July 15, 2025 • 14 mins
So, you got promoted — now what?
If you’ve stepped into a leadership role and thought, “Why didn’t anyone prepare me for this?” - you’re not alone. In fact, research shows that 60% of new leaders fail within their first 18 months. Not because they’re not capable, but because they weren’t equipped.
In this episode of Leveraging Operations in Leadership, we’re digging into what really happens after the promotion. Because the truth is, promotion and preparation are not the same thing.
Whether you're leading your first team or trying to get your footing after a big step up, this episode will help you shift from just surviving leadership to leading with clarity and confidence.
Ready to lead with more confidence and less overwhelm?
Check out The Leadership Shift Coaching - a powerful coaching experience to help you lead your team with purpose, clarity, and intention. 👉🏾 https://go.cignalpartners.com/leadershipshift
Join me online at The Leadership Collab on July 24th at 6 PM ET for a candid conversation on how to delegate with more clarity and confidence.
We’re talking real strategies - not theory - for getting out of the day-to-day and empowering your team to step up.
👉🏾 Save your seat here: https://go.cignalpartners.com/collab
This event is free!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey there and welcome back to Leveraging Operations
in Leadership, the podcast thathelps leaders build
high-performing teams bybridging the gap between
leadership development andoperational excellence, between
leadership development andoperational excellence.
Did you know that 60% of newmanagers fail within their first
24 months in the role?
(00:32):
That is, more than half of thepeople that are promoted into
management role actually failwithin 24 months.
It has nothing to do with howdriven they are, how smart they
are or how capable they are.
It's because many organizationspromote high-performing
(00:56):
individual contributors intomanagement roles without giving
them the tools to succeed.
Giving them the tools tosucceed.
They're expected to lead withno roadmap, no feedback, no
training, no support.
Today we're talking about whythat transition is so hard and
(01:18):
what you can do to avoidbecoming part of the 60%.
Because here's the truth theskills that got you promoted as
an individual contributor arenot the same skills that will
help you succeed as a manager.
In fact, if you try to lead byleaning on your old habits, you
are likely to burn out and takeyour team with you.
(01:41):
Let's talk about the fivecritical skills every manager
needs to develop, how theydiffer from what worked in the
last role and how to build themintentionally.
In your new role as anindividual contributor, your job
was to deliver results andmanage your workload and
(02:05):
deadlines.
You were likely rewarded forbeing fast and efficient,
independent, great execution allof the good stuff.
But once you become a manager,the rules of the game actually
change.
Your success is now measured byhow well your team performs,
(02:26):
whether your people are growing,if your projects are aligned
with business goals and if yourteam is running smoothly, with
or without you.
This transition requires a shiftin mindset, habits and skills,
so let's break down the fiveskills that separate strong
(02:48):
managers from overwhelmed ones.
The first skill set on the listis communication.
Leadership.
Communication means being ableto align your team around goals,
giving clear directions,offering timely and consistent
(03:12):
feedback and being able tomanage up, down and across.
This is important because poorcommunication leads to confusion
, delays, disengagement, rework,overwhelm teams and teams that
are not as engaged.
As a manager, your job is tocreate clarity and connection,
(03:36):
not just pass along information.
You want to make sure that youhave a communication cadence or
plan in order to help youthrough this process.
Here's a stat for you Up to 57%of managers don't give clear
direction Again, more than halfand 51% don't communicate with
(04:03):
their team consistently.
This is where a lot ofbreakdowns happen, a lot of
chaos happens, and it isavoidable, but you have to know
how to put some of these thingsin place.
The second skill set that youwant to get really good at.
The second skill you want todevelop is delegation.
(04:25):
When we're talking aboutburnout right, this is something
that will burn you out quickly.
Again, as an individualcontributor, you are responsible
for doing the work.
That's not the case, right?
So when we're talking aboutdelegation, this is the ability
to assign tasks,responsibilities and decision
(04:48):
making authority in a way thatbuilds trust and accountability,
without micromanaging.
