In his much acclaimed 2007 book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Executive Coach Marshall Goldsmith contends that people who achieve a certain level of success end up believing that they do not need to change. As a result, they might fail miserably in their new position. This is because of the delusion that “If I’m successful, why change what is working?”

In a way, Mr. Goldsmith’s affirmation is similar to the 1970’s management concept known as the Peter Principle, which states that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their “level of incompetence”. The principle reflects the fact that employees are promoted based on their past success until they reach a position in which they are no longer competent, because they do not possess the right set of skills to succeed in that position.

Both concepts suggest that the key to success when stepping into a new role is continuous improvement, learning new skills. While this is definitely true, my experience has taught me that there are 5 actions that any leader stepping into a new role needs to implement in order to maximize his chances for success.

1. Start with a plan

As a new leader, having a plan to start your job as a seasoned executive or a first-time manager is paramount to success. You must hit the ground running with your boss, internal and external customers, and your team from Day 1. A well-crafted 90-day plan is a good place to start, with major milestones at 30, 60 and 90 days. There is abundant literature on what a good 90-day plan should look like but essentially, based on my experience, it should focus on this: Learning from your team, get quick wins, build alliances. I will share more of my thoughts on that in a future post. Your plan should also focus on telling the hard truth you discover to your boss (what are the real problems, the hidden skeletons, etc.) You need to engage the upper levels and get their support too, for instance in order to deliver the quick wins your team needs in order to trust you.

2. Get personal and vulnerable with your team

As you start in your new role, chances are, your direct reports will not have been part of the decision to hire you. In order to succeed, you must win them so that they feel they can trust you and they follow your lead. The most powerful way to do this in my experience is to have an all-team meeting at which you will introduce yourself. And I really mean this should be like your first task, even before meeting your direct reports individually, or start talking to anyone else in the company. In this meeting, you should focus on you, who you are, how you work, how you want to interact with people. Your team needs to see that they can trust you. You should therefore also relate a bit to your personal life. Tell a story, show them you are human, and you are not invincible. This is how people will connect to you as their leader.

3. Come with a pioneer mind

From the second point above, comes this one. Although people will want to understand that you are capable of doing the job, never ever present yourself as the “I know it all” type of leader. On the contrary, show that you are craving for learning. I call it having a pioneer mind, which means you are curious to discover things, people, etc. You must understand that as the new leader, you need other people’s help, you need to rely on them to learn, you need to be taught from them. One very powerful statement I made to my team back in 2016 when I started a new job was “I am not coming to Germany to tell you how to work. I know nothing of the business you’re dealing with. I come here with the mind of a pioneer and I am here to learn from you and to support you.” This statement was critical in my earning trust from my team and set the expectation that I was here to support and serve them, not to be the one reaping the rewards.

4. Have a coach mindset

This may come as a shock to some, but as a manager and leader, your role is to lead a team of human beings, i.e. take care of the well-being of people. This is it and if you do this, this is how you and your team will perform at a high level. Let me repeat this again: Your job is about caring for people for whom you are responsible. Frankly, if you are not spending 70% or more of your time focusing on your people, you should not be a manager, because you are not doing your job.

The best way a leader can support and serve their teams is by having a coach mindset. By this, I mean being deeply and honestly curious about your people, what their goals are, how they feel about their work. I mean asking them powerful questions that allow them to reflect on what is important to them and for their work; asking them powerful questions that tell you what their goals and aspirations are, so that you understand how you can best support their career growth. I mean being able to listen to them at a higher level of awareness in order to identify their struggles, their connections with the work and other people in the team. Being able to lead as a coach will allow you to bring your team performance to a much higher level while at the same time enhance your leadership presence significantly.

5. Hire an executive coach

All of the above is hard to do, and does not come easy for most people to put into practice, especially if you have never been trained to act as a leader, if you have never developed the skills that allow you to empower a team and have people want to perform for you. Frankly, when you become a first-time manager or you are promoted to that new role that you have been craving for, it feels great, but only for a moment. After that adrenaline rush often comes the realization that you are missing critical skills, you don’t know how to lead a team, you become scared about failing, about being alone without any support, etc. Therefore, the best move you can do even before starting on a new job is to hire a coach. A coach will help you focus on what is important in your new role in order to succeed; a coach will create a courageous space for you where you can design your action plan for stepping into a new role; a coach will support you during the entire process of becoming a leader. Before I got the role I now have, back in 2016, I was exactly at that place: In front of an incredibly rewarding new job and position that was then a great achievement in my career. At the same time, I was scared to death to fail miserably. Hiring a coach has been the best career decision I have ever made, because it allowed me to focus on what it meant to be a trusted leader, and to develop a high-performance team.

I’d like to hear from you on any other actions you believe are critical in order to succeed as you step into a new role.

For comments or questions, please visit my website or contact me at pascal@p-m-coaching.com