The first 90 days sets the operating pattern.

The authority question wasn't settled when you got the job

It's being settled right now. And nobody is going to tell you that's what's happening.

From the first weeks there's a question being answered without you in the room. Who actually runs this place. Which decisions wait for you and which ones get resolved elsewhere. Whether the leadership team falls in behind you or tests the edges. Whether the board gives you room or adds scrutiny.

It's not a dramatic power struggle. It happens in small moments rather than big ones. A decision that gets made without you. A conversation that should have come through you that didn't. A question in a board meeting that tells you more about how they see you than anything in the numbers. None of this gets discussed. It gets observed, interpreted and then it becomes habit. Once those habits form they are very hard to shift.

The conversation in the car park

After most private equity deals close there is a conversation that happens. Not in the meeting. In the car park afterwards. Over dinner. On the phone that evening. It is about you as the new CEO.

Six months in, that conversation sounds different: "The numbers are fine. But something isn't landing." What they mean is the board is doing work they shouldn't have to do. Filling gaps. Asking questions that should already have answers.

Nobody says it to your face. It hardens into a view long before anyone picks up the phone to you. Most transitions are decided in the first 90 days. Not because the CEO lacked the talent. Because the pattern set early and nobody caught it in time.

Authentic leadership is good advice. Just not on day one.

I came into my first CEO role with everything I needed to make it work. The experience, the plan, the conviction. What I didn't have was the foundation to carry it. The board didn't know how I thought yet. The investors hadn't seen enough to feel comfortable. My leadership team had no real reason to trust my judgement.

So when I started moving, there was nothing to hold the weight. Authenticity without context reads as volatility. In a PE-backed environment that is a very short runway to a very difficult conversation. Be yourself, but be deliberate about when you unleash it.

Authority gaps don't stay empty for long

Early in that role the PE backers introduced an operating partner to support the business. Two days a month became a day a week. If a PE firm perceives a gap they will move to fill it. Not because they don't trust you. Because that's their job. I see this pattern most often in the first six to nine months. Read the full story.

Three moves for the first quarter

1. Establish authority early. Before it is tested. The room needs to know how you decide, what you will own, and what you will not carry.
2. Make decisions earlier. The calendar tells you when a decision is due. The pattern is set by the ones you make before it asks.
3. Let execution compound. Authority early, decisions earlier, and delivery starts to build on itself instead of resetting each quarter.