Your job is no longer to doeverything, but what we find is
(05:11):
important, as the skill set is,is that many of the managers
more than 50% of managers feelstressed and overwhelmed, and is
largely because they struggleto delegate effectively.
If you can get this skill, ifyou can really sharpen it and
hone this skill, you are goingto be less stressed.
So, as a manager, remember,your job is no longer to do it
(05:33):
all yourself.
Delegation frees you up tofocus on leadership while
helping your team right,empowering your team and helping
them to stretch and grow andown their work.
It's also about accountability,and it also protects your
capacity and your mental health.
Focus on distributing the workand coaching through it.
(05:57):
The third skill isprioritization and planning.
Prioritization is the abilityto determine what matters most,
being able to align your teamaccordingly and manage time and
energy accordingly.
Intentionally, things can getaway from you really quickly.
(06:20):
You definitely want to makesure that you keep things
prioritized.
Everything can't be urgent.
Everything can't be urgent.
We have to be able to definepriorities.
If you're not able to definethe priorities for your team,
then your team will burn outbecause they're trying to do it
(06:44):
all and then, on top of that,not only will they burn out, but
then they'll still end upmissing the mark, and it's
really not their fault.
If you are unable to determinewhat your priorities are, then
this is an opportunity to sitwith the person you report to
and redefine what the prioritiesare for you and your team.
(07:05):
You want to make sure that youare putting forth maximum effort
in working on the things thatactually matter and things that
align with your manager's goalsand with the organization's
goals and direction.
Keep in mind you're no longerjust prioritizing your own tasks
(07:27):
.
Now you have to balancepriorities across people,
projects and strategic goals.
The fourth skill to develop iscoaching.
Skill to develop is coaching.
Coaching is helping othersdevelop their thinking, solve
(07:51):
their own problems and grow intostronger contributors.
You want them to be a strongcontributor, like you were.
That's what got you promoted.
Coaching creates autonomy.
They're able to do things ontheir own.
It creates trust and long-termperformance.
It also keeps you from becomingthe person everyone depends on
for every decision.
In essence, it stops you frombeing the bottleneck where
(08:16):
everything has to go through youand every decision has to go
through you and every questioncomes to you.
You don't want to be thebottleneck.
You want to empower your teamand you're going to do this
through coaching.
And one of the challenges isthat many new managers default
(08:38):
to giving answers or fixingproblems, not developing people,
and that's because it's easier.
If someone comes and they askyou a question, it's easier just
to give them the answer,whereas coaching requires
patience.
You have to have activelistening and you have to have
strong questions, not justsolutions, and you want to coach
(09:01):
them through how to resolvethese things.
And then what happens is, onceyou help them through this, now
they know how to do it.
They're not dependent on youall the time for this.
So you know before where youwere used to solving all of the
problems.
Now you want to develop theperson solving the problem.
(09:24):
The last skill I want to sharewith you is strategic thinking.
This one takes a whilesometimes.
Strategic thinking is seeingthe big picture.
It's going to require that youget up out of the weeds, that
you get up out of the low levelday to day, so that you can see
(09:46):
the big picture and you cananticipate the needs of your
team and align your team's workwith business priorities.
Remember, you're not justmanaging tasks, you're shaping
outcomes.
The further you go up, the moreyour value is tied to your
ability to think and actstrategically and to lead
(10:11):
through others.
Managers who lack strategicthinking tend to stay stuck in
the day-to-day weeds.
They end up missingopportunities and fail to earn
the trust of senior leadership.
One of the key things thatdiffer between when you were an
individual contributor and nowis before, you were focused on
(10:36):
execution.
Before you were focused onexecution.
Now you're looking at impactand value.
So those are the skills right.
So that's all well and fine,but how do you get started with
actually developing these skills.
Let's talk about five stepsthat you can take right now to
(10:57):
start developing each of theseskills.
