How To Transition Into A New Leadership Role

What Changes With A Leadership Promotion?  

To borrow a phrase from a well-known book, “what got you here won’t get you there.” Leadership roles are often awarded to high performers who excelled in their previous roles. However, the skills you will need to excel in a leadership role are very different from the ones you needed to succeed in your previous role.

So if you want to be an effective leader, you need to adapt and grow. You have to be able to shift your focus from personal achievements to team success. As part of that, you will need to build new skills, like communication and delegation. This can be a tough transition, but it’s an important one for you to grow as a leader. 

You’re going to face new challenges that require new solutions. But with the right mindset and approach, you can overcome these challenges and succeed. With that in mind, let’s talk about how you can make a smooth transition into your new role.

Becoming A Leader: Your First 90 Days

Your first 90 days in your new role is a great time to build trust with your team. You have the opportunity to listen more than you speak and to set clear expectations. This is the foundation of your success.

Thinking along those lines, here are eight specific things that you can do in your first 90 days to improve your odds of succeeding as a leader.

1. Think collectively, not individually

When you’re a leader, your success is measured by your team’s performance. You are responsible for your team’s output, not your own. That means when you think about what to do next, you need to think about what’s good for the group, and not just yourself. 

As you move forward, you need to prioritize team goals and make sure everyone has incentives to work on those goals. Your role will be, in some ways, to act as a coach. You will want the team to work together and collaborate, with you there to help support the team’s growth. 

You can do this by recognizing the strengths of individual contributors and by helping them improve–both on their strengths and weaknesses. As your team succeeds, so do you.

2. Do less hands-on work, more strategy

Your role now is to guide, not to do. Leaders are not supposed to do all the work, but rather just make sure the work gets done and done well. That way, your time will be freed up so you can plan, strategize, and solve problems before they arrive. 

Think of yourself as the captain of a ship. Your job is to set the course and steer. Let your crew handle the sails. That will let you keep an eye on the horizon and make sure you’re headed toward shore.

3. Delegate and build your direct reports’ skills

I’ve worked with a lot of new leaders, and learning to delegate is one of the hardest things that many of them face. Many high performers who become leaders have a lingering concern that if they don’t do all the work, their value will be called into question.

Consider this, though–if a leader continues to do all of the work, their team suffers and so do they. The team won’t have opportunities to grow and develop. This is worse than it sounds because this is a leading cause of employee turnover. In fact, according to a LinkedIn survey, “45% of employees who left their jobs cited a lack of opportunities for career advancement as a primary reason for their departure.”

Meanwhile, the leader suffers from the burden of trying to complete a massive volume of work. The ultimate end result of this effort is missed deadlines, mounting frustration, and–ultimately–burnout.

4. Ask questions and become a sponge

Transitioning into leadership is a great time to learn. Ask questions about everything. Understand the current state of the business and learn about its goals, challenges, and what worked in the past. Then talk to other teams and figure out their pain points when working with yours.

Soak up as much information as you can. You never know what knowledge is going to come in handy, and the more you have, the better decisions you can make. An added bonus of this approach is that it shows your team that you care about what’s happening.

5. Build a healthy culture through modeling behavior

Your team will look to you for guidance. What you do is going to set the tone for the whole group. So what you do will define what’s acceptable and what’s not. 

High-performing teams value psychological safety. You want everyone to feel safe to voice their thoughts. Learn about each member of your team and figure out what motivates them. This will make it easier to create an environment of respect and collaboration. And ultimately, this will help you get the best performance out of your team.

6. Set expectations around performance, boundaries, and accountability

Leaders are responsible for the outcomes of the work of their team. So in order to achieve those outcomes, you need to set clear expectations. Your team needs to know exactly what you expect of them. Be sure to outline goals, deadlines, and the quality of work required. This will help ward off misunderstandings and make sure everyone is on the same page.

Clear communication is harder to come by than you might expect. A Gallup poll conducted in August 2023 shows that only 29% of employees “strongly agree [that] my immediate supervisor keeps me informed about what is going on in my organization.” Being transparent alone can make you rare among leaders. 

Boundaries are also very important. Set them for work hours, communication, and task ownership. Everyone should be held accountable, including yourself. When everyone knows the rules, it’s a lot easier to focus on achieving the goals. And if something goes wrong, there is less confusion about what to do.

7. Follow through

People do not follow leaders because of their titles. They follow leaders because they have built trust and rapport. As a new leader, when you commit to something, provide updates along the way and follow through.

If you cannot meet your deliverable, own up to it. Explain what happened and describe how you will fix the issue. This will help you continue to build credibility and strengthen your team’s loyalty, even if you are not able to do what you say.

Remember–actions really do speak louder than words. You need to be consistent because people trust those who do what they say.

8. Reflect and grow

Becoming a leader is a big step. It’s okay to make mistakes. Give yourself some grace and learn from each experience. From time to time, you need to be able to reflect on your progress, so make sure that is a part of your routine as well.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, either. Seek advice from mentors or peers–people love to be able to help those they care about avoid issues they’ve run into themselves. You should also ask your own team for feedback as well, provided you can be receptive to hearing it without getting defensive.

Conclusion

Transitioning into a new leadership role is challenging, but rewarding. Your focus should be on empowering your team and building trust. You can do this by listening, learning, and setting clear expectations.

Remember–you’re not alone. Seek out support and stay committed to your growth. Leadership is a journey more than it’s a destination. As you continue to lead others, you will learn to become a better leader, and success will follow.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you adapt to a leadership role?

Shift your focus away from doing and toward guiding. Be sure to focus on team success over individual task completion. All the while, make sure you do everything you can to learn about the company, your team, and the tasks that need to be completed.

How do I transition into a new leadership role? 

What got you here won’t get you there—you are going to need to learn new skills like communication and delegation. Focus on improving your management skills and understand that your success will be measured by how well your team performs, not how well you perform.

What should you do in the first 30 days in a new leadership role?

Learn as much as you possibly can and build relationships with your team. This will give you what you need to set clear goals and lay the foundation for future leadership.