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When yous are promoted from an private contributor part into a leadership position, your chore is going to undergo some fundamental changes, both in a practical mean solar day-to-twenty-four hour period sense and in terms of the emotional and psychological impact.

To brand a successful transition, you volition need to adapt accordingly. This will require a shift in your focus and mindset, too every bit a commitment to adopting leadership disciplines that will underpin your success.

What exactly is going to change? Permit's offset by looking at five key areas.

1) Your friends are no longer your friends.If you're promoted to lead the squad that yous were once a part of, a relationship reset may be necessary. Effective leadership demands that you exist even-handed in your treatment of every team member. Playing favorites (on any ground other than functioning) will erode your team's motivation and commitment. The rule of thumb is to exist friendly, not friends with your people. This may require you to put some professional distance between you and sure squad members.

two) Y'all have a duty of care.Y'all used to be responsible only for your own behavior and performance. Now, that responsibility extends to every individual on your team. That ways you have to ensure that your people accept articulate objectives; that their physical and mental well-being are safeguarded; that they're given clear feedback and strong management. Information technology also requires a balancing act — the trade-off between the interests of the individual and those of the organization.

three) Y'all're entrusted to manage resource.Equally a leader, you're a steward of your organization's resources — people, money, and avails. Managerial diligence demands that every conclusion you make optimizes the resources entrusted to you lot. This stewardship must take precedence over your own popularity, fright, and cocky-interest: If you do the right thing by your organization, information technology will ultimately do the right matter past yous.

four) You need to contribute more broadly.Joining a leadership team gives you a voice, which presents both an opportunity and an obligation. You're not but accountable for the outcomes of your own team, but also for contributing to the collective value that's delivered by the leadership team yous've get a function of. Bang-up leaders seek to optimize the overall value delivered by the broader group, even at the expense of their own work.

5) Y'all must align yourself with the intent of senior management.As an individual contributor, you may take the luxury of existence able to criticize the decisions made above you. As a leader, you don't. You have to support the goals and objectives of the CEO and executive team. This doesn't mean you lot tin never ask "how" or "why," merely ultimately, you are being paid to execute and deliver on management intent — whether you concur with it or not. If you go along to grow and move upwardly to higher levels, you will have greater opportunity to influence what that intent is.

The 7 Imperative of Great Leadership

You now accept a meliorate understanding of how your office will transform. What skills do you need to successfully accommodate to those changes?

The underlying capabilities, disciplines, and habits of great leadership can be learned and applied at any level. Embedding these into your toolkit at the earliest stage possible will aid yous navigate your first leadership transition, besides as any future transitions you're likely to face up.

1) Evangelize value.

Your chief objective equally a leader is to create value for your organisation. Catamenia.

This tin seem somewhat mercenary, as our minds immediately jump to financial value. But value comes in many forms, for example: reducing the environmental impact of your operations; making the workplace safer for your employees; garnering deeper market insights into your customers and competitors. These are but a few of the endless opportunities yous may accept to create value.

Your job is to identify and communicate what value means in your context: your industry, your system, and this point in time.

2) Handle c onflict .

Almost everything you do equally a leader has the potential for conflict, and unless you can handle conflict comfortably, you'll struggle to lead. Yous won't be able to negotiate finer; yous'll procrastinate on decisions that may be unpopular; you'll notice it virtually impossible to bring out the all-time in your people. Adopting and embedding the mantra of respect before popularity is a crucial building block for leadership operation.

iii) Build r esilience .

We all face disappointments, setbacks, and obstacles. Successful people simply handle the tough times better than almost. They know that nada is permanent, and they're able to conditions the storms that bring arduousness. They as well know how to capitalize on the good luck that we all encounter from fourth dimension to time. Facing and overcoming arduousness builds resilience, so don't shy away from it — embrace information technology!

4) Work at the right level.

You lot're being paid to pb a team of people working at various levels. Y'all're at the peak of that pyramid now, pregnant your job is to teach — non to do. If yous're decorated doing your squad's piece of work for them, then you're probably not doing your own. The college yous ascent in an organization, the farther and further removed you lot go from the heads-down work. As a new leader, it'due south critical that y'all prefer a mindset different than that of an individual contributor. Your task is to ensure that the individual contributors on your team produce the all-time outcomes possible.

v) Master ambiguity.

The range and complication of factors that you need to consider increases significantly at every level. When you're responsible for outlining the path to success, equally opposed to just following it, you're going to confront greater ambiguity. Your job is to sit comfortably in ambivalence, and translate it into certainty for your people. As a frontline leader, your people should have unambiguous clarity on what they need to exercise to be successful. They will look to you for balls, stability, and purpose — and if you want them to perform at their best, you need to give information technology to them. Doing so will require you to have a articulate understanding of the organization'due south long-term goals, how your team'due south individual work contributes to those goals, and the ability to distill and communicate that to your people.

6) Make cracking decisions.

The well-nigh successful companies accept something in mutual: They make smarter decisions faster than their competitors. The earlier y'all tin can main smart determination-making, the better. It starts with knowing what makes a great decision, and so learning how to undertake the procedure with a sense of urgency. And so much value is destroyed by leaders who procrastinate on decisions, wanting everyone to approve of their choices. Human activity decisively, however, and you'll create a culture of agility and excellence in your team — and that brings momentum.

Below is a checklist you can utilize to make up one's mind the quality of your choices.

Great decisions:

  • Are timely
  • Are made by a clearly accountable person
  • Are made as close to the required expertise as possible
  • Consider consultation from many different perspectives
  • Consider the holistic impacts of problems
  • Consider long- and brusque-term implications
  • Address the root cause of the problem (as opposed to merely the exhibited symptoms)
  • Are communicated appropriately

7) Drive accountability.

When accountability is shared or unclear, gaps and overlaps inevitably sally. That's why potent, unmarried-bespeak accountability is the central to successful execution. Information technology creates a completely different civilization than the all-intendance-no-responsibleness approach that comes when a leader diffuses accountabilities beyond multiple team members. 1 of the all-time tips for a new leader is this: Be answerable for everything your squad does, and concur each individual to account for what they need to deliver.

Recognizing and understanding how your context changes when you become a leader volition let you to grow, and actually thrive, in your new role. Start past developing the capabilities and disciplines that will enable yous to navigate this transition thoughtfully, and you'll be well placed to guide your new squad to success.