4 Traps to Avoid as You Transition into a Leadership Role

Lisa came to me for help at the end of the first 90 days in her first C-suite role. She had started confidently, sharing her story, setting out her hopes for her new organization, and working hard to create some quick wins — but soon, the problems started piling up: Investors were confused about the strategic direction, employees felt let down by unfulfilled promises, and customers remained unimpressed by the service they received.

We reflected on what she could have done differently. We found that in her desire to impress stakeholders, Lisa had rushed to some decisions and not spent enough time learning how the organization worked. She had let the old guard block new initiatives that challenged their interests and left underperformance in some divisions unaddressed.

We also examined how she used her time between leadership roles to prepare for her next challenge. At first glance, she hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary. But without realizing it, she had coasted. Rather than taking the time to really decompress, replenish, and consider what success would look like in a brand-new role, she relied on what she knew and had done before.

Lisa attributed this approach to overconfidence in her abilities combined with a fear of what was to come. She had fallen into four traps I’ve observed in my work with C-suite executives over the last 25 years. They divert attention from what matters and impair decision-making — just when you need to be on your A-game. Here’s what to watch out for and what to do instead.

The Lingering Trap

It’s an all-too-familiar picture: You agree on a leaving date and start handing over your responsibilities to others. After all, it’s commonly accepted that contributions taper off as the end of the notice (or negotiated) period approaches.

Enjoying the adulation, you spend the time reflecting on your success and the good old days. Coworkers grab the opportunity to ask for your advice, which you gladly offer given your sense of duty and need to feel wanted. For the same reasons, you find it hard to drag yourself away from critical projects and decisions you’ve been leading; you’ve invested a lot of your brainpower and effort, and you don’t feel the team is quite ready to step up yet. You spend a lot of time helping find your successor, from contributing to the job description to interviewing candidates.

But rather than tapering off, you find yourself still immersed in the business you’ll soon be leaving. This reduces the time you have to prepare for the next role, which can mean you get off to a slow start to build and change your team. It can also leave coworkers wondering why you’re still so involved, which isn’t the best last impression to leave them with.

Instead try these practices:

• Agree on your responsibilities with your boss, including how you’ll hand over work; how you’ll be involved in identifying, recruiting, and onboarding your successor; and whether and how you’ll provide them with mentorship. Be explicit about when you will be available until, what you’ll focus on, and who you’ll pass responsibilities to.
• Name the fears that may be holding you back from moving on and identify actions you can take to mitigate them. For example, if you’re worried about how well you’ll communicate in a higher-profile role, you could engage a coach to help you develop that skill.
• Write down the achievements and strengths you’re most proud of. This brings a sense of closure to your role and helps you prepare the story you’ll share with new colleagues.
• Develop a script to help you say no to requests — for example, “I’m touched that you asked me to help you. While I’d like to, I hope you can understand that I’m now focusing on completing the last remaining tasks before I leave the organization. I’m afraid I don’t have any free capacity to take on anything else, but can I suggest you talk to […] instead?”
• Recognize that the loss of responsibility and influence — and the speed of it, as coworkers move on — may feel uncomfortable. This might also be the first time you’ve had to face a steep learning curve in quite a while. Start preparing for your new role by figuring out what you need to learn and how you’ll learn, and especially whom you need to engage.

The Adrenaline Trap

Finishing a role can leave you on a high as you soak up the adulation and reflect on your successes. You don’t want it to end, so you look for the next high. Without knowing it, you’re actually addicted to the adrenaline that comes with the pressure, challenges, and successes of a demanding leadership role. You take a vacation during the transition between roles but don’t fully rest and replenish. You worry that switching off will leave you less able to get up to speed again. Problems in family relationships and personal health issues that emerged in the previous leadership role are left to fester.

While it’s tempting to stay switched on in this way, it doesn’t allow you to build the fortitude you need to perform at your best, both at the beginning of the role and throughout your tenure. Doing so also underestimates the impact of the additional responsibility, time, and emotional weight of a new role. I’ve seen leaders suffer health issues and relationship breakdowns, often when the organization needs the most from them.

