You’ve just been promoted into a new leadership role. Now what?

For many new leaders, a promotion or upgraded new assignment represents many positive things: an elevated position, a new title, increased visibility, more decision-making authority and often higher pay.

But it usually doesn’t take long to realize that leading at a higher level brings new challenges. There are larger expectations, more responsibilities and greater accountability requirements. Not only that, people who worked with you before now look to you – for direction and answers to questions y0u never considered before.

If you’re a new leader, it’s imperative to get your feet on steady ground as soon as possible. The best new leaders ace these four aspects of their new assignment.

Understand the Key Success Criteria

Every new position of authority is derived from a position of greater authority. In other words, every new boss still has a boss. You may have specific aspirations for your new leadership role, but your boss has expectations as well.

The most critical aspect of any new leadership assignment is to understand what success looks like from the standpoint of your own leader. This means core projects and change initiatives, specific accountable outcomes and a list of which priorities need to come first.

To the degree that you can achieve these expectations (even if they’re different from your own preferences) you’ll flourish in your new role.

Maintain 360° Communication

It doesn’t take long in any new leadership role for an “oh boy” moment to arrive. I might be in over my head, many new leaders think.

In times like these, it’s easy to isolate. We sit in an office trying to figure things out so we can come out with a well-articulated plan. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to build trust without visibility. New leaders must be present and collaborative with three distinct stakeholder groups:

• Supervisor: Share progress and ask for input
• Peers: Share priorities and changes
• Team: Share expectations and commitments

Each of these three groups is asking the same questions: how will you lead, what will you deliver and can I count on you? For this reason, interactions should be two-way and extra frequent in the beginning stages of a new role. Whatever you do, stay visible, present and accessible.

Generate Quick Wins

Another temptation new leaders face is assuming they need to create the perfect, most strategic plan for their team’s performance.

This comes from the right place: the desire to meet needs, solve problems and deliver high performance outcomes.

The problem is you don’t have a track record yet. You’ll need support and momentum for some of the larger undertakings that you simply haven’t earned yet. Not only that, it usually takes significant time to gather information and create a great plan.

It’s much better in both the short-term and long-term to move quickly to deliver a positive outcome.

Look for the low hanging fruit. Provide something of value quickly to let everyone know you’re serious about results. Use the quick win to build momentum and support.

If you have to pick between a 70% solution quickly or a 90% solution that will take time, go with the 70% quick option when you are the new leader.

Make Your Team Successful

What does it actually mean to be the leader? Many of us work our way up under the premise that the leader is the head and everyone else is the tail – that leadership is a privileged position, and that the job of the team is to make the leader successful.

The opposite is actually true. A leadership role is a privilege, but it’s even more so a responsibility. It’s not the team’s job to make the leader successful. It’s the leader’s job to make the team successful.

Late USC president Steven Sample wrote succinctly on this dynamic by encouraging leaders to “work for those who work for you.” He explained how each leader should be the “first assistant” to each of his own assistants.

Leaders set expectations, provide direction and give orders. That’s part of the job. But then their own immediate response should be to work as hard as possible to enable the members of the team to be successful in fulfilling the expectations, even if this means their light shines brighter than the leader’s from time to time.

Do you want to be successful in a new leadership role? Then work hard to make your team successful, because a leader is only as good as his team.

So… are you up for your new leadership responsibilities? Each new role is an opportunity to accomplish a better future for a wide variety of people and for the organization. When you lean into your new leadership role and serve well, there’s no limit to the new assignments that could come your way.

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