90-Day Plan to Start Your New Role with Intention 

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Antoine St. Exupéry  

It’s the end of the school year! Congratulations on another successful year. Many of you are wrapping up and will use the next few months to plan and prepare for the year ahead. Some of you might be stepping into a brand new role, just like me! If that’s where you’re headed, congratulations on the new position! You are likely experiencing the full range of emotions that come with change: excitement for what’s ahead, and maybe a little trepidation about how it will go for you, your campus, and your students. 

Don’t worry. This post is here to help. This entry is about giving you a practical resource for building your 30-60-90 day entry plan. Engaging in this work before you begin allows you to set the direction of your leadership with intention and purpose, rather than reacting to whatever comes through the door first. 

Step 1: Start with the End in Mind

Before you can map the route, you need to know your destination. As you think about your new role, ask yourself: At the end of the first nine weeks or semester, what do you want to see for your campus? Having clarity on where you are headed helps you make deliberate choices along the way.

It helps to organize your thinking into a few key leadership categories. These are the areas where your choices will have the greatest impact. Every campus and campus leader is different, so your list may look different from mine. Here are the larger areas I am considering as I set goals and intentions for my own entry work.

Download our FREE 90-Day Planning Template to support you in your new role.

Category 1: Your Leadership Role

Leadership starts with you. Before you can lead others well, you have to lead yourself. What are your core values and your purpose as a leader? How do you stay connected to those things when the urgencies of the day threaten to pull you off course? For me there are two areas I want to consider. One is keeping the big rocks front of mind: monitoring learning and supporting systems that are efficient.  I need to consider what I will do regularly to keep these priorities front of mind.

My second consideration is that I know I have a tendency to put myself last, and that creates an unsustainable pace over time. I will be thinking about what I will do each day to fill my own bucket. This might look like setting firm boundaries around my schedule, limiting how late I stay a few nights a week, building in regular check-ins with a mentor, or committing to something that genuinely restores me. Whatever your leadership priorities are, plan for it the same way you plan for everything else. If you don’t protect it, it won’t happen.

Category 2: Systems for Communication

Clear, consistent communication is one of the most powerful tools for conflict prevention, and it is especially critical during leadership transitions. As you plan your entry, think through the following: Who are my key stakeholders? How often do they need to hear from me, and through what channels? Which communications need to be two-way, inviting input and feedback, and which are informational? What are the norms I want to establish for how our community communicates with one another? When conflict arises (and it will), how can we address the conflict and maintain clear channels of communication?

Equally important, and often overlooked, is the practice of listening. As someone new to a campus, you don’t yet have the full picture. Build in structured opportunities to hear from students, staff, and families before you begin drawing conclusions or making changes. What are the current strengths of this campus? Where do stakeholders feel there is room to grow? What do they most want to preserve? The answers to these questions are data. Gathering them early means that when you do move to action, you do so with both evidence and community trust behind you.

Category 3: Culture Building Opportunities

As Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” The culture you begin to build from your very first interactions is what people will carry with them long after the details fade. Be intentional about the environment you want to create. What are the core values you want your campus community to hold in common? What does a shared vision and mission look like for this school? These are not things to rush. Invest time in co-creating them with your staff and community, because buy-in is built in the process.

Culture is not built in a single conversation or a well-designed slide deck. It is built in accumulated small moments where people feel seen, valued, and connected to something larger than their own classroom or role. That means planning for connection the same way you plan for everything else. For example, think about how you can use faculty meetings to build relationships and shared identity, not just deliver information.

Consider a weekly campus touchpoint, like a newsletter or short video, that consistently celebrates staff and students and reinforces what your campus stands for. Look for natural moments in the calendar for team building, whether that is a beginning-of-year social, a spirit week that includes staff, or something as simple as lunch together. And before any of that, invest time in genuinely getting to know your people. Walk the hallways, ask real questions, and listen. For a deeper look at that work, check out my earlier post on supporting strong collaborative teams.

Category 4: Learning What’s In Place: Academics, Systems, and Processes

This is where many new leaders stumble, and it’s worth saying plainly: slow down before you act. Even if a campus has not seen strong outcomes in recent years, it is important to honor the work that has been done and to find genuine value in what exists before you begin making changes. Moving too quickly signals to your staff that you don’t trust what came before you, and that erodes the very relationships you need to lead effectively.

Start with the data. Walk classrooms. Talk to students, staff, and families. Use those sources together to build an accurate picture of what is working, what is not, and where the campus’ energy and readiness for change actually lives.

As you audit systems and processes, consider three types of systems or processes:

• Daily systems: arrival and dismissal routines, transitions between classes, lunch, in-the-moment behavior support, and teacher-to-family communication.
• Ongoing processes: teacher planning and data review, collaborative team structures, family engagement events, MTSS, Special Education, 504, LPAC, Gifted and Talented identification and services, staff meetings, and academic and behavioral recognition programs.
• Seasonal processes: first day and first week routines, registration, grading, universal screening and testing, TELPAS, STAAR, and end-of-year closeout.

For each of these, ask: How does this currently work? How is it communicated to stakeholders so everyone knows the expectation? What is working well, and what would benefit from refinement? What do people most want to keep, and what do they most want to see improved?

Step 2: Make your Plan

Once you have your larger categories in view, begin setting monthly focuses and concrete action steps. A word of caution here: if you try to focus on everything at once, you will effectively focus on nothing. Some months will naturally pull more heavily toward one area than another, and that is fine. The goal is steady, intentional progress, not doing everything simultaneously.

I structure my plan around two priorities each month: a campus priority and a personal professional priority. Here is what that looks like for me:

Month 1 Focus

• Campus: Listen, Learn, Assess
• Personal: Establishing Routines for Sustainability

Month 2 Focus

• Campus: Establish and Build Relationships, Gather Staff Input
• Personal: Delegating Tasks

Month 3 Focus

• Campus: Observe Instruction, Foster Relationships, Continue Listening
• Personal: Mentor Check-In and Reflection

Once I have a monthly focus, I identify specific action steps that support it, making sure I am touching each of the larger leadership categories in some meaningful way every month, even if one is carrying more weight than the others.

Step 3: Execute and Monitor for Success

Creating a solid 30-60-90 day plan is only useful if you actually use it. I treat mine as a living document, not a one-time exercise. I return to it during my weekly self-meeting to check in on my intentions and reflect honestly on how things are going.

During that weekly self-meeting, I ask myself two questions: What went well this week as it relates to my current focus? And what challenges or barriers did I encounter, and what is within my control to do differently going forward? These questions keep the plan alive and prevent me from drifting into autopilot.

I also keep the plan open throughout the week to capture new ideas or to-do items as they surface. When things come up, which they always do, writing them in the plan keeps them from getting lost and keeps my thinking organized.

Finally, I find accountability invaluable. Leadership can be an isolating role, and without someone to think alongside, it is easy to get stuck spinning in place without real movement. A trusted mentor or thought partner helps you stay honest about your priorities, gives you a sounding board when things get complicated, and celebrates progress with you when things go well. Build that relationship into your plan from the beginning. It is not a luxury. It is part of how you sustain yourself and your leadership over time.

You (and I!) have what it takes to start this new chapter with clarity and confidence. Plan with intention, listen before you act, and take good care of yourself along the way. Your campus is lucky to have you.