Lots of my coaching in business is about what could be called leadership transitions. These changes are not always career promotions but they are always transitions to a higher level of performance - where you are managing many more people; a much bigger budget; or just a much more challenging situation.

A key function of the coach is to raise awareness. The area people do not often consider is that the beliefs, ideas and attitudes that have enabled them to get to where they are may be the things that stop them from progressing further.

Why is it that many excellent technical contributors struggle to manage people well?
Why is that excellent salespeople go astray when operating outside the field of sales?

To some degree, they have to give up doing the things that they are good at, that they are confident about and get recognition and reward for. The technical manager can no longer be the best technician - he must give this up to get the best performance out of his team. The saleswoman can no longer get the recognition of winning the biggest deals but must give that up to coach her team to win the deals themselves.

I invite you to think about the things you are good at, that you feel good about and that you get recognition for. As you consider these things, ask whether or not these things will help or hinder you in meeting your next challenge and get you to the next level and beyond.

I’ll give an example. Most successful people I know are highly competitive and are unconsciously competitive as a default position. As a result they end up competing with colleagues they need to co-operate with. This is a common issue when moving to a functional manager role where suddenly co-operation and strong relationships are much more necessary for success. A winning attitude is good but too much of it in the wrong places result in us losing not winning.

Try it out for yourself and with people you coach/mentor - “What do you need to let go of?”