Be Like Water: Leadership Lessons for Your First 90 Days in a New Role
About this episode
Kevin Pannell discusses effective leadership strategies for new managers, emphasizing observation and trust over immediate changes.
What should you do during your first days as a leader? Many new managers and executives feel pressure to prove themselves by introducing new processes, reorganizing teams, or making immediate changes. But what if the best first move is something different? Inspired by Bruce Lee's famous advice to "be like water," Kevin Pannell explores why effective leadership begins with observation, curiosity, and trust before transformation. Drawing on lessons from the U.S. Navy, emergency management, healthcare IT, and years spent leading Project Management Offices, Kevin shares how experienced leaders can balance confidence with humility as they step into a new organization. In this episode, you'll learn: Why experience should help you ask better questions before providing better answers. How to avoid solving the wrong problem during your first 90 days. Why every process has a story worth understanding. A practical leadership framework: Observe. Orient. Optimize. How People. Process. Progress. creates sustainable organizational change. Whether you're a PMO leader, project manager, executive, supervisor, entrepreneur, or simply beginning a new chapter in your career, this episode offers…
People in this episode
Host: Kevin Pannell
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: U.S. Navy, healthcare IT, Project Management Offices
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