Leading Through Transition:  Promoted But Not Prepared

In business, transition is inevitable — whether it’s a company moving into a new community, a team shifting its mission, or more often than we admit, a talented individual stepping into a leadership role they were never truly prepared for. We applaud transitions because they often signal growth. But transitions, especially promotions, come with hidden pitfalls that can turn good people into overwhelmed leaders — and promising teams into disengaged ones.

Too many organizations still follow the same outdated playbook: promote your best salesperson to sales manager, your strongest engineer to lead the department, your longest-tenured team member to supervisor. The problem? Technical skills and leadership skills are not the same. In fact, they often pull in opposite directions.

This is where leadership through transition becomes more than just a nice phrase — it’s a necessary commitment. If you’re reading this, chances are you’re either living through this reality or leading someone who is. So, let’s break it down and tie it back to something I’m passionate about: my Elev8 Workplace Engagement framework.

Here are five focus points to guide you (and those you lead) through the transition trap — and come out stronger on the other side.

1️⃣ Start with Self-Awareness Before Strategy

A transition without self-awareness is like moving to a new city without a map.

One of the eight culture shifts in Elev8 is about putting your oxygen mask on first. The moment someone steps into a new leadership role, they need to know themselves as well as they know their craft. Leadership is less about what you do and more about who you are when you do it.

Encourage new leaders to pause and assess: What are my natural strengths and blind spots? How do I communicate under stress? Tools like DISC assessments or simple core values exercises can help a newly promoted leader understand how their personality impacts their leadership style.

Without this baseline of self-awareness, it’s easy to slip back into old habits — like doing the work instead of leading the people who do the work.

2️⃣ Shift from Control to Connection

Another Elev8 culture shift reminds us: trust is currency in any transition. Many new leaders panic when they feel they’re losing control — especially if they were once the “doer.” They tend to micromanage because that’s what made them successful before.

But leading through transition means learning to trade control for connection. New leaders must build trust with their team, not just manage tasks. This means having real conversations, listening more than they talk, and showing vulnerability when they don’t know all the answers yet.

Connection builds trust. Trust builds engagement. Engagement builds results. The old way flips that upside down and wonders why people burn out.

The same holds true when moving your business.

3️⃣ Redefine Success for the Role

One of the easiest traps in transition is measuring success by old metrics. The best salesperson measures success in closed deals. But the best sales leader measures success in how the team grows, performs, and stays, e.g., talent retention.

I always encourage companies and new leaders alike to get painfully clear about this question: What does success look like now? It’s not about personal wins anymore. It’s about collective wins. If this new leader can’t define success in a way that makes sense for the role — and share that definition with the team — they’ll stay stuck in the past.

The Elev8 piece here is simple: leaders must create clarity, not confusion. People can manage change if they understand where they’re going. Redefining success is a cornerstone of that clarity.

4️⃣ Make Feedback Non-Negotiable

Promotions are transitions — but they’re also invitations. When a person steps up, they need feedback more than ever. Unfortunately, many organizations still treat feedback like an annual event instead of an everyday tool.

Leaders in transition should build a culture where feedback flows in all directions — up, down, and sideways. 360 leadership is a huge challenge, which is why John C. Maxwell wrote a book about it. Feedback should be fast, fair, and frequent. If a leader doesn’t hear feedback, they should seek it out. If their team is hesitant, the leader must model what honest feedback looks like by giving it with respect and receiving it with humility.

This feedback loop is how the Elev8 Workplace Engagement framework stays alive. Without feedback, culture withers. With it, culture grows — and so do leaders, and ultimately the organization.

5️⃣ Build a Culture Team Around the Leader

Lastly, one of my favorite shifts: you don’t have to lead alone. Many companies have started forming culture teams or peer groups to surround new leaders with diverse perspectives, support, and accountability. Culture teams are also used to build the organization, especially in transition.

A newly promoted manager needs a circle they can trust — not just a boss above them. A peer culture team helps them navigate tricky dynamics, celebrate small wins, and stay aligned with the bigger mission. The best organizations understand this and intentionally create opportunities for leaders in transition to connect with others on the same journey.

The Opportunity

So, what’s the takeaway here? Simple: promoting someone is the easy part. Equipping them to lead in a transition is the real work.

Every time we fail to invest in leadership through transition, we risk losing our best people — not just the ones who were promoted, but the ones they lead. Disengagement, burnout, turnover — it all traces back to moments like these. Jackasses sometimes push leaders out.

But here’s the good news: the opposite is also true. When we lead well through transition, we build stronger cultures, higher engagement, and workplaces people never want to leave.

The Elev8 Workplace Engagement framework exists for moments exactly like this — not to sell another program but to remind us all that culture isn’t a perk. It’s a promise. A promise to the people who show up every day and trust us to lead them well.

A Final Call to Action

So, here’s my ask: If you’re an executive, an HR leader, or a team member — take a hard look at how you handle leadership transitions in your organization. Are you promoting people because they’re ready, or because you hope they’ll figure it out? Are you giving them the tools, the feedback, and the trust they need? Or are you just handing them a new title and a to-do list?

Leadership through transition isn’t a one-day workshop or a handshake and a “good luck.” It’s an intentional, ongoing conversation. It’s accountability. It’s real talk about what works and what doesn’t. And it’s on all of us to get it right.

If you want a workplace where people thrive — not just survive — start by rethinking how you promote and how you prepare. Start by asking better questions. Start by leading through the transition trap — so your best people stay your best people, and your culture grows stronger with every move.