Transitioning from Manager to Leader - Shifting your thinking

Posted on September 09, 2020 by Polly Wain, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

Here are some examples of the shift (mindset and skills – to unlearn, let go of and learn) from being a Manager to being a Leader:

• Let go of your reliance on your professional skills
o Think in terms of how you help stakeholders and about how to grow personally personally

• Let go of seeking recognition and reward for yourself
o Learn what motivates you and recognise the work and support of others

• Let go of being in control of every decision
o Work with your team, don’t micromanage, set clear direction, roles and responsibilities

• Let go of purely focussing on goals and measuring progress
o Build relationships, deliver through people, help your people to understand and personalise the business strategy and vision of the company

• Let go of keeping things to yourself
o be interested in learning from others and share knowledge

• Let go of working in silo
o find ways to build a cohesive team that works with other teams & make them shine

• Let go of professional-field-only thinking
o Broaden your horizons, learn about the business, system, stakeholders & external factors affecting your organisation – use, make recommendations, and share

• Let go of maintaining the status quo and only updating systems and processes
o Encourage your team’s innovation, let them you’re open to their ideas and new ways of working

• Let go of resisting workplace changes (reorgs, mergers etc)
o Seek to understand, embrace and champion changes that affect your team and help them make sense of it

• Let go of old limiting beliefs
o Let yourself be seen, challenge your perceptions & pre-conceived ideas, learn about yourself, and use your strengths to support others

• Let go of assumptions and talking at people
o Listen up and speak up! Be an active listener and an effective communicator be understood and be clear

• Let go of only looking at the current quarter/annual plan
o Look ahead, Give and receive feedback, and keep your 1:1s, which don’t just cover ‘to do lists’

• Let go of perfecting your existing skills
o Be curious, keep learning new skills, make connections with people that challenge your mindset and are different to you, expand your thinking

• Let go of telling people what to do and how to do it
o Use situational leadership & different styles – learn coaching skills to support your professional, competent teams to work things out for themselves

You’ll already have lots of these covered, I’m sure – and you know what’ll work best for you.

Lightbulb moment – you don’t have to be great at everything! We all have flaws – letting yourself be seen draws people in. You can be vulnerable if you’re great at something – and you already are. You just have to be aware, competent in some areas, expert in others – and build your team to complement your strengths, skills and weaker areas each other.

Executive Transition Coaching with Polly Wain
For the shift from Manager to Leader

My Coaching Philosophy

Working with me is experiential and co-creative. I use a whole person and wholehearted bespoke coaching process that supports and advances your capacity to attain your organisational, professional and personal development aims.

Together, we are partners, guided by mutual trust and respect, working in a space held by me, entirely for you. With me, you will examine issues more deeply, think differently and then define your own solutions. I’ll offer you unconditional, non-judgemental support, challenge and perspectives – to make sense of change and make the successful shift from Manager to Leader.

My personal experience shifting from Manager to Leader

Over 20+ years working for and with organisations, employed and then as a consultant, I made the shift from Manager to Leader gradually, learning as I went, from others I admired (& from those I didn’t!).

I relied on my natural abilities for many years – until I realised they just weren’t enough! I wasn’t doing myself or the people I worked with justice. And, it was through formal leadership development and coach training and then with individual executive coaching, that I learned the skills I needed to be a better manager and leader – and then to realise I wanted to support others to do the same.

Always, beyond the theory, models and techniques, the most powerful part of the transition from manager to leader and the best way to help others to do the same was becoming more self-aware, getting over myself, getting myself out of the way – and getting on with things.

If this resonates with you & you’re ready to invest in yourself, drop me a line and let me know what’s brought you to consider coaching.

x Polly
polly@singlestep.uk