All leaders go through an evolution with how they manage their careers, teams, or businesses. The most experienced leaders are continually going through evolving management phases: Crawl, Walk, Run, Leap.
It’s essential for those looking to elevate their careers to recognize and understand the ever-evolving management stages. It would be best if you crawled successfully before you can walk and before you can run at top speed and gain enough momentum to leap to the next level. It can and should be a slow build. Depending on the task or situation you face, you may show different levels of proficiency and competency. That’s OK, and that’s understandable. No one is a master of management and has all the answers.
Lessons Learned
I’ve seen many people receive promotions into spots where they are forced to be leaders too early throughout my career. Sometimes, people are just not ready to face certain situations. Some may be great individual contributors, receiving promotions to take on managing a team or individuals. Some make it and become successful people leaders over time. Others struggle, fail, and negatively impact the engagement, growth, and progress of those following them (and even others around them).
Here some reasons why someone receives a promotion into a leadership position too early:
- Great individual contributor: Someone excellent at sales is rewarded with a promotion to lead a team. While they have proved that they can excel in selling, they might lack the leadership experience to manage others.
- Lack of options: Promoting someone based solely on potential and the hope that they figure it out. To avoid the complexity and risk of hiring externally, you choose to go with a greener internal candidate, moving them to the next level sooner than they should.
- Concessions are made: Sometimes, hiring managers make concessions when they cannot find the right fit. Ultimately, they focus solely on the potential they see or some qualities that may blind them to other risks with such a promotion. Other times, recruiting fatigue kicks in, and they decide this person is “good enough.”
Crawl. Walk. Run. Leap.
Reflecting on my career, I may have been promoted too early coming out of university. Lacking some of the fundamentals that would come from training or understanding that managing others is a process, I didn’t receive the coaching or leadership needed to be as successful as possible. But I also didn’t ask for help either. Fresh out of university, I thought I knew all the answers and that if I didn’t, I could figure it out as I went. The challenge was I didn’t know about the impact that my approach and actions could have on others always. I made some mistakes and learned some lessons, eventually becoming more successful with building and leading teams.
Through a lot of trial and error, my experience grew, and I became a better manager. I learned that leadership is situational, and the situations we face as leaders change daily. It would be best if you kept growing, learning, and, most importantly, evolving.
