Know your leadership space and succeed in your new leadership role.
Your leadership space defines the framework for your leadership. To succeed in your new role as a leader, it is essential that you understand it. Read more here.
By Pernille Yde Planck, January 2021
Becoming a leader involves many new challenges, development, and learning. Sometimes the role can also feel a bit lonely. But you are not alone, and fortunately there are many places where you can find help when you are unsure how to solve a task or face challenges that you cannot handle on your own.
Your boss can be a great support when you are settling into your new role as a leader. Therefore, it is a good idea to maintain a close dialogue with him or her. Your boss can help clarify your task so that you are always on the right track.
When it comes to concrete challenges—such as with an employee or a business partner—your boss will often have both the knowledge and experience to draw upon, and can offer input on how he or she would handle the challenge.
In your collaboration with your boss, it is important that you share the knowledge you have from your part of the organization (for example, feedback from customers, employees, etc.). Many new leaders do not think about this, but sharing knowledge greatly enhances your boss’s ability to understand your tasks and challenges. In dialogue, your boss might point out areas where production or customer communication needs adjusting. In this way, your boss can support you by acknowledging your performance, coaching you for the next step, or giving you specific instructions when the task calls for it.
In addition to your boss, you also have your leadership colleagues with whom you can exchange ideas on both concrete professional tasks and your role as a leader.
One of your tasks as a new leader is to foster collaboration across the organization so that you form the strongest possible team. When you share knowledge and work together across departments, you also build a valuable network of peers. Your leadership colleagues will often face challenges similar to yours, so it can be very useful to hear what they do when they encounter obstacles or setbacks.
Remember, even if you occasionally compete for the same resources, you and your leadership colleagues still share a common overall goal.
If you have not previously received any form of leadership development, you might find that you lack concrete leadership tools. If that is the case, it can be a good idea to take a course and acquire some tools that can strengthen you in your new role.
Besides gaining new skills, a course will also give you the opportunity to meet other new leaders who might be facing the same challenges as you. You will be able to ask and get answers on how to solve concrete tasks.
On a course, you will also find that many others are dealing with exactly the same issues, dilemmas, concerns, and questions as you as a new leader. Thus, the course will provide you with multiple perspectives on your new role.
As a new leader, you may also benefit from having an external mentor. A mentor is an experienced leader who, through advice, sparring, guidance, coaching, and feedback, shares their own experiences and competencies to help you develop.
A mentor should be someone who is not directly involved in your role within your organization. That means, ideally, it should not be your own boss or someone you already work very closely with.
Your mentor should be someone who can maintain a degree of distance from your leadership tasks, and who is therefore free from the ties that bind those directly involved in your results.
If you work in a large organization, your mentor could be a leader from another division or department where your interests do not naturally overlap. If you are in a smaller organization, CfL recommends that you find an external mentor. Many offer mentor matching programs, so try searching online for a mentor scheme.
You can also use a leadership advisor as a mentor—someone who has all the tools in place and is accustomed to advising and coaching new leaders, for example, CfL’s advisors.
Finally, a professional network with other leaders at your level can be a very powerful tool in your leadership development. In a network, there is no mutual dependency in the leadership role, only a shared desire to become better leaders.
You share knowledge and inspiration, and you gain a confidential space where you can discuss concrete challenges and get independent perspectives from your peers on how to act. In this confidential setting, you can discuss issues that you might not be able to address in your own organization.
When choosing a professional network, be aware of a few things. First, it is important that the network is the right size. If there are too few members, there may not be enough dynamic interaction; if there are too many, you may lose the confidentiality and closeness needed to truly benefit from the network.
Furthermore, it is important for both your benefit and that of your organization that the network is professionally facilitated. If you are interested in learning more about CfL’s network, you can read more here.
Your leadership space defines the framework for your leadership. To succeed in your new role as a leader, it is essential that you understand it. Read more here.
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