Page 26 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

You’ve Been Promoted, Now What? 11

these priorities are confirmed, begin to set objectives related to these priori-
ties with your team and organization. You can build positive momentum by
achieving short-term wins. Then, through careful and inspiring work with
your leadership team, develop longer-term business and organizational vision,
strategies, and goals. Your must-do priorities are the goals and objectives “for
which forgiveness will not be granted” no matter how many distractions arise
2
or how busy you become. These top priorities should be identified in the Just
Promoted Leader Tool we call Confirming Your Appointment Charter.
Another tool, Your 12-Month Road Map, will help you plan, by quarter, the
milestones you must meet to achieve your priority goals. Both of these tools
will be introduced in Chapter 2. You should anticipate that other priorities and
distractions will pour over the transom throughout the year and challenge
your focus, resolve, and execution skills.

2. Confirm the full scope of your responsibilities, available resources, levels of
decision-making authority, ways in which your performance will be measured,
and desired ways to communicate with your report-to leaders. These and other
factors are vital to your first-year transition success. You should never assume
or take for granted that there are explicit agreements with the leader or lead-
ers to whom you report. Too often, these points are not discussed or they are
left deliberately unclear. This is never a good situation. Frequently there is not
full agreement on these and other factors when dual or multiple reporting rela-
tionships are involved. This can be further complicated when there are time
zone and geographic differences involved between you, the individuals to
whom you report, and/or other important stakeholders on whom you are
dependent for your success.
Use the Confirming Your Appointment Charter tool as a way of engaging
your boss or bosses in explicit discussions to clarify and confirm these points.
This will help you to convert what sometimes is not discussed or is sometimes
only implied or murky into clear and confirmed agreements about how you
will operate and perform and what is expected of you.

3. Begin to learn the essence of your role very quickly, preferably well before
you actually begin in your position. Learning your new leadership role too
slowly can quickly become a problem for you in our “must have and deliver it
now” work world. This is not logical or even reasonable. It simply is the way
things are in many organizations. There are no honeymoons, and you will be