The Five Conversations Every New ExCo/C‑Suite Leader Must Have in Their First 90 Days
Stepping into an ExCo or C‑suite role is one of the most demanding transitions in any career. The spotlight is immediate, the expectations are unforgiving, and the clock starts ticking the moment you sign your contract.
Michael Watkins, in The First 90 Days, calls this period “a crucible for leadership.” European search and leadership advisory firms (such as Egon Zehnder, Russell Reynolds and UK‑based Horton International) make similar points in their guidance to boards: how a leader manages their first three months heavily influences long‑term performance, culture, and retention.
The most successful new executives don’t start with decisions; they start with dialogue. They know that assumptions are dangerous, that informal power often matters more than formal structure, and that trust is their primary early currency.
Across academic research, FTSE/Euro Stoxx leadership case studies, and commentary from senior executives on platforms like LinkedIn and X (Twitter), five foundational conversations consistently emerge. I spend a lot of time with my coaches going through these questions and the themes they raise as they are absolutely crucial to getting newly-hired/promoted executives off to a flying start.
1. The Alignment Conversation with the CEO and Board/Chair: “What Does Success Really Look Like?”
Role ambiguity is a major driver of early derailment. Work by the Centre for Creative Leadership and IMD in Lausanne highlights that unclear expectations from the CEO and board are common features of failed executive appointments.
In the UK, the Financial Reporting Council’s UK Corporate Governance Code places strong emphasis on clear division of responsibilities and board‑level clarity, yet many executives still report that their personal mandate is vague in practice.
Consider recent UK CEO transitions: when Alison Rose became CEO of NatWest Group, she has spoken in interviews about the importance of getting “absolute clarity on priorities” from the board; balancing commercial performance with a continuing transformation and reputational repair mandate. Conversely, some high‑profile European leadership failures in banks and utilities have later been traced, in part, to mismatched expectations between the board and the new leader about the real pace and scale of change required.
You need a structured, explicit alignment conversation with your CEO/board/Chair and these are the questions to explore:
· “If we’re having this conversation in 18–24 months and you’re delighted with my impact, what will have changed?”
· “What are the two or three non‑negotiable outcomes I must deliver?
· “Where do I have full decision rights, and where do I need to consult or seek approval?”
· “How much disruption are you genuinely prepared to tolerate in the first year?”
Follow up with a short, written summary of your understanding if your mandate and success criteria. In both UK and EU boardrooms, this type of disciplined alignment is increasingly seen as best practice—and it gives you a reference point if expectations drift.
2. The Strategy Reality Check with Peers: “What’s Really Working, What Isn’t, and What’s Unsayable?”
European organisations are often complex: multi‑country, multi‑regulatory, with deep legacy systems and brands. Coming in with a “playbook” from a previous employer, especially if it’s a US‑centric model and trying to apply it wholesale is risky.
European leadership research from INSEAD and London Business School stresses that new executives must quickly distinguish between:
· The official strategy (as presented to the market and regulators)
· The “lived strategy” (what actually gets resourced and delivered in Birmingham, Berlin, Barcelona, or Bratislava).
Many executives on LinkedIn describe the importance of a frank, early “reality check” with peers. For example, when Emma Walmsley took over as CEO of GSK, one of the UK’s most scrutinised leadership transitions of recent years, commentary from insiders stressed how quickly she had to understand where the portfolio strategy was working, where it wasn’t, and how the internal consensus masked deep differences of opinion about the future of the pharmaceuticals versus consumer health businesses.
Your conversations with ExCo colleagues should aim to close gaps like these:
· “What parts of our stated strategy are genuinely working on the ground?”
· “Where do you see a persistent gap between our ambition and our capabilities?”
· “If you had to describe our real strategy—not the one in the slide decks—in a few sentences, what would you say?”
In industrials and financial services, where regulatory and political stakeholders exert strong influence, it is also worth asking:
· “Which external stakeholders most constrain our strategic options right now?”
· “Where have we been most conservative in the past, and is that still justified?”
Remember, you are trying to understand both the implicit trade‑offs and the unspoken taboos that will shape what is realistically possible in your first 12–18 months.
3. The Trust‑Building Conversation with Your Direct Team: “Who Are You, What Do You Need, and How Will We Win Together?”
Gallup’s engagement research and UK surveys such as the CIPD’s Good Work Index continue to point to the same pattern: relationship with the immediate manager is the single strongest driver of engagement and discretionary effort.
In UK and European contexts, with more collaborative management norms and, in many sectors, higher expectations of consultation, the way you start with your direct team is especially important. New leaders who arrive with a directive, top‑down style frequently run into quiet resistance.
Several examples show this clearly. Several high‑profile CEO and ExCo appointments in the UK, France, Germany and the Nordics over the past decade have shared a similar story: leaders who invested heavily in early listening with their top teams, and in some cases reshaped those teams within 6–12 months based on evidence rather than first impressions, achieved significantly faster strategic progress. Design a structured series of informal 1:1s in your first 45 days:
· “Tell me your story here—what are you proudest of having built or fixed?”
· “What conditions bring out your best work?”
· “Where is this team at its best, and where does it routinely get stuck?”
· “What do you need from me that you haven’t had from previous leaders?”
Then bring the team together. Many successful UK and European leaders use an early offsite (even if it’s a one‑day working session close to home rather than a resort in the Alps) to:
· Co‑create or refine team purpose and key outcomes.
· Agree decision rights and escalation routes across geographies.
· Set communication rhythms that work across time zones and cultures (for example, London–Warsaw–Milan–Dublin).
· Have some fun.
As one FTSE 250 COO commented in a LinkedIn post reflecting on his first 90 days: “The best thing I did was to stop trying to impress my team and instead learn how they actually got things done in Frankfurt, Manchester and Madrid. Once they felt heard, we could move very fast.”
