Congratulations, you’ve got a new role! Initially it can feel like you’ve made it to the top of the mountain, before you start to realise there is a whole mountain range ahead of you. “Well” you say to yourself, “I’ve made it this far and if I can climb one mountain then I can climb them all, right?”. That’s a great attitude to have, but as with any change there will be new, often unknown challenges that require you to do and be something different than you have been before. This is part of development as a leader and manager, pushing at the boundaries of your comfort zone and stretching into new territory.
“Surprisingly, many people do not even realise that a significant transition is taking place…”
Clearly your manager has faith in you and believes you can bring something to the new role. The issue unfortunately, is that far too often people fail to realise that they are going through a significant transition that will place new demands on them and most importantly that not all the old ways that worked in the past, are going to help – in fact they can often get in the way of success.
Surprisingly, many people do not even realise that a significant transition is taking place and often there can be relatively little investment in enabling the change by giving space to think and reflect on what the new role is demanding and how this can be achieved. Sure, there might be a rudimentary development plan in place but it can often be seen as a tick list to be achieved rather than a fundamental transition on a psychological and developmental level that asks for a new way of thinking and being. The induction plan tends to focus on acquiring knowledge rather than considering the personal, intrapersonal and systemic considerations and what they are asking of you as a leader or manager.
The predominance of an individualist ‘hero’ paradigm doesn’t help matters and people can be left to sink or swim in the belief that they will either make a success through individual endeavour… or not. This doesn’t make any sense at all. In the worst cases, inadequate transition plans don’t seem to have worked and before long the individual can be seen as failing in the new role and what was potential talent is now devalued and lost from the organisation. This has a real cost to the company and the individual.
From my years as a leader and manager who has been through many transitions myself and coached others, below are a few of the key questions that I have learnt along the way. This is learning from when I got it right and more importantly when I got it wrong. I could write a book on each of them! But I think they have value in themselves. Anyone going through such a transition should consider these questions and managers supporting people through this significant change need to consider how they can help new leaders to succeed by focusing on some of these questions. Of course, these are just a starting point and the real work is in the quality of the thinking that is applied to them and that delivers results both for the individual and the organisation:
- What needs to be let go of in terms of past behaviours and thinking that were helpful assets in previous roles but that now may become an impediment or restriction for what is needed now?
- How do I need to think differently and how do I know?
- What strengths do I need to amplify and what new skills are required (and how will I know)?
- What is the culture(s) I’m working with and what are they asking of me as a leader?
- How do my purpose and values show up in how I lead in this new role?
- What internal and personal resources are needed to face the challenges that will arise from this transition?
- What are the needs and expectations from different groups/individuals and how will these be managed?
- What am I assessing and how do I know this is the right focus?
- What am I saying yes to? And what am I saying no to and importantly why?… and even more importantly, how?
- As a leader and manager, what am I consciously and unconsciously communicating in my relationships and why?
- Are we clear on what success looks like and how it will be achieved?
- Space to think, probably the most precious thing to try and discover for any leader and manager- what space promotes the right thinking and importantly the feeling that is needed to deliver results?
- What are my intentions, what is my 90 day plan, the key milestones and is this plan shared or not?
And particularly for senior roles…..
- Identifying a new list of problems and solutions isn’t always helpful. What these problems are telling the organisation (and how they are seen) can be more helpful in thinking strategically about what the new role demands?
- What are the wider systemic contexts that require attention both within the organisation and outside? How is the external reflected in the internal and what response does this demand? How does the convergence of trends impact internally?
- How does the leadership team function, how does it effectively lead others, what’s getting in the way and what’s my role in enabling success within this team?
Some of these questions seem obvious and others may be less so, unfortunately the busyness of leadership often affords little time to stepping back and seeing the wood for the tree’s- both for those new to role and those who support them as their manager. If you found this post interesting, then you may also want to check out the sister post “Enabling New Leaders to Succeed” where I make the case why investing in new leaders and managers is so critical for an organisation.
I support managers and leaders to have ‘space to think’. If this has been helpful and you need some ‘space to think’ then I might be able to help. Contact me for a no obligation chat and let’s see what happens.
Image: Photo of chalkboard by Annie Spratt on Unsplash with thanks