Creating Your 90-Day Post-Promotion Plan
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Does the thought of stepping into a new role, surrounded by new faces and greater responsibilities, send a ripple of anxiety through your core?
If so, you’re not alone.
The first 90 days post-promotion can feel much like navigating through uncharted waters. However, with the right mindset and strategies in place, you can steer through this phase effectively, emerging as a capable and confident leader.
This transition period is pivotal not just for personal growth, but also for establishing a solid foundation for your new team and manager.
In this episode, we’re delving into imposter syndrome, establishing authority and credibility, and fostering relationships with new team members.
Alleviating Imposter Syndrome Post-Promotion
It is all too common post-promotion for Imposter Syndrome to rear its ugly head, whispering (or shouting) in your ear that your achievements are mere products of luck rather than merit.
Overcoming this internal voice involves a blend of self-compassion, reality checks, and a supportive environment.
Having open conversations about your experience with self-doubt actually fosters a climate of psychological safety, which is quintessential for personal and team resilience. By candidly sharing your post-promotion experience, you are normalizing the self-doubt we all feel when we take on a new role.
Whether you are sharing your self-doubt with your peers, your manager or your team, you will be validating the experiences they’ve already had, are currently having or will have in the future.
I’m also going to refer you back to the episode I did with Kim Meninger, who is an expert on Imposter Syndrome. Kim shared a slew of valuable tips for how to manage Imposter Syndrome before, during and after the experience.
Establishing Authority and Credibility Post-Promotion
The challenge of leadership is often found in the marriage of authority and credibility. Authority, granted to you by the new title, needs the reinforcement of credibility to be effective. Credibility grows from your consistent demonstration of competence, integrity, and transparency.
1. Demonstrating Competence
A leader’s competence is at the core of team confidence. Ensuring that you are well-versed with the responsibilities and expectations of your new role is crucial. I want to make something clear. You don’t need to know how to do everyone’s job, you need to know how to do your job. If someone on your team cannot do their job, you need to know what actions to take to fill that gap.
For your job, continuous learning and honing your skills will underscore the narrative of competence.
2. Upholding Integrity
While vulnerability is the currency of trust, integrity is the vault which keeps that trust safe. Trust, in turn, fortifies your authority. Being truthful, reliable, and standing firm on ethical grounds especially under adversity, creates integrity.
Making your values clear and demonstrating those values each and every day will also supercharge your reputation as a leader with integrity.
3. Practicing Transparency
Transparency cultivates respect and trust. Sharing information, the logic behind decisions, and being open to feedback underscores a leader’s credibility. It also prevents the rumor mill from going into overdrive. When there is a lack of information or transparency, the human brain goes into overdrive making stuff up to fill that void. And then the owner of that brain starts sharing their theories with others.
Building Relationships Post-promotion with New Team Members
Building meaningful relationships with new team members is crucial for a conducive work environment. You will likely be uncertain at first and unsure of the existing team dynamics. Or, if you were promoted within your own group, you may be unsure about the impact your promotion had on team dynamics. Also, your relationship with each person may have shifted to make space for the new reporting structure.
1. Open Communication
Foster a culture of open communication. Encourage feedback, discussions, and address concerns promptly to foster a climate of trust and inclusivity. This also goes hand-in-hand with practicing transparency.
2. Understand Individual Strengths and Weaknesses
Acquainting yourself with the strengths, weaknesses, and aspirations of team members will empower you to design opportunities for growth and efficiency.
I highly recommend a listening tour. A listening tour entails a designated timeframe during which you actively engage with essential stakeholders. Think your team, manager, peers and the other areas of the company that intersects with yours. The purpose is to inquire, address concerns, pinpoint obstacles, and establish connections.
The primary objective of a listening tour is straightforward: to listen attentively. However, its effectiveness is maximized when you execute what you learned with a well-planned strategy. Don’t sit on what you learned or dismiss concerns, as that will leave individuals feeling that they wasted their time meeting with you and will undermine trust.
3. Celebrate Achievements
Recognizing and celebrating individual and team achievements reinforces a sense of community and appreciation, crucial for morale and team cohesion.
More than anything people want to be acknowledged, appreciated, and feel that they belong. Celebrating individual contributions does exactly that. Find opportunities to publicly thank, acknowledge and appreciate everyone on your team.
4. Be Approachable
An approachable leader is a magnet for trust, respect, and loyalty. Being accessible, showing empathy, and maintaining a positive demeanor even in challenging situations are hallmarks of approachable leadership.
While you will need some boundaries to make sure you are getting your own work done, having open office hours blocked on your calendar is a great way to demonstrate your accessibility. Also, having weekly or bi-weekly one-to-ones that you hold as sacred let’s your people know that they are important to you and have access to you. Be sure these meetings allow for and encourage your people to ask questions, raise concerns and share wins.
Your Post-Promotion Plan in Conclusion
The first three months after getting a promotion can be a great time to prove to yourself and others that you deserve it. You can also build strong relationships and show that you’re a great leader. If you approach this time with a positive attitude, kindness, and determination, you’ll not only achieve personal success but also make a positive impact on your workplace culture.
As always, I hope this was of value to you and here’s to your success!
Resources
Leadership Coaching. Find out more about my coaching process, the cost of coaching, or how to ask your employer to pay for you to work with a coach.
Register for the How to Get Mentally Fit webinar: Learn the 3 core muscles to build to gain mental fitness.
Saboteur Assessment: Find out which Saboteurs are impacting your performance, wellness and relationships, and how they do it.
Apply to be on an “On-Air Coaching” episode. Are you a female leader who has been promoted in the last year? Apply to be on the podcast.
Leadership Operating System Inventory. Wondering what kind of Leadership traits you have? Take this FREE, FAST self-assessment and find out more about yourself as a Leader.
Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to Doing. The book containing a simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.
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