position. You’ll come up with goals that you want to achieve at each of these milestone days and map out how exactly you plan to accomplish them in the timeframe.
When creating this plan, it’s essential to keep your goals realistic and attainable. For instance, you’re probably not going to complete a significant process improvement project in your first 30 days on the job because you’re likely still learning the current processes. Instead, your goals should increasingly become more in-depth with each milestone because you’re probably going to accomplish significantly more by the 90-day mark than you could at 30 days.
By and large, the goals you set should align with the company’s, department’s, and or team’s overall mission and how your role fits explicitly into it. For example, while it may be a personal goal for you to be proficient in complicated software by the time you’re ten days in, that goal doesn’t add anything to the company’s big picture because it’s an expectation that you can successfully do the basics of the job. Instead, think about how you can go beyond the expectations.
It is not to say that your 30-60-90 day plan shouldn’t include personal goals because those are important, too. However, the big picture goals will be the ones that grab leadership’s attention and help you stand out. The chances are high that many of your 30-day goals will be more personal, just because you’ll still be learning, but once you get to the 60 and 90-day marks, you’ll start phasing out the individual goals to focus more on the considerable picture planning.
It is not to say that your 30-60-90 day plan shouldn’t include personal goals because those are important, too. However, the big picture goals will be the ones that grab leadership’s attention and help you stand out. The chances are high that many of your 30-day goals will be more personal, just because you’ll still be learning, but once you get to the 60 and 90-day marks, you’ll start phasing out the individual goals to focus more on the considerable picture planning.
30 Days In
Ideally, you should have your goals set for your 30-day mark within your first week on the job, as this will give you a full three weeks to accomplish them. To develop appropriate objectives and your 30-60-90 day plan as a whole, you’ll need to intentionally meet with your manager to get some information and a general feel for the team and company culture. Here is what you should try to go over in that meeting:
- What are your boss’ goals for you, and what do they think success looks like for your position at 90 days?
- Ask about general expectations of you in this role, as well as if there are any performance metrics you will be measured by
- Find out what your boss’s priorities are for you, the team, as well as in their position (in terms of contributing to the company’s overall mission)
- Use this time to ask as many questions as you need to get a better understanding of your role
After this meeting, you should have a good amount of insight to help you get started on your 30-60-90 day plan, but you probably won’t be able to complete it entirely since you’re still easing into the position. It’s okay because it’s supposed to be a living document that you can review and edit as needed.
As previously mentioned, a lot of your goals for the 30-day mark will be more personal, simply because you likely won’t have the training yet to go bigger. Some targets you may want to consider adding to your plan include:
- Master general training tasks to a point where you can work independently 90% of the time
- Learn the organizational chart and where your position/department falls into it, then go out of your way to meet people across different departments and get to know them (by having actual conversations, not just introducing yourself)
- Get familiar with the company’s strategic plan, long term goals, and general mission
- Learn about your company’s customers, even if you don’t interact with them directly
- Get a feel for your team culture as well as the company’s as a whole
These small goals will help you gain the knowledge you need to build larger ones and determine what you need to do to accomplish them. When time permits before the 30-day mark, schedule a meeting with your boss to review your 30-60-90 day plan and get their feedback and insight. Ask if your plan aligns with what they’d like to see from you in this position, and find out if there are any changes they’d like you to make. It’s also an excellent opportunity to get tips from your supervisor on the best ways to accomplish some of your objectives.
60 Days In
At this point, you’re likely pretty well trained and have a good understanding of your expectations daily. It is also your first significant benchmark in your plan where you should show some results. The specific goals you choose to aim for at 60 days will depend a lot on your position and the company you work for, but here are a few to consider:
- Complete a process improvement initiative; find a process (or processes) that can be done more accurately or efficiently, and figure out a way to do just that to improve your individual and or team deliverables
- Extend your reach within the organization by volunteering for larger projects, taking on a leadership role on a committee, and or starting a new initiative internally
- Collaborate with colleagues in different departments to create stronger relationships and merge work to aim to deliver cohesive results across other parts of the organization
Make sure you have a meeting scheduled with your boss at the 60-day mark to go over what you’ve accomplished to date and to modify the goals and or strategies you have planned for the next 30 days. If you haven’t already done so, schedule recurring 1:1 meetings with your boss and or teammates for regular check-ins. Also, now that you’ve had a chance to build some relationships, it’s a good time to share with your team how you work best so that when it comes time to distribute work, everyone knows where you will thrive.
90 Days In
You’re at the final step of your 30-60-90 day plan, which means you should be at a point where you’re able to deliver something that will make an impact. Whatever the goals you set for this point will be particular to your unique job and company, so it’s hard to give examples. Just remember, when planning this, point out that your goals should be primarily department and or company-focused because the whole idea is for you to prove your value in a discernible way.
At 90 days, it’s also a good idea to do another check-in with your boss to discuss what you’ve achieved at this point and to build out longer-term goals and strategies for yourself. This next phase of goal planning will likely go out six months to a year in the future, which means these objectives will build on your prior success and, ultimately, make an even more significant impact than what you’ve already accomplished.
Final Thoughts
Even if you’re the most confident person in the world, going into a new job is intimidating. Depending on your personality, it might be tough to put yourself out there to meet new people and push boundaries to stand out as a valuable employee. While the point of the 30-60-90 day plan is to help you find success, it is not to force you to be someone you’re not or to act in a way that isn’t sustainable for you long term. You can still be a star in your new role without collaborating cross-departmentally or creating or leading a new initiative in your first 90 days. So, do what feels right for you and your specific situation and use the plan as a tool to help you stay on track to achieve whatever goals make sense for you.
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