布拉特提出过“影子指标”这一概念，指的是影响事情走向的关键隐性措施。因此，在与新公司的同事沟通时要着重留意以下问题：“取得成功的关键措施是什么？如何追踪效果？如何才能采用这些措施？”

    3、精心准备要传达的信息。你认为是自己对于业务发展目标的论述最终为你赢得了这个职位；那么在就职后，你打算怎样把这些观点有效地传达给人们？布拉特说：“做好担任领导者的准备工作，包括仔细考虑你希望传达的信息，并精确到细节。比如你会把办公室布置成随意的开放式空间，还是更为正式的风格。”人们会密切关注、讨论你的一言一行。他还说：“你的一切言行都会传递信息，而你所传达的信息并不一定如你所愿，因此请谨慎行事。”

    4、开始制定百天行动方案。布拉特表示，正式就职前收集的信息“要能帮你熟悉环境，并把你期望或者必须在第一天、第一周和头三个月做的事情确定下来。正式就职前就洞悉全局显然不可能，但要事先做好计划，以便掌握更多情况。”

    诚然，这么做的工作量会很大。布拉特指出：“人们总是不情愿做这些，因为两份工作之间的时间空档比较紧，老东家希望你在原职位尽量多留几天，而新老板又希望你尽快上班。”

    他还说：“着手新工作之前期望休个短暂的假期、积蓄精力也是很普遍的想法。”但如果希望拥有一个良好的开局，确实没时间在沙滩上懒洋洋地躺上好几天。

    反馈：对您来说，在刚刚就任新的管理岗位时，什么对您最有帮助？如果您也遇到过从公司外部空降来的新上司，他/她在上任之初哪些地方做得很好，哪些地方做得不尽如人意？你有什么建议？欢迎留言评论。

    译者：李玫晓/汪皓

    While you're at this, try to find out about what Bradt calls "shadow metrics" in the organization you're joining, meaning key measures of how things are going that may not be evident at first glance: "What are the key measures of success along the way? How are they tracked, and how can you get access to them?"

    3. Craft your message. How are you going to present your ideas -- the ones you believe got you hired -- on where the business needs to go from here? "Part of preparing to lead is thinking through the messages you want to send, right down to details like whether your office setup will be informal and open-door or more formal and structured," Bradt says. People will be watching closely and talking to each other about you, he adds: "Everything communicates, and not always what you intended, so be careful."

    4. Start making a hundred-day plan. The knowledge you gather before you officially start "should help you begin to put things in context and decide what you want or need to do on your first day, during your first week, and in your first three months," says Bradt. "It's important not so much to learn everything there is to know before you show up, which would be impossible anyway, but to have a plan in place to learn more."

    Granted, this is a lot of work. "People tend to resist doing all this because there's usually a time squeeze involved in changing jobs, where your old employer wants you to stay as long as possible, and your new one wants to rush your start date," Bradt notes.

    "It's also very common to want to take at least a short vacation to rest and recharge between jobs," he adds. But tempting as it might be to sit on a beach and unwind for a few days, if you really want to start strong, you just haven't got time.

    Talkback: What helped you most in starting a new management job? If you've ever had a new boss come in from outside the company, what did he or she do well at the start, and what do you wish had gone differently? Leave a comment below.