Taking on a leadership role is exciting, an accomplishment you’ve worked towards for many years. However, it also comes with new challenges and expectations you may not fully understand until you have been in the role for some time. You’ll make mistakes along the way, everyone does, but avoiding common new leadership mistakes can ease your transition into the role.
Getting promoted into leadership, especially in the C-suite, typically comes with high confidence. By this point in their careers, leaders have had enough success to earn self-confidence. However, overconfidence in a new role can lead to some challenges. A recent article from Harvard Business Review examines some common pitfalls.
Lingering Trap
Once you have accepted a new role, you begin transitioning your current work. The attention is flattering as you receive congratulations from your team and peers. You continue to contribute to the active projects and provide your input into the needs of your replacement. By staying so involved, others may wonder why you’re still engaging instead of delegating the work. And you’re shortening your time to start preparing for the next role.
Could you work with your current leadership to develop a transition plan to address this? This can include a timeline of all active projects, along with the new point person and their anticipated start date. How involved will you be with getting your replacement up to speed, assuming you’ll still be there when the person starts?
Adrenaline Trap
Getting a new leadership role has you riding high. It feels great, and the rush of taking on new responsibilities is addictive. Instead of relaxing and recharging between roles, you don’t want to disengage and remain intensely focused. This level of emotional engagement can take a toll on your work, family, and health.
This is the perfect time for self-awareness and taking an inventory of your mental, emotional, and physical states. While it can be challenging to slow down, take the time to be with your thoughts and self-reflect. What are you going to miss about your old role? What excites you about the new role? Reach out and discuss with friends and colleagues how you’re presenting yourself.
Judgment Trap
You learned a lot about the new company during the interview process. Now that the time has come to transition from your old company, you have the opportunity to reflect on all that you’ve learned, and without realizing it, you have already developed some biases. In doing so, your initial approach will reinforce these biases, and you may miss crucial aspects that you aren’t yet aware of.
Keep an open mind and remain curious as you begin your new role. You’re at the beginning of a new journey, and it may resemble your previous roles, but that doesn’t mean the solution is the same. Treat your initial ideas as a hypothesis that you are seeking to prove or disprove. Ask questions and engage your team, leadership, and others to get more context.
Dogma Trap
At this point in your career, you have found your leadership style. How you communicate, make decisions, lead teams, interact with clients, etc. You are comfortable with your approach, and it helped you in landing the job. But don’t be so attached to it that you’re unable to adapt to the new culture you’ll be part of.
Seek to understand the culture once you’re fully established in the role. How are decisions made? How does the leadership team manage? What processes do they use? What are the challenges that are keeping the company from performing at a higher level?
Yes, the first 90 days are crucial for demonstrating your capabilities. However, it’s also essential to understand the culture you’re entering. “Be intentional about how you leave, replenish your energy and relationships, and learn about what it takes to succeed in your new role.”
For additional solutions to the four traps, we recommend reading the full article. And if you are hiring at the executive level and need guidance or support, send us a note, and one of our executive recruiters will follow up with you.