How to Ease the Giant Leap from Individual Contributor to Leader
It happens all the time: A high performer who is functioning as an individual contributor is promoted to a leadership position, responsible for a team or an operating group. It seems like the best next step in their career journey and an ideal way to reward their achievements.
Yet, the differences between an individual contributor role and a leadership role are vast and often underestimated. As a result, employees often struggle with the transition—sometimes to the point that they leave the company (or worse, are asked to leave due to poor performance).
By understanding what makes this leap so challenging, organizations can ease the transition and equip high performers to succeed in new and different roles.
The Key Pain Points
It’s typical for companies to promote their top sales rep to district manager or national sales manager, or to move the strongest software developer into a role that involves managing a team of developers. Most organizations assume the logical next step for a high performer is a leadership role within the same functional area.
But, the two types of roles could not be more different, from every perspective. The skills, capabilities, and mindsets that enabled the employee to excel as an individual contributor are unlike those that they’ll need to succeed in a position that requires managing others and leading a team. In addition, the dynamics involved will be unfamiliar to an employee who has never served in such a role.
Consider all the ways that a leadership role differs from an individual contributor role and why those variances might prove challenging to navigate.
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Differences in motivation. Individual contributors are typically evaluated on and driven by achieving a set of personal goals. As a new leader, they must learn how to inspire and motivate a group to achieve its collective goals. The leader is responsible for the overall success of the team.
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Greater need for empathy. While it’s helpful for an individual contributor to possess the empathy to be a good teammate, it’s imperative for a leader to be able to understand and empathize with the needs and perspectives of each person on their team. Effective collaboration is crucial for leaders, as they work to align the team and inspire collective effort toward shared objectives.
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More emphasis on conflict resolution. An individual contributor might need to resolve conflict one-on-one with a teammate, and if the situation escalates beyond their comfort or capability, they’re likely to ask a supervisor for help. On the other hand, a leader is tasked with resolving conflict within the team more broadly, often dealing with complex situations and problems.
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Delegating for the first time. Though each situation is different, individual contributors don’t often delegate work unless they’re asked to offload tasks to a peer who performs the same job. But effective delegation is essential for any leader, both to balance the workload and to help team members develop new skills. New leaders need to become comfortable with this responsibility and develop an approach that ensures they can set expectations properly, “inspect what they expect,” and recognize what support each individual needs when the delegated work involves a development opportunity.
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Heightened need for self-awareness. Individual contributors need good self-awareness, so they can leverage their strengths and work on their areas for improvement. For leaders, self-awareness applies more broadly. A new leader must understand how their emotions and behaviors impact the team as a whole and learn how to avoid letting any negative natural tendencies (such as a lack of composure or impulsiveness) impact their direct reports. How you “show up” every day impacts your entire team more directly when you’re their leader vs their peer.
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Greater need for reflection. At a high level, accomplishing work involves three main activities: Planning, doing, and reflecting. Individual contributors tend to focus on doing, with some planning to map out how and when they’ll do the associated tasks. Once they move to a leadership role, they’ll need to spend a greater percentage of their time and energy on reflecting: What is working well within my team vs where do we need to improve? How is my leadership style enhancing (or hindering) the team’s progress? Thoughtful questions like these must become part of a continual process of reflecting and adjusting to achieve the best results.
Across these role differences, one of the most important underpinnings is emotional intelligence. Typically, individual contributors with high emotional intelligence will have less difficulty overcoming the obstacles they’ll encounter in making the transition.
When employees have difficulty moving into a leadership role for the first time, the consequences reverberate across the organization. Turnover usually increases—not only involving the struggling new leader but also any direct reports who lose trust or become disgruntled, especially if the team develops its own negative mini-culture. Silos develop or become more entrenched when new leaders aren’t equipped to build productive cross-functional relationships. And if the new leader takes an administrative approach to the job—simply managing tasks vs motivating and coaching others to achieve collective goals—the team will lose alignment with the company’s mission and objectives.
Best Practices for Smoothing the Transition
Equipping high performers to cross the chasm from individual contributor to leader is essential to their own success and the company’s success. Leading organizations have found the following steps invaluable in achieving this goal.
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Develop role-based competencies. Setting up new leaders for success starts with defining the competencies the role requires. That sets the foundation to evaluate the internal candidate’s preparedness for the job, gauge their likelihood for success, decide whether to move forward with the promotion, and identify skill gaps that require training and development.
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Approach internal onboarding thoughtfully. Just as you would provide comprehensive onboarding for an external hire, make onboarding a priority for an employee promoted from individual contributor to leader. With the competency model as your roadmap, identify areas of support that will help these individuals make a smooth transition. For example, they’ll likely need guidance on how to lead their former peers—a unique dynamic that’s challenging to navigate.
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Provide targeted coaching. Anyone moving to a new role can benefit from coaching, but it’s particularly valuable for first-time leaders. An experienced coach can identify what the individual most needs to improve to succeed, then provide targeted support that moves them along a continuum of enhancing their skills.
Even the highest-performing individual contributors will experience challenges as they move into the unfamiliar role of leader. But with the right support, they can work through them successfully and ultimately thrive as an effective team leader.
The Leadership Advisory Practice at Odgers Berndtson helps organizations discover and develop leaders, strengthen value-creating teams, and prepare for what’s next. Learn how our highly experienced assessors and coaches can help you and your team make a positive impact on your organization and those around you.