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A 30-60-90 day plan for new managers, with a template

A 30-60-90 day plan for a new manager splits your first three months into three jobs: days 1–30 to learn (your boss's expectations, each person on the team, how the work really runs), days 31–60 to fix a few things and set your rhythm, and days 61–90 to own the team's results and agree the next six months. Write it on one page, agree it with your manager in the first week, and check it at day 30, 60 and 90.

Below: what goes in each phase, a filled-in example for a manager of seven people, a blank template to copy, how to set goals you can actually measure, what to say when you share it, and what to do when the plan slips. If you're still in your first few days, start with your first week as a new manager, then come back here.

What a 30-60-90 day plan is for

It's a short written plan for your first three months in the role. It does three things:

1. It gets you and your boss agreeing on what "doing well" means before anyone has an opinion about you.
2. It stops you changing things too early. Michael Watkins, in The First 90 Days, describes new leaders who act before they understand as one of the most common ways a transition goes wrong. A plan that says "learn first" protects you from yourself.
3. It gives you a record. At day 90, you can show what you did, not just say it.

It's not a strategy document. Most first-time managers lead 3–12 people and inherit goals someone else set. Your plan is about how you'll take over that team well, not about rewriting the company's direction.

Many companies ask a new manager to draft one during onboarding, or ask for one in the final interview. Either way, the shape below works.

The three phases at a glance

Before you write it: one meeting with your boss

A plan written alone is a guess. Before you fill anything in, get 45 minutes with your manager and ask:

• "What would make you say, in three months, that I'm doing well?"
• "What's the one thing you most want fixed on this team?"
• "What should I leave alone, even if it looks odd to me?"
• "Is there anything going on with a person on the team I should know?"
• "How do you want me to keep you posted: a weekly note, a weekly meeting, only when something's wrong?"
• "What decisions can I make on my own, and which do you want to hear about first?"

Write down their exact words for the first two. Those words become the goals in your plan, which means your boss is agreeing with their own priorities when they read it.

Days 1–30: learn

The point of month one is to understand enough to be right later. Your actions:

People

• A first one-on-one with each person in the first two weeks. Ask what's going well, what's frustrating, what they'd change if they were you, and how they like to get feedback. Our guide to running an effective 1 on 1 has a 30-minute shape and the words to start.
• Then set recurring 1:1s. Weekly or every two weeks, 30 minutes, the same time each week.
• One short first team meeting in week one: who you are, that you'll listen before changing anything, and when the regular meetings will happen.
• Meet the people around your team: the managers your team depends on, the people who depend on your team, and anyone in HR or finance you'll need.

Work

• Learn the team's goals and how they're measured. If there are numbers (tickets closed, patients seen, sales, release dates), find out where they're reported and what they were last quarter.
• Sit in on the work itself: shadow a shift, read the last month of tickets, join a customer call.
• Keep a running list called "things I've noticed." Don't act on it yet.

Yourself

• Learn the manager parts of the job you may not have done: approving time off, the review cycle, how hiring works, what goes to HR.
• Find one experienced manager outside your team you can ask "is this normal?"

Day 30 check: write five lines: what the team does well, its three biggest problems, what each person wants, the two fixes you'd make first, and the one thing you still don't understand. Share it with your boss.

Days 31–60: fix a few things and set your rhythm

By now you know enough to make small changes without breaking things that worked.

• Two or three small, visible fixes. Pick ones people raised in their 1:1s, that you can finish in a few weeks, and that don't need anyone else's approval. A broken handoff, a meeting nobody needs, a missing checklist. When each is done, say so in the team meeting: "Three of you mentioned the Monday handover. We've changed it to a written note. Tell me in two weeks if it's better."
• Set the team's rhythm. A weekly team meeting with a fixed agenda (our team meeting agenda template has one) and 1:1s that actually happen. Protect both: cancelling them is the fastest way to tell people they don't matter.
• Make expectations clear for each person. In a 1:1, write down together what good work looks like in their role over the next quarter.
• Give your first real feedback, positive and corrective, close to the moment. Start with praise that names the exact thing done well, so the first correction isn't the first feedback they've had from you.
• Ask the team for feedback on you. "What's one thing I should do more of, and one thing I should stop?" Then act on one of them and say you did.

Day 60 check: are the fixes done? Are 1:1s happening on schedule? Has anything you planned turned out to be wrong? Update the plan and send your boss the changes.

