What To Change When You Get Promoted

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Most leaders get promoted because they're very good at something. Then they step into the new role and keep leaning on their old skills, only now there's more to do. Honestly, I did it too.

The most successful leaders I work with look at three important areas after a promotion, or when they want to be promoted. Many leaders, if they're not being coached, take years to figure this out.

In The Leadership Pipeline, Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel name the three areas: skills, time, and values. A promotion is like flying at a higher altitude, with a new system, new people, and new dynamics. Here's how changing these areas helps you find your footing and shifts your mindset at the same time.

By the way, this happens at every level, all the way to the top. Senior executives face it as much as first-time managers do, and often more.

"The leaders who grow fastest shed how they used to succeed."

How the three areas play out when your title changes:

Skills

Skills are what you need to be able to do. At a new level, some of your best skills now belong to someone on your team, and your job is to help them use those skills well.

Ask yourself: What am I still doing because I'm good at it, and not because my role needs me to?

Time

Time is where your hours go. More of your week now belongs to strategic thinking, developing your leaders, and building relationships across the organization.

Ask yourself: If someone looked only at my calendar, what level would they guess I'm working at?

Values

Values are what you believe counts as real work. At a senior level, valuable work looks like a good conversation, a decision you helped someone else make, or a leader who no longer needs you in the room.

Ask yourself: What kind of work makes me feel useful? Is that the work my role asks of me now?

How do you let go of what isn't working?

The leaders who grow fastest shed how they used to succeed. They have the courage to let go of what used to work and shift into their higher altitude role.

So here’s my question for you: what will you achieve by taking on your new role fully?

I'd love to hear from you. Find me on LinkedIn, or email me at sarah@DreamsTransformReality.com.

Sarah Khambatta, PCC, is an ICF Executive and Leadership Coach and Past President of the ICF Los Angeles Chapter. She has coached more than 500 leaders over 14 years.

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