Management consultants, military leaders and politicians are perhaps the most likely to talk about their plan for  The First Hundred Days. This will inevitably include ideas about ‘quick wins’ and ‘plucking the low hanging fruit’. And other such nonsense. Unsurprisingly, the leadership industry has co-opted this idea; it’s pithy, easily marketable and plays to the fear that a weak debut is measured by a lack of action.

The desire to leap in and make a big splash is very tempting for anyone in a leadership role. I’m at day 15 and I am itching to do the right first things. Here’s what I’m thinking:

I am currently on a journey through the land of uncertainty: I don’t know what I don’t know.

There is a finite period of time where I can get away with asking pretty much any question that comes to me. This is an opportunity I must exploit ruthlessly.

Big challenges will not present easy or obvious answers.

Knowing what to do first is an art and a science: while I might have a pretty good idea of what I think the priorities are, I need to test my ideas. I am doing this by having lots of coffee with lots of smart people. These conversations are so valuable in helping me understand what matters collectively, what will and won’t work, what battles lay ahead, how to get things done here.

Find the right mixture of boldness and patience.

I need to keep thinking strategically. And get stuff done today. It’s what I signed up for; a very thorough recruitment process tested my ability to build project delivery capability, while ensuring we deliver critical business projects this year (without a project delivery capability). Yep I likes me a challenge!

Making big decisions quickly is not as important as building credibility.

Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva once said ‘a war can perhaps be won single-handedly. But peace – lasting peace – cannot be secured without the support of all’. Known for his bushy beard and penchant for Che Guevara t-shirts, Lula radically transformed an entire nation by getting 20 million people out of poverty through his anti-hunger and income-transfer programmes. By the time Rio de Janeiro hosts the 2016 Olympics, Brazil is predicted to be the world’s fifth-largest economy.

I like his style.