The first 60 days: a downloadable template and guide

Once you have planned your first 30 days and successfully made it through the first month in your new role, it is time to re-evaluate your plan and strive to add real value to the business through securing early wins.

You should now know your key contacts in your team, understand your place in the team and have a good understanding of the impact your role has in the business – so what now?

Moving into your second month, it is key you start making solid plans to implement changes for early wins.

To plan for success, here is our guide to setting yourself up in the first 60 days.

The first 60 days plan

Step 1. Check in with your manager

Now you’ve settled into the office and are familiar with your day-to-day responsibilities, if it hasn’t already come up, be sure to discuss your plan for the first three months with your manager. During this discussion, together you should agree on what steps you need to take to put your plan into action.

Step 2. Establish your priorities

In your first month, you discussed business priorities and how your role fits into the team. You should now have a much better idea of how your position influences the team and how you can impact the wider organisation. Revisit your initial list of business priorities and update where you have more information.

Step 3. Plan the actions you need to take

It is important to identify any key stakeholders who may fall outside your direct team or business function that will be fundamental to the success of your role. Once you have identified these key people be sure to set up meetings with them to better understand their role and how you should be working together to achieve your goals.

Once you have decided what your next steps are in terms of your three-month plan, create a strategy for how you are going to achieve this. This is also a time where you can start to identify other areas you could put your experience and skills to good use. Be sure to take note of any wider areas of the business where you can make positive changes to support company objectives, your manager or the wider team.

Step 4. Determine your deliverables

These may or may not have changed since your initial 30-day plan. If you have new deliverables as a result of your most recent conversation with your manager, be sure to update your plan. Based on these new deliverables make necessary updates to your 30-day plan to help plan for the month ahead.

Step 5. Identify your development needs

Once you have a firm understanding of the marketplace, the customer, products and services and the key systems and processes you need to utilise, consider finding yourself a mentor. This is another discussion you might like to have with your manager. If you have identified someone in the business who might be a good fit suggest this person in your catch up, if you’re unsure ask for suggestions or whether they would be able to help you. Once you have determined who is best placed to help guide you in your role reach out to them and make arrangements for either a formal or informal mentoring programme.

In addition to this, keep assessing the skills and knowledge required for your role and if you identify any gaps add them to your personal development plan. Any achievements you have in your role should be tracked to support any management decisions.

See below for an example of our 60 days plan template and a blank copy for you to plan for success in your new role.