Why Newly Appointed Leaders Fail
Why Newly Appointed Leaders Fail
Whether an organization promotes an employee from within or spends months recruiting, interviewing and vetting candidates externally, there’s always room for failure.
With any change, there are going to be growing pains and stumbling blocks, but if your organization is planning to promote or hire a new leader to drive your organization forward, it’s important to be aware of where things can go wrong (and how you can avoid missteps in the first place).
Here are the top four reasons newly appointed leaders fail.
They Don’t Understand the Role or Responsibilities
We see it all too often: an employee is promoted into a management position and assumes that their new role is merely a ‘bigger’ version of what they’ve been doing all along. Newly appointed leaders must understand that what worked at one level won’t necessarily work for the next.
Starting a new position before understanding the job description can lead to mistakes, damaged relationships, hindered productivity, and ultimately failure. Moving into a leadership position requires a new mindset, as you shift from ‘me’ to ‘we.’ Successful leaders are skilled in organizing other people to reach a shared goal, motivating staff to complete tasks on a set schedule, and building strong teams that ensure projects and business objectives are met successfully.
They Don’t Manage Their Energy
New managers often mistakenly assume that success is measured by longer hours, fewer breaks and perpetual exhaustion. When, in fact, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. No one thrives when they’re running at 150% or operating from their breaking point.
Facing increasing demands and steep learning curves at work takes a toll on physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. To avoid burnout, employers need to shift their emphasis from getting more out of people to investing more in their people. At the same time, individuals need to be hyper-aware of their energy-draining habits and behaviours and then take responsibility for changing them.
They Act Like the Player, Not the Coach
Micromanagement can be tempting, but it isn’t the most productive leadership style. Spending too much time observing or controlling employees can be demoralizing and counter-intuitive. The desire for control creates added stress and tension in the workplace, damages employee trust and increases turnover.
Becoming a great leader means giving up control over every last detail and metric, trusting your team with the operations, and ensuring that you have the checkpoints in place for constructive feedback and course correction when needed.
They Fail to Align Individual Goals with Strategic Objectives
Aligning organizational goals for success requires consensus from each member of the leadership team. To be successful, new leaders must have insight into corporate strategies, pressing issues, and who is responsible for what in aligning goals and accomplishing them.
Employers play a critical role in setting newly appointed leaders up for success, providing the resources, guidance and plan to help them realistically meet business goals.
Are you ready to help guide and nurture your high potential leaders? Cenera’s leadership and job management coaches are experts in supporting individuals as they transition into the next level with leadership.
Contact Cenera today to book your consultation
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