You have promoted someone into leadership and want to get their first term right
A capable colleague has moved into a leadership post, and how the first term is handled will shape how they lead from here.
Someone who was very good at their previous job now holds a leadership post. Nothing has gone wrong. The task is to get the transition right while it is still cheap to do so, because the habits formed in a first term tend to be the ones that last.
Presenting symptoms
- They are still doing a version of their previous job alongside the new one.
- They ask you to confirm decisions that are theirs to make.
- Their team is unsure what has changed since the appointment.
Possible causes
- What the post actually requires may never have been described beyond the job advert.
- They may be leading the way they were led, which may or may not suit them.
- They may be reluctant to assert authority over people who were peers last term.
- They may be holding on to their previous role because it is where they know they are good.
They are not clear what the post actually requires.
Your most useful next step: Agree the three or four things this post exists to deliver, in a meeting rather than in an email, and set the dates you will look at each one together.
Lead behaviours
They are still doing their old job as well as the new one.
Your most useful next step: Name what they stop doing, arrange for someone else to pick it up, and say publicly that it has moved so they are not blamed for dropping it.
Lead behaviours
They are hesitant to lead people who were peers last term.
Your most useful next step: Give them one decision to announce and hold that is unambiguously theirs, back it visibly if it is questioned, and afterwards talk about how it felt rather than only about whether it worked.
Lead behaviours
They are doing well, and you are unsure how closely to stay involved.
Your most useful next step: Ask what they want checked and what they want left alone, agree it, and keep the regular meeting even when nothing is wrong.
Lead behaviours
Core behaviours
The person you promoted is not the same person in this job as in the last one. What they found easy as a teacher may be the hardest part of leading, and the support cannot be tailored until you know which.
A new leader who is corrected more often than they are thanked stops taking the risks the post needs. This behaviour determines whether they bring you problems early or late, which matters more in a first term than anything else.
New leaders lead the way they have been led. How you chair a meeting, deliver a decision or handle a complaint in their first term becomes their working model of the job.
A promotion is a handover, and most are done badly. Handing on the post without handing on the authority that belongs to it is the commonest way a new leader is set up to struggle.
Most of what overwhelms a new leader is ambiguity rather than difficulty. Three or four things the post exists to deliver, with dates attached, removes more anxiety than any amount of reassurance.
Secondary behaviours
Use this when setting out what the post is for. A new leader who understands why the role exists can make the judgement calls you did not anticipate.
Use this where they are still carrying their previous job. Naming what they stop is more useful than adding to what they start.
Use this when deciding how closely to stay involved. New leaders usually know what they want checked and what they want left alone, and are rarely asked.
Use this to keep the regular meeting in place when nothing is wrong. A meeting that only happens when there is a problem teaches a new leader to conceal problems.
A useful first action
Write down the three or four things this post exists to deliver, and ask them to do the same separately. Compare the two lists at your next meeting and settle the differences.
Suggested approach
- Agree what the post exists to deliver, in three or four items, comparing your list with theirs before settling it.
- Name what they stop doing from their previous role, arrange the handover, and say publicly that it has moved.
- Hand over the authority that belongs to the post rather than only the work, and back their first visible decision.
- Ask what they want checked and what they want left alone, and hold to the answer.
- Keep the regular meeting when nothing is wrong, and thank more often than you correct.