Leadership Role Preparation

Want to get into leadership? It's a VERY different job than you do now. I've promoted dozens of people into leadership and here are the 5️⃣ things I make sure they agree to before I offer them the job. 1️⃣ Acknowledge the jobs are different → what made you a successful rep or IC (individual contributor) will NOT make you a successful leader. 💡 A great headstart into leadership is to begin to explore what those differences are. How can you begin to develop leadership skills before you need them? 2️⃣ Reverse where you index → most people index on either relationship or process. Leaders need to be proficient in both. Process people can be rough and short. Those strong in relationships can lack the teachable "how to" process provides bc of their magic people skills. 💡 Identify where your strength is and begin to understand your weakness. Where can you lean into your weakness in your current role? If you need more process, study the ones you have and start to manage yourself in them first. If you lean to process already, how can you take that extra beat to build deeper relationships now? 3️⃣ Don't super rep → the most common mistake of new leaders is making their team admins that "bring their manager" on a call to do the real work. This leads to reps reliant on their manager to get results, rather than developing self-sufficiency. 💡 You can start to "manage" now by leveraging your current resources better, e.g. more effective syncs with your SDR, better prep for you SE, more guided responses for support pros. Be a leader with the team you already have as an IC! 4️⃣ Choose good ideas over "my" ideas → new leaders are ready to change the world...even if it means repeating mistakes unnecessarily. When your idea always wins or you have strong inner conflict accepting someone else's idea bc you are worried about getting credit, you kill the momentum of your new role. 💡 When's the last time you sought out feedback on an idea you had? I'm sure you are like "ALWAYS!," but when did you change what you were doing? Try that. Get used to choosing good ideas that aren't yours! 5️⃣ Be a learner → Just bc you are leader doesn't mean you know it all or are expected to have every answer. Instead, find your wells of knowledge and draw from them daily. 💡 The best way to learn is to teach. Find something the team you are on needs, go learn it, then give it as a gift to your teammates. There's nothing better than helping someone be successful - that's leadership...and something you can do right now.

Everyone talks about getting quick wins when you step into a new advancement executive role. I coach leaders to focus on earning trust first. Here’s how to build trust in a new leadership role—from someone who coaches chief advancement executives as they establish themselves in new roles. Many senior advancement leaders bring me in during this time to strengthen their leadership and build the trust that drives team ownership and fundraising results their institutions are counting on, while reducing the risk that comes with any big new role. Here’s where I coach them to focus: Show who you are and what matters to you. Your team wants to know the human behind the title. Ask questions that go deeper than the campaign plan. Understand the people doing the work, what’s going well, and what may hold them back from being successful. Listen with the intent to act. Notice what’s being said—and what’s left unsaid—and follow through. Extend trust early. Believe in your team even before you know them; it helps them trust you, too. Trust creates connection and credibility—and it leads to the fundraising outcomes your institution is counting on. When you step into a new leadership role, make trust your first strategy. It’s the foundation for everything you’ll successfully build together.

The biggest mistake I made in preparing for my first executive role was studying the wrong people. I studied the high-performers. The people producing the best work. The ones delivering the best results. I should have been studying the people in the room. The executives who'd already made it. Not what they were doing day-to-day, but how they communicated. How they framed problems. What they chose to focus on in meetings. What they chose to ignore. The pattern was clear once I saw it: they almost never talked about execution. They talked about implications. They didn't report what had happened. They interpreted what it meant. They didn't present data. They offered judgement, supported by data when challenged. I'd been preparing for an executive role by being the best operator I could be. What I needed to be was the best thinker. Those are different skills, and the second one requires practising a kind of communication that feels uncomfortable when you're used to being valued for what you deliver rather than what you think. Start practising executive-level thinking before anyone asks you to. Read board papers if you can access them. Listen to how your CEO frames priorities. Ask yourself: if I were in that role, what would I focus on? The preparation for executive readiness starts long before the opportunity appears. If this resonated, the free 5-minute diagnostic at www.ovdlab.com will show you your specific leadership visibility gaps and what to do about them.

Stepping into a new leadership role is exciting but it can also be challenging. Whether you're leading a new team or transitioning within your organization, one of your first priorities? Earning your team’s trust. Throughout my Air Force career, I learned that trust is earned through consistent actions and genuine connection. Here are some strategies that made a real difference for me: ▶️ Be Transparent: Share your goals, expectations, and decisions openly. Clear communication builds trust and alignment. ▶️ Be Credible: Competence inspires confidence. Make well-informed decisions, seek feedback, and continuously sharpen your skills. ▶️ Build Meaningful Connections: Get to know your team members individually. Understanding their goals and concerns fosters camaraderie and trust. ▶️ Lead by Example: Model integrity, accountability, and a strong work ethic. Actions speak louder than words. ▶️ Be Authentic: Stay true to your values and personality. Authenticity creates credibility and genuine connections. ▶️ Welcome Input: Encourage feedback and ideas. Actively listening shows you value your team’s perspective. ▶️ Stay Humble: Recognize you don’t have all the answers. Approach challenges with curiosity and openness. By applying these strategies, you can earn trust, inspire your team, and build a culture where people enjoy the work they do and the team they do it with. #LeadWithCourage