Harvard’s Amy Edmondson and research from European schools such as ESADE and HEC Paris reinforce this: psychological safety correlates strongly with innovation, safety, and reliability; critical across regulated and high‑tech European sectors.
4. The Culture and Stakeholder Mapping Conversation: “Who Really Matters, and What Do They Care About?”
In Europe, stakeholder complexity is often higher than in other regions: local regulators, works councils, sectoral unions, NGOs, consumer groups and, post‑Brexit, different UK and EU regulatory regimes.
John Kotter’s research on change leadership, and recent European corporate governance reports, warn that executives who focus only on the formal hierarchy miss where power actually resides. You need to map:
· Internal stakeholders: Chair, board, CEO, ExCo peers, influential country MDs, group functions (Risk, Compliance, HR), works councils/unions, staff networks.
· External stakeholders: Regulators such as the FCA, PRA, Ofgem or Ofcom in the UK; key institutional investors; major customers; strategic partners; and, in some sectors, government departments and EU institutions.
In a UK utilities or financial‑services context, for example, your first 90 days may require early meetings with regulators and major investors to understand their expectations and risk appetite. The tone you set there can materially affect your strategic degrees of freedom.
Informal influence is equally important. In many long‑established businesses, employees with 20–30 years’ tenure, local works council members, and unofficial “elders” in functions like Engineering or Operations hold huge sway. Ask trusted insiders:
· “Who are the three or four people, regardless of title, that everyone listens to?”
· “Who reliably blocks change, and what do they care about?”
· “Who are the quiet enablers I should know?”
Edgar Schein’s culture framework is useful here. Look at:
· Artifacts: How people dress and interact in Manchester versus Milan; how offices are laid out; what is celebrated on internal social channels.
· Espoused values: What leaders say about purpose and values in town halls, on intranet, on LinkedIn or Glassdoor.
· Underlying assumptions: What people believe about risk, hierarchy, time horizons, and conflict.
One European tech CEO wrote on Twitter/X about his first months in role: “I stopped asking ‘What’s our culture?’ and instead asked ‘What do people here believe will get them promoted or fired?’ The answers were eye‑opening.”
5. The Personal Contract Conversation with Yourself (and ideally a Coach): “Who Do I Need to Be in This Role?”
By the time you reach an ExCo/C-Suite role, the question is not whether you can do the job technically. It’s whether you can adapt who you are as a leader to the unique demands of this organisation, geography, and moment.
European business schools such as INSEAD (with its work on identity transitions), London Business School, and Oxford Saïd highlight that senior leaders in transition often experience a period of “identity disorientation”: what brought you success as a UK country CEO, for example, may not work in a pan‑European Group role.
The fifth conversation is with yourself and, ideally, with a skilled coach who understands the European corporate and regulatory environment.
Reflect on:
· “What do I want my leadership legacy to be in this role, in this company, in this region?”
· “Which strengths got me here, but might become liabilities if over‑used?”
· “How will I maintain perspective and resilience when operating across multiple jurisdictions and time zones?”
Leadership books such as Herminia Ibarra’s Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader and Manfred Kets de Vries’ work on leadership archetypes often highlight the same truth: the most effective senior leaders are those who are willing to experiment with their identity and behaviours early in a new role, while staying anchored in their core values.
Working this through with an experienced 1:1 coach, who can challenge, support, and contextualise your choices, can significantly reduce the “trial and error” period that many executives suffer through in silence and which robs them of that all important early impact.
How Antony Harvey Executive Supports ExCo/C‑Suite Leaders in their new role
For many senior leaders in the UK and Europe, the hardest part of a new ExCo or C‑suite role is that you are expected to have answers while you are still learning the questions across multiple geographies, regulatory regimes and cultures.
Colleagues can support you, but they are also part of the system you are trying to understand and, in some cases, challenge. You need a confidential, experienced partner who understands both the technical and the political realities of senior leadership and brings an important element of independence.
Antony Harvey Executive Limited works with executives who are stepping into high‑stakes roles: Group and Divisional CEOs, CFOs, CHROs, COOs and other ExCo/C-Suite as well as Chairs and board members. We understand the reality from all angles and can bring multiple perspectives to a conversation.
Through tailored 1:1 coaching, we help new leaders:
· Clarify their mandate in a UK/European governance context. Turn broad expectations from the CEO, board and (where relevant) regulators or works councils into a concrete, aligned 90‑day and 12‑month agenda.
· Decode complex organisational and stakeholder landscapes. Navigate HQ–country dynamics, functional versus regional power structures, and the nuances of working with UK and EU regulators, unions, investors and media. In many cases we have relationships with regulators developed through our executive search experience and can provide some unique insight on developing your own relationships with them.
· Accelerate trust with teams and peers across borders. Design and rehearse the critical conversations with your direct team, ExCo/C-Suite colleagues and key influencers in London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and beyond striking the right balance of authority, humility and cultural sensitivity.
· Strengthen leadership presence and resilience. Work on how you show up in boardrooms, on calls, all‑hands meetings and union or regulator discussions, while protecting your energy and maintaining perspective.
· Build a personal leadership roadmap that fits your context. Align your values, strengths and ambitions with the specific strategic and cultural demands of your organisation and market(s), so you can lead with clarity and authenticity from day one.
Our meetings are always pragmatic and outcome‑focused. Sessions are scheduled around your reality.
If you are stepping into a new ExCo/C‑suite position or preparing for one the first 90 days will shape your credibility and long‑term impact. The five conversations outlined above provide a robust framework; 1:1 coaching with Antony Harvey Executive Limited ensures you navigate them with clarity, courage and a deep understanding of what you are looking to achieve.