Michael Watkins

Dr. Michael D. Watkins is the co-founder and Chief Intellectual Officer of Genesis Advisers. Drawing on the perfect combination of research and hand-on experience, Michael Watkins has spent the last two decades working with leaders – both corporate and public — as they transition to new roles, negotiate the future of their organizations, and craft their legacy as leaders.

Dr. Watkins is the author of Your Next Move: The Leader’s Guide to Navigating Major Career Transitions, and the international bestseller The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at all Levels, which The Economist called “the on-boarding bible.” With more than 400,000 copies sold in English, and translations in 27 languages, The First 90 Days has become the standard reference for leaders in transition. Recently The First 90 Days was named one of the best 100 business books of all time.

Dr. Watkins also has applied his First-90-Days framework to guiding transitions within government agencies and to the critical negotiation challenges facing new leaders with his latest books The First 90 Days in Government: Critical Success Strategies for New Public Managers at All Levels and Shaping the Game: The New Leader’s Guide to Effective Negotiating.

Dr. Watkins is the Chairman of Genesis Advisers, an executive on-boarding and transition acceleration company. Previously he was a professor at The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Harvard Business School, INSEAD in France, and IMD in Switzerland. He has designed award-winning programs in accelerating transitions, Future Enterprise Leader™ development, negotiation, and corporate diplomacy.

A prolific writer, Dr. Watkins is the author or co-author of numerous articles and books on leadership. His most recent publications are Picking the Right Transition Strategy (January 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review), The Three Pillars of Executive On-boarding (October 2008 issue of Talent Management Magazine) and Predictable Surprises: The Disasters You Should Have Seen Coming and How to Avoid Them.