The title’s in your email signature.
The congratulations have rolled in.
The celebration’s done.
And then it hits you:
Leadership isn’t about being the best at what you do anymore.
It’s about what you can bring out in other people.
That’s where many first-time leaders stumble.
Why This Transition Feels So Challenging
When I coach new leaders — whether they’ve fought hard for the role or found themselves in it unexpectedly — the same doubts surface:
“Am I doing this right?”
“Do they respect me?”
“What if I can’t measure up to my predecessor?”
Here’s the truth: the moment you step into leadership, what your team needs from you changes — often dramatically.
The faster you understand that shift, the faster you move from “doing your old job from a bigger desk” to leading with real impact.
1. Paint the Bigger Picture
When you were an individual contributor, your own performance was the measure of success.
Now, your role is to create clarity for everyone else.
Think of it like moving from delivering the tasks in a sprint to owning the product vision.
You’re not just hitting deadlines — you’re setting direction, sequencing priorities, and making sure everyone understands the why behind the what.
That means:
➜ Holding the vision — and showing the team exactly where they fit in it.
➜ Turning strategy into stories they can believe in and act on.
Without this, even the strongest performers can lose direction and momentum.
2. Build Psychological Safety
This isn’t a “soft skill.” It’s a performance multiplier.
In agile teams, it’s the foundation for meaningful retrospectives and safe-to-fail experiments.
Your team will only share ideas, flag risks, and admit mistakes if they know they won’t be punished for speaking up.
Leaders who only give feedback when something’s wrong often end up with teams that play it safe — or worse, hide problems.
And nothing kills innovation faster than silence.
3. Keep Evolving Yourself
One of the biggest traps in leadership? Thinking you’ve “arrived” when you get the title.
In reality, leadership is an ongoing practice — a series of short iterations, not a single leap.
Adopt the same mindset you’d expect from a high-performing agile team:
run small experiments, seek feedback early, adapt quickly.
If you’re not modelling growth, your team won’t either.
4. Lead the People, Not Just the Work
It’s tempting to focus on delivery, especially if that’s what got you noticed.
But leadership is about people — not just projects.
In agile, the backlog isn’t just tasks. It’s also the development of your people.
That means:
➜ Understanding individual motivations (not assuming everyone wants what you wanted).
➜ Spotting career stagnation before it takes root.
➜ Giving recognition in ways that actually resonate with each person.
When you prioritise them, the work tends to take care of itself.
The Golden Rule of Leadership
Your success is now measured in their growth — not yours alone.
Earn their trust, and you’ll earn their results.
Act on this:
Ask your team: “What’s one thing I could start, stop, or continue that would help you thrive here?”
Then listen.
Really listen.
And act on what you hear.
If you’re stepping into leadership — or about to — remember: the title is just the starting point. The real work begins in how you grow, and how you help them grow.
Want some help growing into the kind of leader people want to stay for? Let’s talk about how:
