How to take care of newly promoted Leaders.

Being promoted is brilliant!

For the person being promoted, they’ll be proud and maybe even relieved. They’ll have been working on their career and it will probably mean a lot to them.

For you, they’ll be an example (hopefully a good one – but that’s a whole different blog topic!) of positive internal talent management and career progression.

But, are they really ready?

It will be impossible for them to be 100% ready straight away to deliver the level of performance you need from them in this new Leadership role.

If it’s their first Leadership role, then they’ll be facing real-life leadership challenges for the first time. Those being promoted to more complex or bigger leadership roles will be taking on different leadership challenges and more strategic responsibilities.

Even if they’ve had some training and undertaken shadowing and mentoring, there is nothing like the realities of facing a new role.

So, what are you doing to take care of these newly promoted Leaders? Here are a few ideas or tips to think about.

Be realistic about their level of vulnerability and comfort with it.

There’s joy with being promoted, as this person is being recognised and identified as worthy of leading in your organisation. However, it may also come with a level of pressure and feelings of being an imposter resulting in them not being as comfortable sharing where they are struggling or unsure of what they need to do.

Continue or start building a relationship with them and be sure not to be judgmental so they get a positive reaction if they do share a concern. Ideally, if budgets or internal resources allow – get them a coach. This gives them a confidential space to explore their vulnerabilities and identify strategies to address those, individually or by building the confidence to speak up.

Tell them what you need from them.

Have you been clear what being a Leader in your organisation means? There’s no need to make this more difficult by not clarifying what’s required of them.

Help them identify what they need to be prioritising and what this new role means for them.

Don’t leave developing and coaching until later.

As with point one, coaching will really help enable and empower new and promoted leaders. Do this early on, so you get maximum benefit. This also includes leadership development.

There are very few people who can just lead people, teams, departments, or organisations without some level of development. Even people who have very natural leadership skills, will still need support to learn how to be a great leader and keep growing.

If they have no formal training on how to lead – you must prioritise this. You cannot expect them to lead well without an investment in developing their skills. By failing to do this, you risk their well-being and the well-being, performance, and engagement of the team they are now leading.

Set them up with a mentor and buddy.

A mentor and buddy are different.

The mentor should be someone who can help and support them as they step into this new role. They’ll have experienced this transition and gone beyond it. Make sure that this is someone who really does represent the leadership capabilities you want to see in your organisation.

The buddy should be someone at the same level they are stepping into and can help them understand the reality of leading in your organisation. They are someone to seek advice from and navigate new ways of working. Again, select someone who can be a positive role model.

Prepare their Line Manager for this new Leader.

One of the biggest challenges that new and promoted Leaders face is the relationship and/or support that they receive from their new line manager. This can be understandable as this person is likely to be very busy and in a senior leadership role. However, this is again about strengthening leadership and leadership capabilities throughout your organisation.

Work with this senior line manager on what they need to be doing to enable the transition of this promoted leader to be successful. This may flag up the development and support that this Leader needs.

If there are going to be real challenges with this Leader being capable and/or available for support, then you need to identify how else to provide the required support.

People Team check-in and relationship building.

Building a relationship with this Leader in a new role is really important. Creating a space where they can overcome concerns of vulnerability, building trust and recognising you as a source of support and development will benefit both of you.

You absolutely need to be clearly setting out with them the role of your team but also start working through the support that they need from you.

Set up regular check-ins so that the relationship and rapport building can grow and start giving them feedback and support them to become the brilliant and independent Leaders, you’ll want them to be.

Paying particular attention to the Leaders you are promoting will make a significant difference to their successful transition into this new and very important role. It isn’t just about the experience you are enabling for them and their team, but there’s a business benefit to getting this right. A CEB report found that, when leaders have a poor transition into a new role, on average, this negatively impacts the performance of their team by 15%.

Getting the onboarding experience of promoted leaders matters, and I hope I’ve shared some valuable ideas to set you up for success in doing this.