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When you are promoted from an individual contributor role into a leadership position, your task is going to undergo some central changes, both in a practical day-to-24-hour interval sense and in terms of the emotional and psychological impact.

To make a successful transition, you lot volition need to adapt accordingly. This will crave a shift in your focus and mindset, also as a commitment to adopting leadership disciplines that will underpin your success.

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

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

2) You have a duty of intendance.Yous used to be responsible merely for your own behavior and performance. Now, that responsibility extends to every private on your team. That means you have to ensure that your people have articulate objectives; that their physical and mental well-being are safeguarded; that they're given articulate feedback and strong direction. It also requires a balancing deed — the merchandise-off between the interests of the individual and those of the organization.

3) You're entrusted to manage resources.As a leader, you're a steward of your organization's resources — people, money, and assets. Managerial diligence demands that every conclusion you make optimizes the resources entrusted to you. This stewardship must take precedence over your own popularity, fearfulness, and self-interest: If you do the right thing by your organization, it will ultimately do the correct thing past you.

4) You lot demand to contribute more broadly.Joining a leadership team gives you lot a vocalization, which presents both an opportunity and an obligation. You're not only accountable for the outcomes of your own squad, simply also for contributing to the collective value that's delivered by the leadership team you've become a role of. Great leaders seek to optimize the overall value delivered by the broader grouping, even at the expense of their own work.

v) Yous must align yourself with the intent of senior management.Equally an individual correspondent, yous may have the luxury of existence able to criticize the decisions fabricated above yous. As a leader, you don't. Yous have to support the goals and objectives of the CEO and executive squad. This doesn't hateful you can never enquire "how" or "why," merely ultimately, you are being paid to execute and deliver on management intent — whether you lot concord with it or not. If you go along to grow and motion up to college levels, you will have greater opportunity to influence what that intent is.

The seven Imperative of Not bad Leadership

You now have a ameliorate understanding of how your role will transform. What skills practice you need to successfully accommodate to those changes?

The underlying capabilities, disciplines, and habits of great leadership tin can be learned and applied at any level. Embedding these into your toolkit at the earliest stage possible will help you navigate your kickoff leadership transition, too as any futurity transitions y'all're likely to confront.

1) Deliver value.

Your chief objective as a leader is to create value for your organization. Period.

This can seem somewhat mercenary, as our minds immediately bound to fiscal value. Merely value comes in many forms, for example: reducing the environmental bear on of your operations; making the workplace safer for your employees; garnering deeper market insights into your customers and competitors. These are just a few of the endless opportunities you lot may have to create value.

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

ii) Handle c onflict .

Almost everything yous do as a leader has the potential for conflict, and unless you can handle conflict comfortably, you'll struggle to pb. You won't exist able to negotiate effectively; you'll procrastinate on decisions that may be unpopular; yous'll find 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 cake for leadership performance.

iii) Build r esilience .

Nosotros all face disappointments, setbacks, and obstacles. Successful people simply handle the tough times better than most. They know that nothing is permanent, and they're able to weather condition the storms that bring adversity. They as well know how to capitalize on the adept luck that nosotros all meet from time to time. Facing and overcoming adversity builds resilience, and then don't shy away from it — embrace it!

iv) Work at the right level.

You're being paid to lead a team of people working at various levels. You're at the pinnacle of that pyramid now, meaning your job is to teach — non to do. If you're decorated doing your squad's piece of work for them, then you're probably not doing your own. The college yous rise in an arrangement, the farther and farther removed yous become from the heads-downwardly piece of work. As a new leader, it'due south critical that you adopt a mindset different than that of an private contributor. Your job is to ensure that the private contributors on your team produce the best outcomes possible.

five) Master ambiguity.

The range and complication of factors that yous need to consider increases significantly at every level. When you lot're responsible for outlining the path to success, equally opposed to just following information technology, you're going to face up greater ambiguity. Your job is to sit comfortably in ambiguity, and translate it into certainty for your people. As a frontline leader, your people should accept unambiguous clarity on what they need to do to be successful. They will wait to yous for assurance, stability, and purpose — and if you want them to perform at their best, you need to give it to them. Doing and so volition crave you to have a clear understanding of the organization's long-term goals, how your team's private piece of work contributes to those goals, and the ability to dribble and communicate that to your people.

half-dozen) Brand dandy decisions.

The nearly successful companies have something in common: They brand smarter decisions faster than their competitors. The before you tin main smart decision-making, the ameliorate. Information technology starts with knowing what makes a great decision, then learning how to undertake the process with a sense of urgency. So much value is destroyed by leaders who procrastinate on decisions, wanting anybody to corroborate of their choices. Human activity decisively, nonetheless, and you'll create a culture of agility and excellence in your team — and that brings momentum.

Below is a checklist you tin can use to determine the quality of your choices.

Cracking decisions:

  • Are timely
  • Are made by a conspicuously answerable person
  • Are fabricated as close to the required expertise every bit possible
  • Consider consultation from many different perspectives
  • Consider the holistic impacts of bug
  • Consider long- and brusk-term implications
  • Address the root crusade of the problem (as opposed to merely the exhibited symptoms)
  • Are communicated accordingly

7) Bulldoze accountability.

When accountability is shared or unclear, gaps and overlaps inevitably emerge. That'south why strong, single-point accountability is the primal to successful execution. It creates a completely different civilization than the all-intendance-no-responsibleness approach that comes when a leader diffuses accountabilities across multiple team members. One of the best tips for a new leader is this: Be answerable for everything your squad does, and hold each private to account for what they need to deliver.

Recognizing and understanding how your context changes when you become a leader will permit you to abound, and really thrive, in your new role. Start by developing the capabilities and disciplines that will enable you lot to navigate this transition thoughtfully, and you'll be well placed to guide your new team to success.