The transition into formal leadership introduces new dynamics, shifting expectations, and evolving workplace relationships. As new managers adjust to increased responsibility, they must balance the opportunities that come with a leadership title while also navigating the challenges and emotional complexities of this pivotal career stage.
Key Insights
- Moving into management changes team dynamics, requiring the leader to develop new relationships with colleagues, former peers, and direct reports.
- Responses to a new leader may vary—from encouragement and support to resistance or uncertainty, particularly among former teammates.
- Fully growing into a leadership role often takes up to two years, allowing time to experience a full leadership cycle and refine strategies with confidence.
This lesson is a preview from our Leading Through Relationship-Building Course Online & Emerging Leader Certificate Program. Enroll in a course for detailed lessons, live instructor support, and project-based training.
Welcome back. Let's just consider some of the things that you may have thought of or considered as you were working through Exercises 1-2. Let's talk about management.
You have a formal title now. Oh my goodness gracious, it may mean that you are one of them. Now you are aligned with a completely different perspective within the organization.
And so obviously, your responsibilities, your support, your focus point, who you represent, have shifted. And it may be met with a lot of applause because people see you as the exact right person to be in this position. And then again, depending on who's experiencing you in this new position, they might have a less positive approach to that.
So ideally, as you move into management, you are embraced and supported by those around you who are welcoming you and supporting you in your new role. You have a new set of colleagues. Now you're the new team leaders.
Those other team leaders who have been established for any length of time are now your colleagues, and they also can provide a great source of information, support, guidance, and advice. Former co-workers. Well, in an ideal situation, they're applauding your success in moving into a more formal position.
And yeah, but let's be honest. Might there have been some co-workers who wanted that same position and didn't get it? Might there be some resistance? Might there be some jealousy? Well, yeah, that's possible. It's not impossible to overcome, but I do think going into a new position, we should be able to prepare ourselves for the fact that maybe not everyone is applauding us quite the way that we had hoped, but they will soon, with your quality leadership skills.
New followers that you may be leading in a formal way. They may be new to you, and you may be new to them, but chances are pretty high that they've heard something about your reputation. So again, you have somewhat of a new slate with them, but certainly they are going to be seeking information about who this person is, what we know about them, and what we think is going to happen as this person is our new leader.
What an opportunity for you to show your strength. What an opportunity for you to positively influence the people around you. What an opportunity for you to effect change within the organization.
And so moving into formal leadership, yeah, it does require some adjustments on everybody's part, but the opportunities, I would hope, far outweigh any of the challenges or difficulties that you may find. And what are those potential challenges? Well, it takes time for everyone to adjust. It takes time for people to build trust.
It takes time for you to really build your own confidence in your new leadership role, if this is brand new to you. And in fact, this may be good news or bad news, for those who are moving into their first formally titled leadership role, it's not unusual for it to take almost two years to really feel like you own that position. And there's a logical reason why.
It takes one year to go through the cycle of being that leader, and the second year of fine-tuning what you have done in the first year, and applying the skills and the knowledge and the information about the people that you are leading and the context in which you are leading to really come to fruition. So a lot of patience is required as you change these relationships. But again, if we are thinking about what these changing relationships can do for us and do for the people around us as positive influences for all of us, then I think we can be patient with the two years that it takes.
