3 tips for success in your new leadership role

You’ve been promoted – congratulations! It’s your first leadership role, and it is something you have wanted for some time.

Nearly half of all leadership transitions fail

You are beginning to realise that there are things to plan for as well as celebrate. There is a shocking statistic that nearly half of all leadership transitions fail.

Take a look here at what McKinsey Consulting found out in their research last year:

We can see that leadership transitions can be both high risk and potentially very costly for both organisations and employees. It’s worth looking at what ‘good practice’ should include to ensure that your own transition – from that of a manager to a leader – is a success.

Now you have gained that promotion, you may find you have mixed feelings too. You may be remembering that you really enjoyed being an expert, and now you are really not so sure about what is involved with this leadership stuff, or how you will personally benefit from the change.

Leadership skills
New Leadership tips

At STL, we believe that becoming a leader is not about what you know (your expertise), but how you see things (your perception), followed by how you relate (emotional intelligence).

We believe that the first step in becoming a leader is the change in your perspective and perception.

With many different possibilities on how you see your new role, you may have many questions:
• What is different for me and what stays the same?
• What does my manager expect?*
• How do I make the change and get support?
*You may want to look at our top tips for managing upwards.

Leadership Vs Management

Leadership feels different from management. Here are our tips for what you need to do:

1. Focus on direction.
Your success is no longer about your own task or activity. It is not about operational targets or performance as a solo. Now you need to prioritise and communicate purpose, direction and achievement of the team goal.
2. Work with emotion.
Leaders make it OK for team members to talk about what they think and feel. Developing and fine tuning your Emotional Intelligence now is key. You new requirement is to build and deliver results through relationships.
3. Motivate the team.
Without learning to excite, enthuse and motivate your team, delegation is a chore. Synergy and exceeding customer expectation is something you can best achieve with and through your team.

There are many differences about being a leader and differences in the approach and work involved.

You may like to take a look at this short HBR video clip, with an INSEAD professor describing some of her frustrations in her own transition. What resonated with you?

Transitioning to become a leader may not be easy but with support, it is possible.

Remember our top three tips

Remember our top three tips of focusing on direction, working with emotion and motivating the team. This will be a good foundation for your success.

PS. If you want more to read, here are some more tips for leading well