The first thing you want to dois do a self-assessment Kind of
talk about this in anotherpodcast, but you want to really
be true with yourself and listout these skills and identify
which ones you're struggling inBe honest.
(11:17):
You could even ask your teamfor feedback, your peers for
feedback and your manager, theperson that you report to for
feedback.
You want honest feedback.
You want to know what yourbaseline is, where it is that
you're starting and you growfrom there.
And then step number two is tothink about your role
(11:38):
differently.
You want to reframe your role.
Here's something that you couldsay my value is no longer in
how much I get done.
It's in how well I lead othersto get the right things done.
I'm pausing so you can reallyget that and think about it.
(12:00):
My value is no longer in howmuch I get done.
It's in how well I lead othersto get the right things done,
and this is extremely importantwhen you're managing people.
Step number three you want tolearn and apply.
(12:22):
You can listen to podcasts likethis one.
You can read leadership books.
You can join training programslike the lead ops, but don't
stop at knowing.
Once you get the information,you have to apply it one skill
at a time.
Practice is the path You'regoing to learn and apply, learn
(12:45):
and apply.
So just think about informationand implementation.
The fourth step is to createfeedback loops.
As you're applying thisinformation, you want to know
how well you're doing Havingregular one-on-ones.
You can ask your team what'sworking, what's not working, ask
them how you can support thembetter.
You can ask your manager forfeedback on how well you're
(13:09):
leading.
You can again, you can ask yourpeers.
If you have people that you canget truthful feedback from, you
can ask them.
So you want to definitelycreate feedback loops because
you're doing all of this work,you're putting this out there.
You want to know if it's reallyworking or not.
And the fifth step is to staycoachable.
(13:32):
Leadership is a craft.
You're not going to master itwithin 30 days.
But stay curious, stay humble,stay consistent and you will
grow faster than most and youwill make sure that you're not a
part of the 60%.
So, in closing, you werepromoted because of your
(13:54):
strengths, but your success as amanager depends on your ability
to build new ones, and thetruth is 60% of new managers
fail.
Only 19% excel at delegationand most get little to no formal
(14:14):
training.
But that doesn't have to beyour story.
You can change the game.
If this episode resonated, besure to share it with someone
who's navigating this transitionor who needs to hear that
they're not alone.
And if you're ready to getintentional about developing
your skills, you can check outthe Lead Outs program, a 90-day
(14:39):
leadership experience designedto help you lead with clarity,
build a strategy and grow withconfidence.
Until next time, keep yourleadership in action and your
operations in motion.
Hey there and welcome back to Leveraging Operations
in Leadership, the podcast thathelps leaders build
high-performing teams bybridging the gap between
leadership development andoperational excellence, between
leadership development andoperational excellence.
Did you know that 60% of newmanagers fail within their first
24 months in the role?
(00:32):
That is, more than half of thepeople that are promoted into
management role actually failwithin 24 months.
It has nothing to do with howdriven they are, how smart they
are or how capable they are.
It's because many organizationspromote high-performing
(00:56):
individual contributors intomanagement roles without giving
them the tools to succeed.
Giving them the tools tosucceed.
They're expected to lead withno roadmap, no feedback, no
training, no support.
Today we're talking about whythat transition is so hard and
(01:18):
what you can do to avoidbecoming part of the 60%.
Because here's the truth theskills that got you promoted as
an individual contributor arenot the same skills that will
help you succeed as a manager.
In fact, if you try to lead byleaning on your old habits, you
are likely to burn out and takeyour team with you.
(01:41):
Let's talk about the fivecritical skills every manager
needs to develop, how theydiffer from what worked in the
last role and how to build themintentionally.
In your new role as anindividual contributor, your job
was to deliver results andmanage your workload and
(02:05):
deadlines.
You were likely rewarded forbeing fast and efficient,
independent, great execution allof the good stuff.
But once you become a manager,the rules of the game actually
change.
