Taken on a new leadership role? Now what?

Stepping into a leadership role can be both an exciting and nerve-wracking time, especially if this is your first time leading a team.

It can be hard to get comfortable and gain confidence in a new role that you have not done before, which can be even more stressful if you are taking on new responsibilities and have people to manage.

How can you get to a point where you feel comfortable in your new position?

Samantha Bowen, Senior Project Manager at Silverchain, Founder of the Acorn Network and aged care influencer, has helped countless young leaders find their feet in the sector. 

Her advice is that like with any new thing, you need to give yourself time and space to settle into a new role and acknowledge that nerves and anxiety will come with the territory for a little while.

Anna Christian, a young new leader as Acting Deputy Editor of Print at HelloCare and Journalist for Hello Leaders, agreed, saying that in her new position she has had to adapt to the new changes and it has been a journey to become more comfortable in her position.

Ms Christian said, “Taking on a new leadership role I’ve found to be a big learning curve – there’s no amount of training that can fully prepare you because you’re managing people and real-life situations that change constantly.”

Getting comfortable in your first leadership role

How you begin in your new role may depend on your level of experience and confidence. For instance, your first priority may be to find out where the best coffee shop is near your workplace, whereas others stepping into a higher position may feel nervous and search for more clarity and support.

Depending on how comfortable you are, your first week or two should be focused on understanding the general running of your department and how you fit within that structure.

“It does take time to get used to the new responsibilities, as well as any new tasks that your leadership role involves,” said Ms Christian. 

In the first instance of a new role, you should:

• Learn more about the organisation you work for and its organisational goals
• Get to know people within your team and in other departments
• Understand how departments interact with one another

With a broader understanding of the inner workings of your new organisation, you can start linking together who can help you with problems and maximise the resources available to you.

Building connections with people in your new team can also be important so that you are fostering those relationships early on.

Transitioning into a leadership role

It is not uncommon to have feelings of inadequacy or to experience the dreaded “imposter syndrome”, which can leave you doubting your ability to undertake a role. Especially when decisions are now arriving on your doorstep and not someone else’s.

Ms Bowen explains that when she was a new leader, she was often worried that something would go wrong, and would seek advice and support from those around her to ensure she didn’t make a misstep.

“The [aged care] sector itself is incredibly small in Australia. You didn’t want to be seen as putting the wrong foot forward,” reflected Ms Bowen.

However, growing in her position has made her realise the importance of providing differing opinions – in a respectful and proactive way – and making positive change, and if you do happen to get it wrong, people will respond, support and educate you so that you can grow along the way.

One of the other issues you will likely face in a new leadership role is feelings of uncertainty, however, Ms Bowen explained that you can’t know everything in a new role and it is something you will often experience – so get used to it! 

“Being comfortable with the ambiguity [is so important], because being a new leader there is no way that anyone is expecting you to know it all, but what they do expect is for you to reach out and ask questions,” said Ms Bowen.

“Be comfortable being uncomfortable, because not only is it a new role, but it is possibly a new organisation and you may not have a new network that you have had previously.” 

She suggests talking to the people in your team or upper management about your role and daily expectations.

If you put the areas that you aren’t so sure about in dot points, you can approach the right people, flesh out those areas you don’t know, and get an idea of where you need to go to get the resources and information you need to do well.

Settling into your new position

Becoming comfortable with something new will always take time and it may take a few months for you to settle into your new role.

Ms Bowen believes the tips below may help you get to that point sooner:

• Tip 1: Build your network – understand who the people are that can support you in your endeavour and can be relied on to assist you
• Tip 2: Get some mentors in your corner to help you through any challenges you face and give you career guidance
• Tip 3: Don’t be afraid of ambiguity and become comfortable with that feeling
• Tip 4: Ask for help when you need it – don’t wait until the last minute, seek the support you need to succeed
• Tip 5: Don’t be hard on yourself, you are still learning the ropes of being a leader and that process can take time
• Tip 6: Take any new challenges you experience as stepping stones rather than obstacles that can help you get closer and closer to feeling comfortable in a new position.

Ms Christian added that other ways to assist you settling into a new position include ensuring you effectively communicate with your manager and team and understanding what tasks are expected of you each day.

Does ‘fake it to you make it’ work?

