Leadership Transitions

The skills that get you promoted are rarely the same ones the new role requires. It's one of the most disorienting realities of leadership progression, and it catches almost everyone off guard. The functional expert who becomes an executive. The lawyer who becomes a practice leader. The colleague who becomes the boss.

Each transition demands not just new capabilities but a fundamentally different relationship to your own value - less about what you know and produce, more about what you enable in others.

These posts address the specific transitions my clients face most often, particularly in professional services, where the leap from technical excellence to leadership presence can feel like stepping into a different profession entirely.

If you're in a transition that's stretching you - new role, new scope, new expectations - you don't have to figure it out alone. I specialise in helping senior professionals navigate the shift from expert to leader with clarity and confidence. 

Featured
Five things I wish I’d known as a young lawyer
Five things I wish I’d known as a young lawyer

Stepping into a major firm as a young graduate lawyer I had no roadmap: no family members in the profession, no insider guidance, and absolutely no strategy. I treated the job like school: turn up, do the tasks, hope for the best. Here’s practical, honest guide for today’s early-career lawyers and the leaders who support them.

How to cope with anxiety after making a mistake at work
How to cope with anxiety after making a mistake at work

So… You’ve had an incident at work you feel embarrassed about. You may be feeling anxious about the consequences of this mistake, and worried that your performance or reputation will suffer as a result. Here are some tips on how to ease anxiety when you've made a mistake at work.

The transition from functional expert to executive leader
The transition from functional expert to executive leader

The transition from functional expert to executive leader is often thought of as a quantum leap from the security of subject matter knowledge to something completely new. Really, it’s just about learning new skills – just like you’ve always done. Here’s a framework to help make sense of the shifts from graduate to senior executive leader.

Your coworker has become your boss – what now?
Your coworker has become your boss – what now?

It can be tricky when your workmate gets promoted and is now your boss. Here’s some tips for making a graceful transition from peer to direct report.

Helpful and unhelpful thinking
Helpful and unhelpful thinking

Last week I wrote about ways to find more time for strategic thinking. But even when you’re not specifically out to think strategically, you’re thinking…

So how much of that thinking is productive?

Commercial acumen for lawyers
Commercial acumen for lawyers

As lawyers, we hear about the importance of being “commercial” – but what does it mean?

If your legal team is known as the department for the prevention of sales, it’s probably not a good sign… 

Are you in an “ejector seat” role?
Are you in an “ejector seat” role?

I recently spoke with three separate people in very different roles and organisations, but each having work issues with some similar themes. Each person is finding significant challenge in their role. They are working extremely hard. Each is very highly skilled but having difficulty making an impact. And each is increasingly unhappy about it.

If you're in a transition that's stretching you - new role, new scope, new expectations - you don't have to figure it out alone. I specialise in helping senior professionals navigate the shift from expert to leader with clarity and confidence. 

LET'S TALK