Your success is now measured byhow well your team performs,
(02:26):
whether your people are growing,if your projects are aligned
with business goals and if yourteam is running smoothly, with
or without you.
This transition requires a shiftin mindset, habits and skills,
so let's break down the fiveskills that separate strong
(02:48):
managers from overwhelmed ones.
The first skill set on the listis communication.
Leadership.
Communication means being ableto align your team around goals,
giving clear directions,offering timely and consistent
(03:12):
feedback and being able tomanage up, down and across.
This is important because poorcommunication leads to confusion
, delays, disengagement, rework,overwhelm teams and teams that
are not as engaged.
As a manager, your job is tocreate clarity and connection,
(03:36):
not just pass along information.
You want to make sure that youhave a communication cadence or
plan in order to help youthrough this process.
Here's a stat for you Up to 57%of managers don't give clear
direction Again, more than halfand 51% don't communicate with
(04:03):
their team consistently.
This is where a lot ofbreakdowns happen, a lot of
chaos happens, and it isavoidable, but you have to know
how to put some of these thingsin place.
The second skill set that youwant to get really good at.
The second skill you want todevelop is delegation.
(04:25):
When we're talking aboutburnout right, this is something
that will burn you out quickly.
Again, as an individualcontributor, you are responsible
for doing the work.
That's not the case, right?
So when we're talking aboutdelegation, this is the ability
to assign tasks,responsibilities and decision
(04:48):
making authority in a way thatbuilds trust and accountability,
without micromanaging.
Your job is no longer to doeverything, but what we find is
(05:11):
important, as the skill set is,is that many of the managers
more than 50% of managers feelstressed and overwhelmed, and is
largely because they struggleto delegate effectively.
If you can get this skill, ifyou can really sharpen it and
hone this skill, you are goingto be less stressed.
So, as a manager, remember,your job is no longer to do it
(05:33):
all yourself.
Delegation frees you up tofocus on leadership while
helping your team right,empowering your team and helping
them to stretch and grow andown their work.
It's also about accountability,and it also protects your
capacity and your mental health.
Focus on distributing the workand coaching through it.
(05:57):
The third skill isprioritization and planning.
Prioritization is the abilityto determine what matters most,
being able to align your teamaccordingly and manage time and
energy accordingly.
Intentionally, things can getaway from you really quickly.
(06:20):
You definitely want to makesure that you keep things
prioritized.
Everything can't be urgent.
Everything can't be urgent.
We have to be able to definepriorities.
If you're not able to definethe priorities for your team,
then your team will burn outbecause they're trying to do it
(06:44):
all and then, on top of that,not only will they burn out, but
then they'll still end upmissing the mark, and it's
really not their fault.
If you are unable to determinewhat your priorities are, then
this is an opportunity to sitwith the person you report to
and redefine what the prioritiesare for you and your team.
(07:05):
You want to make sure that youare putting forth maximum effort
in working on the things thatactually matter and things that
align with your manager's goalsand with the organization's
goals and direction.
Keep in mind you're no longerjust prioritizing your own tasks
(07:27):
.
Now you have to balancepriorities across people,
projects and strategic goals.
The fourth skill to develop iscoaching.
Skill to develop is coaching.
Coaching is helping othersdevelop their thinking, solve
(07:51):
their own problems and grow intostronger contributors.
You want them to be a strongcontributor, like you were.
That's what got you promoted.
Coaching creates autonomy.
They're able to do things ontheir own.
It creates trust and long-termperformance.
It also keeps you from becomingthe person everyone depends on
for every decision.
In essence, it stops you frombeing the bottleneck where
(08:16):
everything has to go through youand every decision has to go
through you and every questioncomes to you.
You don't want to be thebottleneck.
You want to empower your teamand you're going to do this
through coaching.
And one of the challenges isthat many new managers default
(08:38):
to giving answers or fixingproblems, not developing people,
and that's because it's easier.
