Overcoming the Fear of Expanded Leadership
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
It’s incredibly common to feel afraid to step out of an individual contributor role. When you’ve spent years perfecting your craft, there’s comfort in knowing the rules of the road. That can create a clear preference to focus on your technical skills, and avoid developing your leadership abilities.
As you grow within your industry, you’ll likely face opportunities to be the one that leads folks with your technical skill set. This shift often brings up heavy resistance. Losing control over exact outcomes can cause stress and the propensity to want to micromanage. You might even look at other leaders in your organization who have no balance and think that the reward is simply not worth the effort.
Overcoming the Fear of Expanded Leadership
It’s incredibly common to feel afraid to step out of an individual contributor role. When you’ve spent years perfecting your craft, there’s comfort in knowing the rules of the road. That can create a clear preference to focus on your technical skills, and avoid developing your leadership abilities.
As you grow within your industry, you’ll likely face opportunities to be the one that leads folks with your technical skill set. This shift often brings up heavy resistance. Losing control over exact outcomes can cause stress and the propensity to want to micromanage. You might even look at other leaders in your organization who have no balance and think that the reward is simply not worth the effort.
The truth is that you can do things differently. You do not have to emulate broken, unsustainable systems.
To transition smoothly, you need to prioritize your Human Skills. Soft skills focus on how you interact with a team, but Human Skills require introspection. You have to heal the internal wounds that make you crave absolute control. Once you make the unconscious need for control conscious, you can start leading effectively.
Here are three ways to excel as your role expands:
Pace Yourself: To excel, you must avoid taking on everything at once. Rushing in to make immediate changes will only make your team nervous.
Clarify the Goal: Set clear expectations for yourself and with your leadership. For example, sometimes the job requires pruning the team first before rebuilding it.
Do Not Do It Alone: Ensure you have the right internal and external support systems in place. Don’t let your ego stop you from using resources like your internal HR team.
Leadership is a muscle that takes time to build. Your perfectionist inner critic might be telling you a different story, so be aware! You don’t have to be an expert on day one, but you do need to be willing to learn.