In terms of delivering quality aged care, Ms Bowen said you shouldn’t be ‘faking it’ in any form of clinician role. However, this well-known term is hugely beneficial when it comes to your confidence in a new position.

When moving into a leadership role, the ‘fake it to you make it’ concept can help you get over the biggest hurdle – yourself.

“If you have 75 – 95% of the information stored in your brain and you have that experience [for a role], most of the time it is the confidence holding you back,” said Ms Bowen.

Instead of second-guessing yourself, make decisions based on your knowledge, experience and risk assessment, and then action those plans.

Once you have actioned your plans, you can ask for feedback from your team and those who it affects. From there, you can make tweaks or changes, and learn from the decisions you make so you can become accustomed to making decisions and taking action.

Ms Christian explained if you are able to fake your confidence, at some point that confidence becomes a normal part of your time in that role.

“I think outwardly showing confidence even when you’re not completely sure of something can be beneficial, but not to the point where you get yourself into trouble,” she said. 

“Have confidence in your own abilities and decisions, but don’t set yourself up for failure if you do need support.”

Mistakes get made, but learn from them

When you make a mistake early on in a new role, it can feel like the carpet has been pulled out from under you and massively hit your confidence.

Ms Bowen said she often had situations early into her career where she would talk to her mentors about mistakes she had made and how it felt like those mistakes were the ‘be-all, end-all’.

However, that is not the case when taking on a new role! Mistakes are an important part of learning and developing in a leadership position.

When you make a mistake, Ms Bowen recommends setting a time limit on worrying about a mistake before dusting yourself off and fixing the mistake.

“It could be days, it could be weeks for you to feel really terrible and dwell on those feelings of inadequacy, but you can’t languish in there forever,” said Ms Bowen.

“Give yourself a few hours, a few days or a week or two, and then give yourself pep talks, allow yourself and give yourself permission to step out of that stage of despair and make sure that you are then working towards the future that you want to create.”

Making mistakes can also be a really important learning tool and are sometimes hard to avoid as you make your way to becoming a leader.

Ms Christian added that is it important that new leaders to realise that everyone makes mistakes and it is how you react to mistakes that is most important.

“Own up to your mistakes and take responsibility over them by identifying where you went wrong and what changes you can make so that it doesn’t happen again,” she said.

Building your confidence

If you feel like you need extra assistance building your confidence, there are a number of ways you can do this:

• Engage a mentor or two
  
  Having mentors in your professional career can ensure you always have a person you can rely on to provide professional advice and guidance.
  
  When starting in a new role, the best step you can make is finding a mentor in both your organisation and outside of the organisation.
  
  Reach out to people that have inspired you in your career and see if they are willing to catch up for coffee every now and then, and start building that network of support.

• Training courses
  
  Engaging in further learning to make you more comfortable in your skills and abilities can be a positive step in the right direction.
  
  Developing your skills bank can ensure you feel more confident while at work and provide you with tools, strategies and learnings that you can put into play in both your professional and personal life.
  
  Ms Bowen adds that this is also a great opportunity to connect with other people in similar careers and make peer mentors – people on the same journey that you are going through.

• Take inspiration from elsewhere, including things you don’t like
  
  If you are feeling unsure about how to act or make decisions when you lead a team, it can be ideal to lay out what a good leader looks like to you.
  
  Finding inspirational people and emulating that drive and energy for leading can help you get into the groove of your own personal leadership style.
  
  Ms Bowen added that you can also take inspiration from behaviours you see that don’t work well.
  
  She describes this as the “anti-hero mindset”, doing the opposite of behaviour that you don’t align with for leadership.
  
  This can help you understand in what ways you do and don’t like to lead a team, and gain that confidence in your abilities.

• Build on your successes
  
  You should look to the things you have done well in your job to give yourself a confidence boost.
  
  This could be through looking at projects that have worked or words of appreciation from your manager. 
  
  Ms Christian said to take confidence from your current successes and build on top of those successes from there.

Building up your confidence in a new role can take time, so you shouldn’t be hard on yourself as you make that journey.

Ms Christian said, “Go into the role with a positive mindset and a belief that you can do it, you were chosen for that leadership role for a reason.”

How did you settle into a leadership role? Tell us in the comments below.