If someone comes and they askyou a question, it's easier just
to give them the answer,whereas coaching requires
patience.
You have to have activelistening and you have to have
strong questions, not justsolutions, and you want to coach
(09:01):
them through how to resolvethese things.
And then what happens is, onceyou help them through this, now
they know how to do it.
They're not dependent on youall the time for this.
So you know before where youwere used to solving all of the
problems.
Now you want to develop theperson solving the problem.
(09:24):
The last skill I want to sharewith you is strategic thinking.
This one takes a whilesometimes.
Strategic thinking is seeingthe big picture.
It's going to require that youget up out of the weeds, that
you get up out of the low levelday to day, so that you can see
(09:46):
the big picture and you cananticipate the needs of your
team and align your team's workwith business priorities.
Remember, you're not justmanaging tasks, you're shaping
outcomes.
The further you go up, the moreyour value is tied to your
ability to think and actstrategically and to lead
(10:11):
through others.
Managers who lack strategicthinking tend to stay stuck in
the day-to-day weeds.
They end up missingopportunities and fail to earn
the trust of senior leadership.
One of the key things thatdiffer between when you were an
individual contributor and nowis before, you were focused on
(10:36):
execution.
Before you were focused onexecution.
Now you're looking at impactand value.
So those are the skills right.
So that's all well and fine,but how do you get started with
actually developing these skills.
Let's talk about five stepsthat you can take right now to
(10:57):
start developing each of theseskills.
The first thing you want to dois do a self-assessment Kind of
talk about this in anotherpodcast, but you want to really
be true with yourself and listout these skills and identify
which ones you're struggling inBe honest.
(11:17):
You could even ask your teamfor feedback, your peers for
feedback and your manager, theperson that you report to for
feedback.
You want honest feedback.
You want to know what yourbaseline is, where it is that
you're starting and you growfrom there.
And then step number two is tothink about your role
(11:38):
differently.
You want to reframe your role.
Here's something that you couldsay my value is no longer in
how much I get done.
It's in how well I lead othersto get the right things done.
I'm pausing so you can reallyget that and think about it.
(12:00):
My value is no longer in howmuch I get done.
It's in how well I lead othersto get the right things done,
and this is extremely importantwhen you're managing people.
Step number three you want tolearn and apply.
(12:22):
You can listen to podcasts likethis one.
You can read leadership books.
You can join training programslike the lead ops, but don't
stop at knowing.
Once you get the information,you have to apply it one skill
at a time.
Practice is the path You'regoing to learn and apply, learn
(12:45):
and apply.
So just think about informationand implementation.
The fourth step is to createfeedback loops.
As you're applying thisinformation, you want to know
how well you're doing Havingregular one-on-ones.
You can ask your team what'sworking, what's not working, ask
them how you can support thembetter.
You can ask your manager forfeedback on how well you're
(13:09):
leading.
You can again, you can ask yourpeers.
If you have people that you canget truthful feedback from, you
can ask them.
So you want to definitelycreate feedback loops because
you're doing all of this work,you're putting this out there.
You want to know if it's reallyworking or not.
And the fifth step is to staycoachable.
(13:32):
Leadership is a craft.
You're not going to master itwithin 30 days.
But stay curious, stay humble,stay consistent and you will
grow faster than most and youwill make sure that you're not a
part of the 60%.
So, in closing, you werepromoted because of your
(13:54):
strengths, but your success as amanager depends on your ability
to build new ones, and thetruth is 60% of new managers
fail.
Only 19% excel at delegationand most get little to no formal
(14:14):
training.
But that doesn't have to beyour story.
You can change the game.
If this episode resonated, besure to share it with someone
who's navigating this transitionor who needs to hear that
they're not alone.
And if you're ready to getintentional about developing
your skills, you can check outthe Lead Outs program, a 90-day
(14:39):
leadership experience designedto help you lead with clarity,
build a strategy and grow withconfidence.
Until next time, keep yourleadership in action and your
operations in motion.
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