Hey Lykkers! Let’s get real for a second. You just got promoted—congratulations! The excitement is buzzing, but so is that quiet voice in your head asking, "What do I actually do now?" Your calendar is already filling with meetings, but the real work of leadership happens in the spaces between them.

So, before your calendar becomes a wall of back-to-back blocks, here are 8 powerful, human-centric things to do in your first week that will set you up for lasting success.

Forget status updates. Your first meetings with your team should have one goal: to listen. Say, "My goal this week is just to learn from you." Ask: "What are you most proud of working on?" and "What's one thing that would make your job easier?" This approach is foundational.

As leadership transition expert Michael Watkins, author of The First 90 Days, emphasizes, the initial period for any new leader should be dedicated to learning and diagnosis, not immediate action or prescription (Watkins, 2013). You’re gathering the team's story before you help write the next chapter.

2. Share Your "Leadership User Manual"

Transparency disarms anxiety. Write a brief, informal note to your team about how you work. Answer questions like: How do you prefer to communicate (Slack vs. email)? What’s your stance on flexible hours? What values are non-negotiable for you? This practice builds crucial psychological safety from day one. Organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich’s research on leadership self-awareness shows that leaders who are clear about their working styles and open to feedback create environments where teams feel safe to contribute and challenge ideas (Eurich, 2017).

3. Learn the Informal Flowchart

Every company has an official org chart and a real one. Ask your new reports and peers: "Who gets things done around here?" and "Whose advice is gold?" Identify the go-to people in IT, the process wizards, and the cultural glue-holders. This aligns with the concept of "social network analysis," a tool used in organizational behavior to map information flow and influence, which is often more critical than formal hierarchies for getting things done (Cross & Parker, 2004).

4. Master the "Quick Win" Ritual

Find one small, visible process that's broken—a cumbersome weekly report, a clunky approval step—and fix it. Immediately. This demonstrates action-oriented leadership and shows you're here to make their lives better. This tactic is a cornerstone of building early credibility. In The First 90 Days, Watkins identifies securing "early wins" as a critical strategy to build momentum and establish your reputation as someone who can produce results (Watkins, 2013).

5. Define What "Success" Looks Like (Together)

Clarity is kindness. In your first week, schedule a short team huddle not to assign tasks, but to align on outcomes. Ask, "For us to have a knockout quarter, what three things must be true?" This practice of creating "outcome clarity," a concept highlighted by management thinker Marcus Buckingham, is proven to boost team engagement and performance by ensuring everyone understands the goal, not just the task (Buckingham & Goodall, 2019).

6. Schedule a "Skip-Level" Coffee

Book 30 minutes with your new boss's boss. Your goal isn't to impress, but to understand. Ask: "What are your highest hopes for our team in the next six months?" This is a strategic intelligence-gathering move. Executive coach and author Liz Wiseman, in her book Multipliers, notes that the best leaders are "investors" who first seek to understand the broader context and stakes before deploying their team's energy (Wiseman, 2010).

7. Publicly Celebrate a "Pre-You" Win

Spotlight a team success that happened before you arrived. In a team email or chat, highlight a specific accomplishment and the person behind it. This act of "attributional leadership," or giving credit where it's due, is a powerful trust-builder. Research in positive organizational psychology shows that leaders who recognize past contributions foster higher levels of loyalty and psychological safety (Cameron & Spreitzer, 2012).

8. Block Your "Think Time" Now

If you don't protect your time, no one will. Before your calendar is a lost cause, block a recurring 90-minute focus block for "Strategic Planning." Guard it fiercely. This is your oxygen mask. Professor and author Cal Newport’s concept of "Deep Work"—the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task—is the skill that allows leaders to process complex information and make superior decisions (Newport, 2016).

Your first week isn't about having all the answers, Lykkers. It's about asking the right questions, building the right connections, and setting a tone of collaborative respect. Do these eight things, and you’ll build a foundation of trust that makes every meeting you do schedule infinitely more productive. Now, go lead.