Library
What we would hand
a new leader.
A short shelf, not a bookstore. These are the books, courses and habits we actually recommend when someone starts a consequential new role. Third-party titles are referenced as recommendations, not as products of ours.
A note on links: this page currently lists resources without referral or affiliate links. If we ever add purchase links, they will be disclosed here plainly.
Books on transitions
The First 90 Days
Michael Watkins. The standard text on role transitions, with the strongest treatment of the learning-first opening and the early-win trap. Read it before day one, not after your first mistake.
The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan
George Bradt, Jayme Check and Jorge Pedraza. More operational than Watkins: checklists and stakeholder mechanics, useful if you like your advice in worksheet form.
Crucial Conversations
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny and colleagues. Not a transitions book, but every first hundred days turns on a few conversations you would rather avoid. This is the best toolkit for them.
Courses and structured programmes
Business schools run executive education on leadership transitions and onboarding, and their open programmes are easy to find by searching any major school's exec-ed catalogue. What we would check before paying: whether the faculty have actually operated in the roles they teach about, and whether the cohort includes peers from organisations like yours. A transition course is mostly worth it for the people you meet.
For managers rather than executives, most credible training providers run a new-manager curriculum. The good ones spend more time on one-to-ones and feedback than on strategy, which is the correct emphasis for the first hundred days of managing people.
Coaching
A transition coach is worth the money in exactly one case: when you have nobody around you who will say an inconvenient thing to your face. Look for a credential from a body like the International Coaching Federation, real operating experience in roles like yours, and a clear agreement that the first months focus on listening and priorities rather than personal inventory. Skip coaches who lead with a personality test.
For church leaders
Most denominations and regional associations publish their own transition guides, and several run formal interim-ministry training. Start with your denominational body's regional office; they will know your tradition's expectations, and often a retired pastor who has walked a hundred congregations through a first year. The general framework on this site holds for church contexts, with the visit-first emphasis in the pastor's plan.
Start here
If you only read one page on this site, make it the 100 day plan guide. If you are hiring rather than being hired, the onboarding checklist is your page, and the role guides for CEOs and managers are there for you or for the leaders you are bringing in.
Template pack
The same pack we mention across this site: one-page 100 day plan, phase checklists and a stakeholder map worksheet. Available on request: email contact@northlux.net with the subject line "100 day plan template pack". No mailing list, no follow-up emails.