Instead, use the time during the transition to:

• Do a health check, both mental and physical, to assess your resilience and identify any problems that require a change of lifestyle.
• Sit with the emotions you may be feeling — for example, grief at losing a part of your identity or disappointment that your contribution and impact has been quickly forgotten with the arrival of your successor. Reach out to others in your network who’ve experienced similar journeys for empathy, encouragement, and advice.
• Talk to people who know you best to ask for their unvarnished view of how you’re showing up and what they think you should change.
• Look at how you lead your life day to day to identify any changes to how you sleep, exercise, eat, and drink. Select three new habits you can practice.
• Discuss the demands of your new role with important people in your life, such as spouses and children, and design the best setup that combines your professional and personal responsibilities, recognizing it will evolve.

The Judgment Trap

During the transition period, you reflect on what you learned during the selection process and start your research into the prospects and problems facing the new organization. Without realizing it, you’ve already formed some judgements about what to do, so your focus switches to how you’ll execute your plan quickly, confidently, and decisively.

The problem with this approach is that it can lead you to become overly focused on the big obstacles in the way of reaching your goals. It can prevent you from asking enough questions or listening fully to what you’re being told. This increases your odds of heading in the wrong direction, without the support of the people you need to deliver the changes.

At this stage, you need to have a set of hypotheses and assumptions — not judgements — to test systematically and with an open mind. You’re at the beginning of the learning process, not the end.

To avoid the judgement trap, use these practices during the transition period:

• Consolidate what you’ve learned about the past, present, and future of the organization from your interviews and interactions with the sponsors of your role and other colleagues. Identify any unanswered questions and information gaps.
• Identify biases or blind spots you should be mindful of, referring to any past feedback or memorable experiences. This might include being overly optimistic or prone to listening to certain types of people over others.
• Prioritize the list of questions you want answers to and the assumptions you want to test. For example, you might ask: “I’ve sensed a hesitancy to pursue product innovation. How widespread is this? What’s causing it?”
• Develop a process to test these assumptions as you look to identify quick wins and develop a blueprint for the organization. This should include reaching out to stakeholders who are both influential (such as key investors or customers) and unpredictable (radical thinkers or commentators) to understand their perspectives — remembering that you’re in listening mode and not there to give strong opinions at this stage. Ask them for their advice on where you should focus your attention and resources.

The Dogma Trap

Over the years, you’ve developed a way of doing business and a leadership style that serves you well. This includes how you make decisions, communicate strategy, design the organizational structure, encourage certain behaviors, and engage customers and partner organizations. You also look for opportunities to apply the practices of organizations and leaders you admire.

While it’s good to start learning about your new organization during your transition period, doing so with a fixed mindset — that is, force-fitting your desired model onto the new organization even if the context, strategy, or culture need something else — is risky. Imagine if you had progressed through the ranks of an organization that operated with complex structures, bureaucracy, and politics. All the know-how you developed to make it work may not be that relevant to how you lead a simpler and smaller organization that operates with greater empowerment and autonomy, but you’re still tempted to use it because it’s what you know and what you’ve seen work.

This dogmatic approach results in decisions that don’t reflect what the organization needs to prosper; in fact, in many cases, these decisions can be damaging. Instead, use a systematic approach to learn what the organization needs from you:

• Start with ambition. Ask, “At its best, what could the organization become? What will it take for us to win and against whom? What impact could it have on our customers and employees?”
• Identify the opportunities that play to the strengths of the organization. Ask, “What are the most attractive growth opportunities we should consider?”
• Understand the biggest challenges holding the organization back from performing at its best and from pursuing these opportunities. Sketch out the structures, processes, and systems that help address them.
• Map this emerging picture to what you’ve designed or observed elsewhere, identifying the elements that could work well in the next context.
• Develop a blueprint of the strategy and organizational model you can start testing in your conversations when you start the role.

Source: https://hbr.org/2024/09/4-traps-to-avoid-as-you-transition-into-a-leadership-role