The biggest risk in leadership today isn’t change It’s misreading what kind of change you’re actually in ⚠️ Because not all change is created equal The research from Hult Ashridge Executive Education makes it clear: Leaders today are operating across 6 fundamentally different types of change—and each demands a different response 👉🏼 Incremental change – small improvements within a stable model 👉🏼 Transformation – redefining how the business creates value 👉🏼 Turnaround – fixing what’s broken, fast 👉🏼 Realignment – shifting direction without full reinvention 👉🏼 Disruption – responding to external forces reshaping the industry 👉🏼 Continuous evolution – no clear end state, just constant adaptation Here’s the problem: Most organisations still prepare leaders as if these are the same They’re not And that’s where transitions start to break down Because when leaders step into new roles today, they’re not just inheriting: a team a strategy or a set of KPIs They’re stepping into a specific type of change context—often without clarity on which one And that has consequences: 👉🏼 The leader driving incremental improvement in a turnaround situation will move too slowly 👉🏼 The leader applying transformation thinking to a stable environment may overcomplicate things 👉🏼 The leader expecting clarity in a disruption context will get stuck This is not a capability issue It’s a context misdiagnosis And it explains why so many leadership transitions feel harder than expected Because we’re still asking: “Is this leader ready for the role?” Instead of asking: 👉🏼 “Is this leader ready for the type of change they’re stepping into?” That’s a very different question And one that most organisations are not answering explicitly Which is why: time-to-impact stretches momentum is lost and leaders end up solving the wrong problems 💡 The leaders who succeed fastest today do one thing differently: They diagnose the nature of the change before they decide how to lead it Because in today’s environment, context is not the backdrop. It is an integral part of the role 📣 But you don't have to take my word for it. Take it from a recent client of mine who stepped into a new Co-CEO role for the very first time: 💬 "I stepped into my first Co-CEO role about a year ago and selected Navid as my executive transition coach. Whilst this was a big new role for me, we made a lot of progress. As a result of our year-long engagement, I can wholeheartedly say that I got many insights and value for the time that we spent together. Navid’s thoughtful approach meant that at times, we deviated from the Double Diamond Framework of Executive Transitions to spend time on a more urgent or emergent topic. Navid’s coaching was always helpful, and I appreciate the insight and sustainable behaviour shifts that were created during our time together.” #MasteringExecutiveTransitions #LeadershipTransitions #RoleTransitions

I’ve watched strong individual contributors step into management and work harder than they ever have. And yet, the team still stalls. Effort was never the issue. As an individual contributor, success meant staying close to the work - fixing things directly, moving fast, and owning outcomes end to end. That’s what the role rewarded. That’s what got them promoted. But in a leadership role, the work changes completely: ⤷ Clarity has to be created for others ⤷ Judgment has to be built inside the team ⤷ Outcomes have to happen through people, not through you Most new managers aren’t prepared for this shift. So they default to what made them successful before. Six months in, the team slows down, decisions get delayed, and ownership never really moves beyond the manager’s desk. Here’s what organizations need to do differently: ⤷ Assess behavioral readiness before promotion Can this person delegate without stepping in? Influence without authority? Sit with ambiguity without rushing to solve it themselves? ⤷ Create leadership exposure before the title Difficult conversations, team conflicts, and unclear decisions - this is where leadership capability is actually built. ⤷ Support the first months intentionally Early patterns become permanent. Leaving new managers to “figure it out” is where most transitions fail. The shift from doing to leading isn’t automatic. It requires deliberate preparation. Organizations that build this in early stop promoting capable people into roles they struggle to grow into. PS: What’s one thing you wish someone had told you before your first leadership role? #LeadershipDevelopment #PeopleManagement #CareerGrowth #FirstTimeManager #LeadershipTransition

We are not preparing people for leader roles!! The Peter Principle is well and truly alive. As many will know, the Peter Principle is the concept that employees are often promoted based on their performance in current roles rather than their readiness for leadership, leading to a cycle of unprepared leaders struggling to manage teams effectively. People are stepping into leader roles, without ever having had the chance to give feedback, delegate tasks, coach others, or lead continuous improvement efforts. This is causing MASSIVE issues. And it's getting worse...many organizations have become highly role-specific, with employees as well as managers wanting well-defined tasks. This sounds great in theory but it limits people's exposure to broader responsibilities and skills. Companies NEED to invest in people and leader development...long before they are put in a leader position. And to do this, there needs to be greater flexibility within roles. Here's my top tips for developing leadership skills in non-formal leaders: 🟡 Set the expectation that all employees will take part in cross-functional teams and LEAD on specific projects or initiatives related to their work. 🟠 Create opportunities for everyone to give and receive feedback to their colleagues- not anonymously but face to face. Coach people on the skills required to do this. 🟢 Pair everyone with a mentor who can guide them through challenges and help develop their leadership mindset. 🔴 Create opportunities for everyone to teach others...informally is fine! Figure out their strengths and use this when deciding what they will teach. ⚫ Give people assignments or projects that are just slightly out of their comfort zone. 🔵 Give employees a voice in problem solving and process improvement initiatives- let them know they have a say in how the company operates. 🟤 Allow people to shadow senior leaders, and learn what leadership really involves. 🟣 Offer short-term opportunities for people to step into team-lead roles. 🟡 Provide ongoing training and coaching on communication, feedback and conflict management. Make sure learning is translated into practice. 🟠 Let people know they are accountable for their work and their results. 💡 And very importantly, set these expectations and agreements from Day One! ❓ To my LinkedIn network: What’s one skill or experience you wish you had developed before stepping into a leadership role, and how do you think companies can better prepare future leaders? #leadershipdevelopment #leadershiptraining #leadership #leadershipskills