← Patterns

Succeed Quickly in a New Role

Pattern · career

CategoryCareer / Transition
OriginRob Cross et al., HBR (Nov 2021)
Surfaced in OSMar 8, 2026

Core Concept

The most productive, innovative, and engaged people in new roles — the “fast movers” — succeed not through domain expertise or hustle, but through establishing extremely broad, mutually beneficial connections from the start. After analyzing employee relationships across 100+ companies and interviewing 160 executives, the research identified five practices of successful transitioners:

1. Surge Rapidly Into a Broad Network

Cast a wide net early. Ask lots of questions. Discover boundary-spanning, innovative people across the organization. Don’t limit to obvious stakeholders.

2. Generate Pull

Understand, energize, and adjust to new connections. Fast movers co-create joint narratives of success rather than presenting their own story. “Show, don’t tell” — resist the temptation to oversell yourself. Before sharing experience, ask: “Will this help the person I’m talking to, or just cast me in a better light?“

3. Identify Value, Gaps, and Gap-Fillers

Figure out where you add value, where you fall short, and which people in the broad network can fill those gaps.

4. Create Scale

Use the network to engage other key opinion leaders and expand influence beyond direct relationships.

5. Shape Networks for Thriving

Don’t let network breadth undermine relationship quality. Prioritize physical and mental health. Find role models who demonstrate work/life balance. Find people who energize and adapt to you, creating mutual wins.

The Non-Obvious Contacts

Fast movers connect with people others overlook:

Why It Matters

This is the playbook for the first 90 days of any new senior role. The key insight is that network-building IS the work, not a distraction from it. A 90-day plan with 1:1s scheduled is necessary but not sufficient — this framework adds:

  1. Go beyond the obvious. Don’t just meet your direct reports and bosses. Meet the deputies, the support roles, the peers.
  2. Generate pull, don’t push. As the new senior leader walking into an established team, the temptation to prove yourself will be strong. Resist it. Ask questions. Show modesty.
  3. Co-create narratives. Don’t arrive with “here’s my vision.” Arrive with “let’s figure out together what success looks like.”
  4. Health matters. Transition stress is real. Don’t let networking overwhelm everything else.

Cross-References