The leadership shift

If you've recently stepped into a management or leadership role, there's a tension you probably feel almost every day. That nagging sense of being pulled in two directions at once – the work you used to do, and the work you're now supposed to be doing.

You know the feeling. Getting stuck in the weeds doing the work rather than thinking strategically. The sheer volume of requests, demands and needs arriving each day feeling overwhelming. Struggling all day with routines that prevent focusing on what matters most.

Sound familiar? You're not alone. This is the single most common struggle facing new leaders.

The problem is simple: you were promoted because you were brilliant at doing the work. Now you're expected to stop doing that work – or at least do much less of it – and instead help others do it.

But nobody tells you how to make that shift.

The uncomfortable truth is that doing the work feels productive. It's tangible. You can tick it off a list. Managing people? That's messier. The feedback loop is longer. And when things get stressful, our brains naturally pull us back towards what feels safe and competent.

The Center for Creative Leadership puts it simply: new managers "often struggle at making the identity shift needed as they transition from being an individual contributor doing the work themselves, to a leader of others in doing their work."

For years, leadership researchers debated whether effective leaders should be "task-focused" or "people-focused." The research now gives us a clear answer: effective leaders do both.

A 2017 meta-study, for example, drawing on 89 independent research pieces, found that both task-oriented and person-oriented leadership behaviours have a positive relationship with team performance.

This matters because many new managers feel they have to choose. Either they crack the whip on tasks, or they focus on relationships. The evidence says this is a false dichotomy.

Thus, leaders who successfully balance their own work with management responsibilities do three things consistently:

To get you started on the road to a more balanced an integrated leadership approach, here are 3 actions you can take right away.

Before you can change how you spend your time, you need to understand how you're currently spending it. For one week, track everything in 30-minute blocks. At the end of each day, categorise:

Most new managers are shocked by the results. Be honest with yourself: if you're doing work that someone on your team could do (even if not quite as well), that's not management.

Never wait for free time to develop. The way your days are as a new leader, that is never going to happen. Time should be scheduled.

Block out specific times for:

Treat these blocks as non-negotiable. When someone asks to schedule over them, your default answer is no.

This is may be the hardest shift. Stop measuring your value by what you personally produce. Start measuring it by what your team produces.

A day spent coaching a struggling team member is productive – even if you didn't tick anything off your own to-do list. A week where your team delivered a great outcome without your direct involvement is a massive success – not a sign you're becoming irrelevant.

The transition from doing to leading is genuinely one of the hardest shifts in a professional career. It requires letting go of the very things that made you successful.

But the leaders who make this shift successfully don't just become more effective. They become more satisfied in their roles.

You were promoted to build a team that achieves more together than any individual could alone.

That's your job now. And it's worth protecting the time to do it properly.

We’ll cover more on this theme next week.

All of my posts for new leaders are here.

Coaching - I have a few spots available for 1 to 1 coaching. I can help you with any of the people leadership challenges you might be facing. There are more details here.