Your First Leadership Role

Connect learning to your work

A practical place
to begin.

Understand how your contribution is changing

Becoming a manager changes more than the number of people who ask you questions. Work that once demonstrated your own expertise may now need to become an opportunity for someone else to take responsibility. This program explores that transition and helps new leaders establish an approach that is clear, supportive and realistic about their new role.

Begin by examining expectations from three directions: your manager, your team and yourself. Some may be explicit; others may be inherited from the way you worked before the role changed. Clarifying these expectations early helps you decide where to spend time and which responsibilities must be handed over. It also creates a basis for asking for support as you learn.

Practice the first delegation conversation

Imagine that you have been promoted within your existing team. A colleague now owns a task you used to complete, but you keep correcting the details before they have finished. In this illustrative situation, explore what the colleague needs to understand and what you need to stop controlling. The goal is a useful agreement, not a copy of your personal method.

Prepare a conversation covering the result, constraints, authority and support. Discuss how to handle a problem and when to check in. Consider how your behavior could make it difficult for a former peer to disagree with you, then choose a question that invites a candid response rather than polite agreement.

Establish a feedback rhythm

Explore how to learn about people's working needs without making promises you cannot keep. Practice giving feedback about a specific action and asking for feedback about your own leadership. A new manager does not need every answer, but the team needs to know how unanswered questions will be handled and when a decision will follow.

Plan your next few conversations

Choose an expectation to clarify with your manager, a responsibility to delegate and a team conversation to prepare. Keep the plan small enough to use alongside your current workload. When requesting this program, describe whether you are preparing for a first role, have recently started or are moving from leading projects to managing people. That context helps shape the examples and online learning discussion.

Practices to develop

• Clarify how your new leadership responsibilities differ from the individual work that previously demonstrated your expertise.
• Prepare a delegation conversation that gives a former peer a clear result and genuine room to choose an approach.
• Ask for feedback about your own behavior in a way that makes a specific, candid example easier to share.

Topics to explore

Your learning focus.

Start where you are

Who it’s for.

New and first-time people managers

Bring a workplace situation you want to approach differently. We can discuss your experience, priorities and the support that would be useful before agreeing on delivery.

Learning that fits your context

Explore your online options.

Ask about live online, self-paced or blended online learning. The available approach, content scope and schedule are agreed for your request.

Select a preference and optional participant count in your training request. You can also leave both open for discussion.