Your Next Move

by Michael D. Watkins

After three months in a new job, are you up to speed? Will you sink … or swim? Transitions into new roles are the crucibles in which leaders get their toughest tests, and they're the defining factor in professional careers today.

Yet far too often, leaders fail to move effectively into new roles. The resulting costs are high, for your career and the organization.

In Your Next Move, Michael Watkins shows how you can survive and thrive in all the major transitions you will face during your career, including promotion, joining a new organization and making an international move. With real-life examples and case studies, he illustrates the defining hurdles associated with each type of transition.

He then provides the insights, strategies, and tools-including relationship reengineering, business systems analysis, and "organizational immunology"-you'll need to accelerate through these crucial turning points and continue moving up in your career.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Management, Nonfiction, Self Help, Professional Development

220 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 2 out of 5]

I brought this book because there is a certain kind of uncertainty in my current company. The title seemed to talk to me: what will I do if I lose my job?

What will I do? What is my next move?

Then while reading, I realized that I got the wrong book. This one assumes that you are already in your new environment: new job, new promotion, new company, international posting, etc. It is not about losing your job and a guidebook on how to either find another job or start your own business or whatever.

However, it is still okay. The book talks a lot of sense on how to adapt yourself in those new environments. It gives sound advises on management, leadership, organizational alignment, persuasion and influence and what-have-you. I breezed through my reading as many of those don't seem to apply to me. Had I read this 5-10 years ago, those would have been more interesting if not useful.

I should find another book.

[Valentina McAuliffe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Something I picked up when I was deciding between jobs. Thought it’d inspire me and kick in some motivation into my ambitious yet burnt out soul. And eh, this book is just OK. Nothing in here you can actually, actually use. Tried to be really into it, ended up truly reading only one of the sections and skimming though it. Felt like a cheap concoction of HBR cases. Do not recommend.

[Patrick Neylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusually for a 21st Century business book, this isn't littered with jargon or mystical mumblings (although it's not entirely free of it: almost every action is "leveraging"). But it doesn't sink to the ridiculous depths of Clever or The Idea Hunter. It uses plausible examples to show the challenges facing executives undertaking their next step up and offers practical, generally sensible advice on how to tackle those problems.

Despite what the title might suggest, it isn't a handbook on how to secure your next job. It assumes you've got that job, either through promotion or switching companies, and details the pitfalls that await and explains why your talents might not be enough to guarantee success. The advice is sensible, and it doesn't pretend that it will transform you from an ambitious mediocrity into a master of the business universe.

[Abhinav Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In 'Your Next Move,' Michael D. Watkins provides a strategic roadmap for navigating career transitions. Watkins' insights are not only practical but also empowering, making this book a valuable guide for anyone seeking to make impactful career moves. The blend of actionable advice and real-world examples creates a compelling resource that equips readers with the tools to thrive in their professional journeys. A must-read for those ready to strategically shape their career paths!"

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've already read Watkins' The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, you can safely skip this one without losing any salient content.

[Brendan Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had thought it was a career development book, fast read, more of a sequel to Watkins' The First 90 Days. Definite food for thought and worth a skim, or diving into specific chapters.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had a lot of repeats from the first 90-days but it still had some good reference material for specific situations of transition.

[Michael Wolcott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Preferred his other book (First 90 Days) more to this. It was a little more specific to business cases and not necessarily as applicable to other arenas. Got a few tips above the other book but not much.

[Prana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es importante no confundir este libro de Manejo de Transiciones con un libro para gente que está en búsqueda de cambio laboral que es otro tipo de siguiente movimiento. Este libro aporta a quien está ya inmerso en una organización y está prácticamente por dar el siguiente paso a un reto de transición que el autor clasifica en el modelo STARS, acrónimo de los tipos de cambios organizacionales que conforman "el siguiente movimiento" de un ejecutivo. Aclarado ese punto para evitar que alguna expectativa de alguien que esté en busca de empleo sea frustrada, puedo comentar desde mi rol de consultor de empresas que este libro contiene una cantidad notable de valiosa información, formatos y guía que serán de gran valor para el profesionista que esté en cualquiera de estas transiciones, ya que demuestra un enorme nivel de experiencia real del autor. Comparativamente con muchos libros empresariales que apenas se sostienen con un solo concepto y que giran en él de manera retórica para lograr alcanzar las suficientes páginas para llamarse "libros", cuando en realidad debieran ser apenas artículos de una revista. Este libro por el contrario tiene que conservarse en el librero como texto de consulta ya que la cantidad de problemas que aborda y las posibles aproximaciones de solución son tan vastas, que no se pueden memorizar con una sola lectura. Este libro lo leí con calma y buscando sumarlo a mi propio acervo de experiencias para que con ello logre incorporar su lógica, pero sé que al aplicarlo deberé regresar a él para los detalles. En general, es un libro que no recomiendo a quien no se dedique a ver problemáticas de empresa o a coachear a directivos y ejecutivos que se dediquen a esto, porque no le encontrarán el sabor. Yo la verdad es que si lo disfruté porque es muy satisfactorio tener una consulta específica y encontrar la respuesta que casa con tu necesidad. Pienso que leeré más libros de este autor, que si son así de fundamentados, me parece que cumplen con la búsqueda de guía experta en retos tan complejos.

[Jeff Lampson]

This is excellent material. I am working through it again and each read harvests deeper insights and practices.

Michael Watkins' sequal to "The First 90 Days". In this one, he brings practical insights and practices as he applies his STARS model to a broader variety of executive transitions including: promotions, leading former peers, international assignments and assignments where broad and significant influence without direct authority is required.

It provides excellent insights to experienced executive transitions for when the stakes are high.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Watkins wrote a very good book called The First 90 Days, and this is a follow up volume about how to handle career transitions. Unfortunately, the advice here rarely rises above the commonsensical. There are a few useful checklists of what not to forget when you start a new job, but beyond that little new ground is broken here.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

*audio book
This book provided case studies and relevant studies highlighting seven types of transitions a leader will be required to make in their corporate career. While the tone and style is not as engaging as other books (at times even didactic), overall the information provided is useful.

[Suresh Sankaran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very useful book to understand different types of scenarios (STARS) that one can expect during a career change through promotions, change in responsibility, new organization, new geography etc.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written for high level executives. Even so, it has useful cautions for being promoted over people who formerly were your peers, adjusting to a new level in the organization, adjusting to a foreign assignment, etc..

[Vidya · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has a great narrative style. The book resonates well with the realtime scenarios that one may encounter in corporate world. Practically compiled well, summarizing a phased approach one can take to deal with/prepare for such scenarios in one's career. Amazing read!

[V · Rating 1 out of 5]

A promotion related office policy book

[Heather]

Awful. Couldn't get through it.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, very helpful!

[Carmen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring and simplistic. The book covers a few common management transitions including promotions, onboarding, and moving to a new country.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be read with "the first 90 days"

[Mariangellys Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similarly to The First 90 Days, it focuses on upper management transitions. Yet, the Checklists at the end of each chapter provides broad questions which are useful at any level.

[Tim Brady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read from unemployment and when considering new offers and next steps in my career. Still highly recommended for career transitions.

[Lori Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read book on career management.