It’s never easy to take on a leadership role in a new organization, but it’s even harder to do so in the manner that many of my clients do, which is to enter a private equity-backed company that has an aggressive growth plan.

Here are some common pitfalls that you’ll want to do your very best to avoid:

Don’t assume that the playbook that made you successful somewhere else can be lifted and used in your new role. To put this another way, don’t come in making assumptions about what’s going to drive success. Instead, test your assumptions and figure out the adjustments you must make to be successful in your new environment.

Don’t start without fully understanding your scorecard. How will your success be measured in this new role? If you have multiple stakeholders, are they aligned? If not, you may be entering an environment in which you literally cannot succeed. If you realize too late that such misalignments exist, can you figure out a way to resolve them? It’s maddening to have five people say, “I thought you were gonna work on that first, when “that” is five different priorities.

Don’t ignore the pace of early wins that your stakeholders expect of you. Leadership 101 suggests it’s generally a mistake to enter a new organization and immediately start barking orders. But there are times when your investors and/or board require the new leader to act decisively to head off bankruptcy or some other urgent threat. In such a situation, building consensus and earning trust from above can be mutually exclusive. You must know how quickly you are expected to act.

But… don’t move faster than you need to move. If you are not stepping into an out and out emergency, then take time to build relationships, learn and gain context. Again, success is all about understanding the expectations of you and making sure these expectations are consistent among the people who control your fate.

Bonus pitfall: Ban the phrase “at Company X we…” Too many leaders come in and can’t stop talking about their old days at Acme Company and how life there made so much sense and how much their new team members could learn from good old Acme Company. There are a lot better ways to introduce new ideas than trying to make the source of your credibility where you used to work. Focus on the challenge at hand and how your idea can effectively solve the problem or capture a new opportunity.