In the past five years, I have been more hesitant to leave an employer because of the transition period to a new role. I hate being a bull in a china shop. Often all my issues rear their ugly heads. Will they like me? Can I do this? The first 90 days are vulnerable, exciting, and stressful.

Most employers I’ve worked with have a “throw them to the wolves” or “see if they can swim” mentality for training their workforce. You have to be resourceful, and a good problem solver to succeed in these types of environments. But, I know plenty of people that have not been so lucky to make it through their first 90 days.

So how do we increase the chance of success for new hires? How do we help them build initial relationships and get early wins to empower their confidence and influence their ability to make great decisions?

That’s exactly what Micheal D. Watkins lays out in his explanation of the Virtuous Cycle for new managers in his International Bestseller, The First 90 Days. The Virtuous Cycle and The Vicious Cycle are two cycles that forecast the success or failure of hiring a new manager.

Watkins displays these cycles as interwoven factors that impact one another simultaneously to build momentum. New managers feel supported when they build alliances, which puts them more at ease to pitch their strategy or vision to the new group. When they get support for their vision, they feel respected and confident in their abilities at the new company. This indicates there is an optimal environment that helps new managers succeed. When they are surrounded by support, and trust they belong, this puts them in a better position to perform well.

The same is true for the Vicious Cycle, but in the opposite way. If they don’t start out on the right foot with building relationships and getting up to speed quickly with their new role, they don’t get support from others and lose credibility, causing resistance from the team.

The employer and the employee each play a part in these cycles. Employees play an active role in performing, asking for support, and advancing their development. While the company should provide support for avoiding the pitfalls of the Vicious Cycle.

Damage to credibility early on puts new managers in a negative feedback loop, which is difficult to escape. I’ve been here before and typically have to over-perform on my first deliverable to crawl out. As soon as a pattern of negative behavior starts to form, or a belief about someone is backed by any evidence, it’s hard to convince strangers otherwise.

It’s imperative for HR to work with their leaders to influence employee engagement and retention metrics, as it can take weeks or months to recruit a new manager. The first 90 days is a fragile time and you can help the leader you have worked hard to recruit succeed by striving to cultivate a Virtuous Culture.

Here’s Watkins explains his success measures for new managers and we offer some ideas of where the employer could play a role in influencing this process:

1. Implement support where you can. Understand where you have impact and how to influence the process through company orientation, an HRIS, or AI-powered performance goal program.
2. Act out of empathy for the new leader; be an ally.
3. When recruiting for the position, investigate the challenges the hiring manager’s team is facing and what you can provide to the new manager to help them prepare during their first 90 days.
4. Put a visual of Watkins Cycles into your orientation to bring awareness to the challenges, expectations, and experience of others.
5. Add in checks and balances to track metrics. If you are challenged by retention or turnover issues, finding out where employees are not succeeding during the first 90 days could help you understand how to influence a better result.
6. Identify training tools and see where you can expand development through programs like LinkedIn Learning.

In the first 90 days, anxiety and imposter syndrome can derail a perfectly suitable candidate. The biggest loss is that an employee you hired is right for the role, but they didn’t get enough support in their first 90 days and they failed. Hiring is too hard to let that happen.

When you find and hire the right candidate, work with managers to use these tips to help them integrate and succeed. If your company often says, “it wasn’t the right fit,” you’re spinning your wheels trying to enhance your recruiting department instead of focusing on retention efforts to cure the source of the problem.