Promoting a high performer into their first management role seems like a straightforward win, right? You're rewarding excellence while filling a critical leadership gap. But according to executive coach Sabina Nawaz, author of You're The Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need), this common practice carries hidden risks that HR professionals and organizational leaders often overlook.

The challenge? The competencies that earned someone a promotion frequently become their greatest obstacles in a new leadership role. Understanding this paradox and building support systems around it can mean the difference between developing effective leaders and inadvertently setting talented employees up for failure.

Recognizing the Critical Transition Window

Often, organizations treat promotions, especially into management roles, as celebratory milestones and nothing more. HR and leadership teams need to reframe how they view promotions, particularly transitions into people management. Your high performer just stepped into unfamiliar territory, and how you support them in those first weeks and months will largely determine whether they succeed or struggle in their new role.

"Getting promoted is often the riskiest time in your career," Nawaz explains. The newly promoted manager hasn't fundamentally changed, but their organizational position has – along with all the expectations and perceptions that accompany it. Without guidance through this transition, even your most capable employees can stumble.

Consider the common scenario: Your detail-oriented project coordinator consistently delivered flawless work, impressing stakeholders with their thoroughness. That precision earned them a team lead position. But now, that same meticulous approach reads as micromanagement to direct reports. The behavior hasn't changed; the context has. What was once an asset becomes a liability because no one prepared this new manager for how their actions would be perceived differently from a position of authority.

For HR professionals and leaders, this means building transition support into your promotion process. The weeks immediately following a promotion represent a critical window when new managers are most receptive to coaching and most vulnerable to missteps that can undermine their effectiveness.

Identifying Skills That Don't Scale

A crucial step in supporting newly promoted managers is helping them understand which of their "superpower skills" need to evolve. This requires honest, specific conversations before the promotion is finalized – not months later when problems have already emerged.

Work with soon-to-be managers to identify:

• Behaviors that created individual success but won't translate to leadership. The engineer who built their reputation on personally solving the toughest technical problems needs to shift toward enabling others to solve those problems. The salesperson who closed deals through sheer persistence needs to develop coaching skills rather than simply modeling their own approach.
• Strengths that require modulation in a position of authority. Directness that seemed refreshingly candid from a peer can feel harsh coming from someone with power over careers and compensation. Passion that energized project teams can overwhelm direct reports when it comes from their manager.

Make these conversations developmental, not discouraging. The goal isn't to suggest someone isn't ready for leadership; it's to explicitly acknowledge that effective management requires behavioral evolution, not just doing more of what worked before.

Building Feedback Mechanisms That Counter Power's Isolation

One of the biggest challenges Nawaz identifies is how authority creates an information vacuum around leaders. As someone gains power over others' careers, employees naturally become more guarded about sharing concerns, criticism, or negative feedback. This leaves managers operating with incomplete information precisely when they need honest input most.

HR can counter this dynamic by implementing specific feedback structures:

• Establish regular skip-level conversations. Create normalized opportunities for employees to share their experience with their manager's leader, making it clear these conversations are developmental, not punitive.
• Implement 360-degree feedback early and often. Don't wait for annual reviews. New managers benefit from frequent pulse checks on how their leadership is landing, ideally within the first 90 days and quarterly thereafter.
• Train managers to actively solicit feedback. Teach new leaders specific techniques for creating psychological safety and making it genuinely comfortable for team members to share concerns.
• Create peer cohorts for new managers. Groups of people navigating similar transitions can offer each other honest feedback and normalized struggle in ways that feel safer than vulnerable conversations with their own leaders.

Preparing Managers to Navigate Pressure

Leadership development should emphasize pressure management as a core competency, not a soft skill afterthought. Practical approaches include:

• Normalize that pressure will expose vulnerabilities. Help new managers understand that feeling overwhelmed is part of the role, not a sign they're failing. Create space to discuss how they're handling stress rather than expecting them to project constant confidence.
• Teach specific pressure management techniques. Provide training on recognizing personal stress signals, creating recovery practices, and developing response strategies before reactivity takes over.
• Model healthy responses to pressure. Senior leaders who openly acknowledge when they're under stress and adjust their approach accordingly give permission for managers throughout the organization to do the same.
• Right-size workloads during transitions. Consider whether you're setting new managers up for success by adding leadership responsibilities on top of their previous individual contributor workload. Pressure becomes unmanageable when expectations are unrealistic.

Putting It Into Practice

Start with these concrete steps:

• Before the promotion: Have explicit conversations about how success factors will change in the new role. Identify which current behaviors will need to evolve and why. Ensure the candidate genuinely wants to manage people, not just advance their career.
• During the transition: Create a 90-day plan that includes specific leadership development goals alongside business objectives. Assign a mentor who has successfully navigated a similar transition. Establish feedback mechanisms from day one.
• After the transition: Maintain frequent check-ins focused on leadership development, not just business results. Create peer learning opportunities. Recognize that the learning curve for management is steep and ongoing.

Most importantly, cultivate organizational cultures that treat management transitions as significant professional evolutions requiring support, not simple title changes that talented people should automatically handle on their own.

When you set new managers up for success rather than assuming their previous excellence will automatically transfer, you're not just filling a role. You're investing in leadership capability that will compound throughout your organization for years to come.

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Source: HR Brew