The Top 3 Mistakes of New Leaders
As she moved from being a social media specialist to directing a communications team of 5, Leanne found it tough to let her old job go. She’d hop on her organization’s social media account here and there to make a post, then wonder where the time had gone. And she’d end up redoing materials created by the person handling her old role. At the end of the week, she’d be exhausted and overwhelmed, with a task list of leadership priorities waiting to be addressed—and irritated direct reports.
Stepping into an advanced role means transitioning from a doer to a leader. If you’re used to being an individual contributor or a subject-matter expert, that requires a mindset shift. Doing the same things that brought you recognition before can actually harm your success in your new role.
As you navigate this transition, it’s easy to make a few common leadership blunders. Let’s walk through the most critical pitfalls faced by new leaders. By learning to overcome them, you’ll enhance your ability to get things done and cultivate strong teamwork.
Trying to do everything
New leaders often have trouble stepping away from their old job into a strategic leadership mindset. They may identify strongly with their previous role and feel a deep sense of responsibility for its success. So, they try to tackle their old job and their new one at the same time, thinking they can do it all and do it well. This can also show up as micromanaging the person who has taken over their former role.
What’s the answer? Work to streamline your focus. Here are a few ways to do that:
“Quit” your old job. Write (just for yourself) a formal resignation letter naming the tasks and responsibilities you’ll no longer be doing personally. Take a moment to let that sink in. Post it by your desk for the first couple of weeks if need be.
Get to know the person filling your old role to build trust. Learn about their background and what drives them. Spend time talking one on one to build a relationship. You’ll feel better about leaving them in charge of it when you know their capabilities.
Make sure that person understands the results needed, share advice on the process you used, and be approachable, but then let go of how they carry out the work. If you’re their supervisor, coach them to success by sharing clear feedback.
Write up a list of your main priorities to get out of individual contributor mode. In your new role, you should be directing the team each day and helping remove obstacles to each person’s success, guiding them through problem-solving efforts.
By following these steps, you’ll also lay the foundation for strong relationships with your team.
2. Not taking the balcony view of the work
New leaders often get stuck in the weeds, immersed in the details instead of focusing on the big picture. They need to transition into strategic work, which requires a higher level of thinking and a wider lens
How can you take this broad perspective?
Spend time creating your strategic vision. Where can your work in this new role take you and your organization? If you could achieve anything, what would it be? Reflect on these questions, lay out your ambitions, and don’t hold back!
Create a mind map. This exercise can help you internalize the new scope of your work, especially if you’re a visual thinker. Plus, the finished project could hang on your wall as a daily reminder. Start with a central idea, like “My role as a leader,” in the center of the page. Then add main branches leading out from it to represent main areas of focus and smaller ones branching off from them with details supporting each area.
Learn to distinguish between what’s urgent and what’s important—and which types of tasks in each group you need to handle. The higher you advance, the more you’ll be confronted by seemingly urgent needs on a daily basis. Set firm boundaries around your time for focusing on higher-level priorities, drawing a hard line between true emergencies and everyday demands.
Delegate strategically. Some of those “urgent” tasks could be handled by direct reports, for example.
In these ways, you’ll tame your schedule while accomplishing more of value.
3. Not recognizing your power
Often new leaders are “messy about power.” This means they don’t own their newfound power or realize that other people are going to be seeing them through this lens. They let others view and treat them as though nothing has changed—which minimizes their impact in their new role.
How can you tap into this power and feel comfortable embodying it?
Build trust by owning your power. Not owning it can lead to feelings of betrayal down the road when you need to take strong action. If you’re managing former coworkers, be upfront about how your relationship has changed. Be intentional about taking charge instead of acting as though you’re a peer, setting the right tone early on.
Get clear about which decision-making modes you’ll use in which situations. For some, you might make decisions jointly as a team through voting or consensus. For others, you might consult with the team to get input but make the decision yourself. And for others, like fast-moving, high-stakes situations, you might simply inform people of your choice.
Practice using radical candor by giving effective positive and developmental feedback. Accept that it may feel uncomfortable at first, but it also shows that you care. Honest, caring feedback prepares the people you supervise to advance while reinforcing teamwork and collaboration.
Instead of focusing on social media tasks, Leanne caught up on one-on-ones with the people she supervised. She mentored the person handling her old role as she honed her voice in representing the organization. She did some big-picture visioning about what she wanted to accomplish. As a result, Leanne began to act and feel like a leader, fully stepping into her power!
Have you recently stepped into a new leadership role and want support to thrive in your new role? Coaching is a fantastic resource during this time of transition. Let’s chat to see what’s possible. You may also want to apply to the next cohort of the Women’s Leadership Incubator!
Sources
The Management Center, “Modes of Decision-Making”
https://www.managementcenter.org/resources/modes-decision-making/
Project Management Institute, “Mind Mapping”
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/mind-mapping-advantage-think-creatively-6554
Radical Candor, “6 Key Lessons for Every New Manager”
https://www.radicalcandor.com/lessons-new-managers/
Radical Candor, “Brutal Honesty Is Not Radical Candor: 6 Ways You’re Getting Radical Candor Wrong and 6 Ways to Get It Right”
https://www.radicalcandor.com/radical-candor-not-brutal-honesty/
Rita Sever, Leading for Justice
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58356611-leading-for-justice