Your new leader has not decided what you are yet. The next 30 days settle it.

Is this you?

• You get told what's happening, then asked to develop a plan.
• You are across everything on your patch, and nobody above you knows it.
• Your drafts come back rewritten, with no explanation of what was wrong.
• New Head. Everything you built with the last one has gone, and you are starting again.

Why the first month matters

The research on how working relationships with a manager form is consistent on three points. Expectations set in the first week predict where the relationship sits six months later. After about two months it stops moving. And the two sides barely agree on where they stand, least of all on whether the boss rates the person's professional judgement.

So the practitioner who feels invisible is usually guessing, and the guess is usually wrong. The fix is to find out, then ask for one piece of real work on terms you set.

What you get

• 45 minutes with a former Head of Corporate Affairs, built on forty years of research into how these relationships form and what moves them.
• A one-page brief within 48 hours: where you stand, what your leader can deliver, the one piece of work to ask for, the scope to set, and the words to use.
• A 30-day plan with the signals that tell you it is working: invited in before the decision, a bigger piece of work sent, your leader telling you where you stand.

How it works

1. Answer the six questions below.
2. Richard picks ten people whose situation is live: a new leader, a new role, or a restructure.
3. You talk for 45 minutes, on a call, at a time that works in your time zone.
4. The brief lands within two days.
5. You run the plan. If you want Richard alongside for the 30 days, say so.

If you are not picked this round, you will get the written brief on the method and first call on the next round.