It’s not the kind of question leaders ask out loud, is it?
But it’s often the one hanging in the air when you step into a bigger role – over former peers, or into a team that doesn’t quite know what to make of you yet.
Because a promotion doesn’t just give you a new title.
It reshapes the entire system around you.
I’ve seen it again and again. And it’s a delicate balance.
A capable leader walks into a newly restructured team.
Smart. Strategic. Hungry to succeed. Already mapping what needs to shift.
They’re ready to make it work – and motivated to go fast.
And here’s what they miss:
Promotions destabilise belonging.
Old colleagues become direct reports.
Rejected competitors sit back.
Peers suddenly act like rivals.
And the whole team watches closely – and judges out loud.
Will this new boss protect us? Hear us? Expose us? Ignore us?
One leader I worked with moved fast.
He saw someone who was “in everything” – every project, every meeting – and shut it down.
To demonstrate leadership. To make space for others.
Without asking was why.
Turned out?
That person wasn’t power-hoarding.
There was a reason they were spinning so many plates.
They were holding the whole system together because no-one around them had ownership.
By shutting them down without curiosity, he didn’t just crush their motivation – he crushed psychological safety across the team. And stamped out execution.
After that?
Polite smiles. Silent meetings. Work crawled.
And the wrong people left. That’s when the true picture revealed itself.
The Organisational Design Truth
When you inherit a team, you also inherit:
- Their entire operating system
- Their unspoken agreements
- Their social contracts
- And their history
Psychological safety is the #1 predictor of team effectiveness.
Yet 70% of change initiatives fail – because leaders jump to strategy before tending to the system.
Ignore the lay of the land – the land will ignore you.
What’s your smarter move?
Assume Nothing. Ask.
- “What’s worked well here?”
- “What’s getting in the way?”
- “What do you wish I knew before I start changing things?”
- “Where do you see the biggest opportunity?”
- And always end with: “What can I do to help?”
Then step back. Don’t rush to score points. Curate what you hear.
And connect it all to the commercial goals in your line of sight.
With clarity. Intention. Purpose.
That’s how you build trust.
Not by pretending politics won’t be in play.
By expecting them to be – and navigating them deliberately.
Your Quick Reframe
→ Name the shift. Pretending things haven’t changed undermines you.
→ Lead with radical curiosity. Always ask more than you tell.
→ Curate your moves. Don’t act on everything. Do explain how you chose.
→ Link to strategy. People follow leaders with a big-picture lens. And hope.
→ Share your why. Transparency builds trust faster than title ever will alone.
Leadership isn’t about being liked.
It is about being trusted. And becoming the kind of leader people want to stay for.
Remember, trust doesn’t come from certainty.
It comes from your confidence to be human first – to ask, to listen, to act with clarity once you understand what’s really going on.
Where in your leadership could asking more – and assuming less – unlock the credibility you want (and need) to earn?
