Dear Bob ... After 20 years at one company I was downsized several months ago. In the interim I have been working full time at my job search. Now it seems to be about to pay off. I am interviewing for an IT Director position that may pay 25% more than my old job. This is a higher level position and will involve Keeping the Joint Running for an ASP application with SLA's that requi Dear Bob …After 20 years at one company I was downsized several months ago. In the interim I have been working full time at my job search. Now it seems to be about to pay off. I am interviewing for an IT Director position that may pay 25% more than my old job. This is a higher level position and will involve Keeping the Joint Running for an ASP application with SLA’s that require 100% uptime. I would appreciate any advice you may be able to give me in formulating a plan for my first 100 days.One of the co-founders of the company particularly enjoyed my personal branding statement: “My friends tell me I remind them of Houdini because he delighted audiences by making an elephant disappear. What I do is delight my customers by making their technology problems disappear. However, I don’t deal in smoke and mirrors or illusions – I produce real results. What kinds of elephants would people in your industry like to see vanish?” I’m thinking of trying to tie that in with my plan, and I’m researching their current challenges to incorporate ways of making them vanish. Do you have any thoughts on this?– The Houdini of TechnologyHoudini … First of all, congratulations on recognizing the need for a startup plan. I’d make it a first-65-days plan, by the way (13 weeks, or one fiscal quarter) but why quibble over a few weeks?Either way, here’s the best advice I can give you: Listen.No, that’s giving the advice backward. The right advice is, keep your mouth shut. When you walk into a new situation, you need to find out what’s really going on before you try to accomplish anything useful. It isn’t just a matter of finding out what the most important priorities are, although that’s a good idea as well. The key to survival is to find out who’s who and what’s what. In other words, to assemble as complete a picture as you can as to what the political landscape is like, and what problems were swept under the carpet during the recruiting process.So listen to everyone, in group settings and one-on-one. Don’t agree; also don’t argue. If you have to comment, stick to broad philosophical concepts. And whatever you do, don’t choose sides or make any commitments.Assume everyone has a private agenda and wants you on their side. Even with the best of intentions, they do. Assume everything you’re told is biased. Even with the best of intentions, it is. So listen to everyone but don’t trust anyone yet. If you do, you’ll lose your ability to lead – your preferred sources of information will have established their perspectives as your own. A special situation to watch out for: Find out if anyone, whether it’s a peer or a direct report, applied for the job you got. If so, make sure to meet one-on-one. I’ll forego the long version. The short one – be careful how you deal with a peer who wanted the job; be clear and unambiguous with the direct report about the need for the two of you to either form a mutual admiration society or find something different for your erstwhile rival to do.More than anything else, make sure to spend time with account managers meeting with key representatives of the company’s important accounts. Meeting the customers is important. Building a strong relationship with the account managers is far more important, and this is a great way to go about it.Oh yeah … along the way you’re bound to figure out what your new department’s priorities need to be. But that’s a fringe benefit. You can’t do anything useful until you understand the political map, and develop strong working relationships. To do that, you have to listen. Even more important, you have to not talk, until you find out what’s important to say. – Bob ——– Technology Industry