As a new managing partner, you will want to determine with the executive committee as a group their perceptions of the firm's current situation and what they think your priorities as a new managing partner should be.

You want to define the specifics for how they expect to make decisions; how they prefer to receive information (email, voicemail or in person); and the frequency with which they would wish to receive progress reports. Your primary focus should be directed toward listening, probing to obtain a deeper under-standing and not offering any opinions.

Key questions to ask of your executive committee include:

. What are the specific objectives, initiatives and goals you are setting me? Develop a crystal-clear understanding of their expectations. If those expectations are conflicting, you should address the matter by having the executive committee put your objectives in writing.

. Tell me how you would define in one year, three years and five years whether or not I have been successful? Identify, understand and negotiate how your performance will be measured.

. What are the 'must dos' and what is my level of authority? Identify when the executive committee wants to be contacted and about what types of issues, problems and decisions.

. What will facilitate a very positive and constructive working relationship? Identify what will impede such a relationship, what will really frustrate executive committee members and how such occurrences can be avoided.

Identify and agree on what you and your executive committee perceive as the new managing partner's mandate and what the new managing partner must do to be successful. This will help you formulate your short-term burning issue and longer-term management priorities.

On day one, provide an outline of what people might expect and promise only what you are fairly sure you can deliver. One managing partner confided that projecting confidence without necessarily making promises was his hardest challenge on the first day.

Every move you make as firm leader will be subject to discussion and interpretation. That includes how early you arrive at the office, how you relate to people in the hallway, how you allocate your time and how thoroughly you prepare for your first meetings.

Where circumstances demand that the new leader takes quick, decisive action, scheduling some kind of forum where people can all hear what you have to say at the same time goes a long way toward clarifying communication and squelching unproductive rumours.

Within days of his appointment at Andersen Consulting, the new CEO held a partners' meeting in which he and several members of the executive committee took questions from their colleagues, broadcast via satellite to 39 locations around the world. This monumental effort gave everyone access to the new CEO at the same time and created excitement about his new appointment.

On his first day as president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, Chris Komisarjevsky went to the basement of worldwide headquarters in New York and shook the hand of each employee until he reached the executive floor 13 floors above.

It may be too early for specific details about your plans, but you should spell out the basic values that will serve as your framework for making future decisions. This is a good time to identify aspects of the firm culture that you want to preserve as sacred. Answer questions honestly.

Set your agenda

It has often been said that as a new leader, you will get a short honeymoon period in which to determine your direction – in other words, no-one expects you to do anything too quickly.

However, as increasing numbers of your partners begin to put pressure on you and your time with each passing day, your ability to control your schedule will evaporate very quickly.

As one managing partner cautioned: "There is a natural desire to establish yourself as highly responsive to issues brought to your attention. There are times, I have found, that being responsive has served to drag out issues that, if I had done nothing for a couple of days, would have resolved on their own without my input.

"Thus, while somewhat counter-intuitive, there is some wisdom in not trying to immediately solve every issue that is brought your way. The art to it, of course, is deciding which issues need the managing partner's attention and which will resolve, perhaps more elegantly, without that attention."

While you may have a number of important objectives to tackle, to satisfy both your and the executive committee's requirements, start with establishing one key imperative. When people talk about getting everyone on the same page, this is the page they are talking about.

Your imperative should pinpoint that one critical area in your firm that demands attention; the area that offers the greatest opportunity to contribute to a dramatic improvement in performance.

Draft a written statement of your burning imperative, why it is important and what impact it would have on the firm if it were to be effectively implemented. Share it with your key partners, one by one, over the first weeks of taking office and invite them to improve on it. Collect their suggestions and support, and incorporate their views and suggestions into your final draft where appropriate. A shared priority can serve to drive everyone's attention. Ensure it is compelling enough to obtain your partners' support.

Develop ways to implement your initiative. Start planning what you hope to accomplish by specific milestones.

One new managing partner, wanting to ensure that everyone understood that his number one declared imperative was to build strong practice teams, spent the first month visiting every group and attending every group meeting that was scheduled. He exposed himself to hearing about which groups were working effectively, which were dysfunctional, which were in need of extra resources or executive support and which required a change in group leader-ship. He set out his vision and then asked people to help him realise it.

Look for an area where you might initiate a pilot project that can be instigated immediately. Your project can serve to expose partners to new ways of operating (internal) or have them envisage new approaches to viewing their marketplace (external). A successful pilot can set your overall plan in motion, energise people and yield some quick improvements. count

Exploit early successes

Equipped with a clear picture of your most important priority, you can create detailed plans for how you might secure and exploit quick successes. Early wins are all about credibility and confidence.

Identify something that would not have happened had it not been for your burning imperative. People have enormous faith in leaders who are able to deliver even the smallest success. The brutal truth about executing on your priority is that it will always take more time than you think and it will usually take more resources than you expect.

For a new managing partner to publicly honour and call attention to significant milestones focuses the firm on priorities. In the early weeks, call attention to small successes that align with what you identified as your one burning issue. You need to be on the lookout for reasons to celebrate winning events.

Errors to avoid

. Do not create unrealistic expectations about what you can manage to accomplish within a specified timeframe.

. Do not appear to be openly critical of the previous regime in terms of its lead-ership or strategy.

. Do not become overwhelmed by the common feeling experienced by all new leaders – that you have to have all of the answers.

Fortunately, the first 100 days is more a term of art than a time of reckoning. Most managing partners report that their performance is only really evaluated after their first full year in office.

That said, you should think about what you need to do in three distinct phases: get well connected with the views of your peers before the official handover; build your personal credibility within the first 30 days; and then focus your energy on achieving small successes towards the realisation of your one burning imperative in the following 60 days.

Look at this as a distinct time when your firm has a tolerance for change and you have a unique opportunity to imprint your legacy. |

Patrick McKenna is a principal in Edge International.