Days 61–90: own the results

• Take full ownership of the team's numbers. Report them to your boss yourself, with what's behind them.
• Deal with the problem you've been watching. Most new managers have one by now: someone who isn't meeting the bar, a conflict between two people, a habit that keeps causing mistakes. Plan the conversation and have it. Our guides on difficult conversations with employees and managing an underperforming employee have the words.
• Agree goals for the next six months with your boss, built from your day-30 list and what you've learned since.
• Start one development step for each person. A stretch task, a course, a chance to lead a meeting.
• Review the 90 days with your boss. What you set out to do, what happened, what you'd do differently.

Want words like these ready every morning? Take the 2-minute quiz and get a 10-minute lesson and one script a day, for each week of your first 90 days.

A filled-in example: a new manager of seven

Here's a plan for a made-up but typical case: a support specialist promoted to lead the seven-person support team she was part of. Her boss said, in their first meeting, "I want response times back under a day, and I want the team to stop losing people."

The numbers in the example are hers to set, not benchmarks. Yours come from your team's own last quarter.

A blank 30-60-90 day plan template

Copy this into a document. Keep it to one page; if it runs longer, you've planned too much.

How to write goals you can check

Most templates say "set SMART goals" and stop. In practice, a good goal in a new manager's plan has three parts: what changes, how you'll see it, and by when.

Not everything good can be counted. That's fine: "the team says the handover is better" is a real result if you asked them.

How to share the plan: what to say

With your boss, in week one or two: "Here's how I'm planning my first three months. The goals at the top are what you told me matters. Can you tell me what's missing, and what you'd cut?" Then book the day-30, day-60 and day-90 check-ins now, while calendars are open.

With your team, share the shape, not the whole document: "For the first month I'm mostly going to listen. I'll meet each of you one-on-one. Around the second month I'll make a couple of small changes based on what you tell me, and I'll tell you what they are before they happen." Don't share your notes about individual people or the risks column.

In an interview, if they ask for a plan: keep it to the three phases and two or three actions each, and say plainly that the details would change once you'd met the team. Interviewers are usually checking that you'll listen before you change things.

If you were promoted from inside the team

A manager promoted from within knows the work already, so days 1–30 can move faster on the work and should slow down on the people. Your former peers need to hear how things will change between you. Add to month one:

• A 1:1 with each former peer that names the change: "This is a bit strange for both of us. I'd like to keep working well together. What would make this easier for you?"
• A private talk with anyone who applied for the job.
• A decision about what you'll stop doing (the after-work complaining, sharing gossip, doing their tickets for them).

Our guide to managing former peers has the words for each of these and a 30-day plan for that side of the job.

When the plan slips

It will. What matters is noticing early and saying so.

• You're behind on 1:1s. Book the missing ones before anything else. A plan that slips on people is worse than one that slips on projects.
• A fix turned out bigger than you thought. Say so at the next check-in, with what it needs: "The handover fix needs a change to the tool, which IT owns. I've asked; their date is the 20th."
• A crisis took over month two. Handle it, then re-plan. Write the new dates and send them to your boss the same week.
• Your boss's priorities changed. Rewrite the goals at the top in their new words and check the rest still fits.
• You learned your first idea was wrong. That's the plan working. Cross it out and note why.

What not to do: quietly drop the plan and hope nobody asks. Your boss will remember you had one.

Mistakes new managers make in their first 90 days

• Changing things in week two to show you're in charge.
• Doing your old job because it's comfortable, and leaving the manager work undone.
• Skipping 1:1s when it gets busy.
• Putting off the first corrective conversation until it's a much bigger one.
• Writing the plan alone and never showing it to your boss.
• Planning twenty things. Three goals a phase is plenty.

For the habits that sit under all of this, see our first time manager tips.

Questions about 30-60-90 day plans

What should a new manager do in the first 90 days?

Learn for the first month (your boss's expectations, each person, the work), fix a few small things and set a steady meeting rhythm in the second, and take full ownership of results and the hard conversations in the third. Agree the plan with your manager and check it every 30 days.

How long should a 30-60-90 day plan be?

One page. Two or three goals per phase, each with how you'll know it's done.

Should I write my plan before I start?

Write a draft, then rewrite it after your first meeting with your boss. The draft will be wrong in places; that's normal.

Do I have to share it with my team?

Share the shape (listen first, small changes in month two) so they know what to expect. Keep notes about people and risks private.

What if my company doesn't ask for one?

Write one anyway and show your boss. It's the simplest way to make sure you're both judging your first three months by the same things.

What's the difference between a 30-60-90 day plan and an onboarding plan?

Onboarding is what the company gives you: accounts, training, policies. The 30-60-90 day plan is what you'll do with the team. You need both.

Not sure which part of the first 90 days you'll find hardest? The free leadership style quiz names your style and the talks it tends to put off. More plans and scripts are in all our guides for new managers.

Sources

• Michael D. Watkins, The First 90 Days, Harvard Business Review Press, 2003 (updated 2013).