Stepping into a new leadership role, most people make the same mistake without realising it. They assume the team they now manage is their first priority for relationship building, alongside senior management above them. Coach Biran Yilancioglu points out that this gets the order backwards.
The team that you are part of is your first team. Your second team is the one that you’re managing.
It sounds like a small reframe, but it changes where you put your energy in the early weeks of a new role. Your peers, the other people at your level, are the ones who will actually onboard you. They know how things really work, where the friction points are, and what’s expected in ways that no organisational chart tells you.
Why the new leadership role trap catches people out
When someone gets support for a leadership transition, that support is usually structured around two directions: manage upwards, build trust with your new team. Biran’s point is that this leaves a gap. The peers who could be your buddies through the transition, the ones supporting you as you find your feet, get forgotten because nobody is explicitly pointing you towards them.
This matters for anyone changing roles, not just people managing a team for the first time. If you’ve moved into a new department, taken on a new research leadership position, or shifted into a role where you’re now working alongside people who used to be senior to you, the same gap shows up. The people at your level are living the same reality you are. They’ve likely just been through what you’re going through, or are going through it alongside you right now.
We wrote a few weeks ago about navigating leadership transitions and the first 90 days in a new role, and this is a piece that fits neatly alongside that. Confidence in a new role doesn’t come only from proving yourself to the people above you or winning over the team below you. It also comes from having people beside you who understand exactly what you’re navigating.
If you’re about to start something new, or you’re a few months into a role and still feel like you’re figuring it out alone, take a moment to think about who your peers actually are in this new position, and whether you’ve made any effort to build something with them yet.
If that’s a gap you recognise, it might be worth having a conversation about it. We work with people through exactly this kind of transition.
Be sure to check out more from Biran at Biran’s website and Biran’s LinkedIn.
Be sure to check out more from Biran at her website: Biran’s website.
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