5 Fears About Leadership and How I Addressed Them

Transitioning to a leadership role here at Wrike didn’t happen for me overnight. I took on some of the responsibilities for quite some time before the opportunity emerged. I clearly remember my first impression of my first manager several weeks after I started — I felt supported and cared about. If I had any questions or needed help, I knew that my manager would do her best to assist me.

So when I decided that I would like to pursue the leadership path, I already had several role models to look up to. I never had an imposter syndrome, but I did have concerns about what I could give to the team as a manager, how effectively I would be able to face challenges, and more. Today we’ll discuss five initial fears I had, how realistic they turned out to be in the end, and how I addressed them.

I don’t have much to give my team

Almost every book on leadership states that leaders need to continuously contribute to their team members’ growth and development. Obviously, I could already share the best practices that helped me to be successful as a CSM. However, it felt that my skillset and expertise were limited in general and that there would be a cap on what I would be able to give my team. As I quickly realized after switching to a management role, a leader cannot know everything and doesn’t have the answer to every question. Instead, they continue to grow professionally, learn with the team, and, in many cases, learn from the team. It’s important for leaders to demonstrate curiosity and a creative approach to new challenges. When a solution is discovered, it’s critical to document it so you can replicate it in similar cases.

Another aspect that I came to understand is that a team is a growing and evolving organism. Different team members have different demands at different times, and in many cases, these demands are not directly related to your expertise. Sometimes, it is just about listening to your team members, acknowledging their problems, and demonstrating that you care. As the team keeps growing, new hires need basic guidance. As a leader, you need to reiterate certain items that may seem simple for experienced team members but would be completely unexplored territory for newcomers. To summarize, there’s always much you can give to your team members as long as you’re dedicated to supporting them and contributing to their growth.

I would have to operate in ambiguity

When leadership provides clear and specific goals for the team and tactics for achieving them, employees need to execute them well to be successful. Generally speaking, team members have control over (or at least the potential to control) the situation in their respective fields of responsibility. They get the information on what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and when.

Leadership, on the other hand, operates in a much more ambiguous environment and often has to make decisions based on incomplete information. For example, many questions emerge when setting goals for the team — for example, “Are these goals going to help us successfully execute the company’s strategy?”; “Are the goals achievable, but at the same time challenging enough for the team?”; or “What resources would the team need to achieve the goals?”

One of my concerns was that it seemed that leadership always knew what to do — and I wouldn’t. I worried that every time I sailed into unknown waters, it would end up as a failure. In fact, I figured out that operating in an ambiguous environment is something that leaders do every day. To succeed, one should try different approaches, experiment, and make educated guesses. The more experience you get, the more often these educated guesses would result in success.

It’s critical to understand and accept that everyone makes mistakes. Many decisions can turn out to be partially or completely wrong. As long as you do not rush, consider things carefully, and continue moving forward, you will do better and better over time. Finally, operating in ambiguity is challenging and very interesting. You handle more and more unique cases, and the work never gets boring.

I would have to delegate work

We’ve all had the experience of relying on someone to perform a certain job and, in the end, this job did not get done. When I was an individual contributor, my motto was always “If you want something to be done well, do it yourself.” Oftentimes, it meant stepping out of my field of responsibility. I was seriously concerned that if I delegated work, it would not be done on time or performed incorrectly. I prepared myself to step in and perform some of the team members’ responsibilities if needed.

When I transitioned to a management role, one thing became crystal clear: The scope of my responsibility was no longer something that could be handled by a single person, even if they worked 24 hours a day. I could no longer easily say in every situation, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle it myself.” I simply didn’t have time for that. So I slowly started delegating.

I don’t want to sugarcoat it — this was (and in many ways still is) the hardest part of the leadership role for me. And yes, team members would make mistakes from time to time. But letting them learn from experience is the only way for them to grow and understand how to handle various challenges. I would like to mention, though, that when team members’ results meet and exceed the expected level, I always feel relieved.

I won’t be as close with team members as I used to be with peers

When a company has a warm and welcoming culture, it’s easy to build interpersonal relationships with your peers. You have fun working on interesting challenges, helping each other, and spending time together outside of work. But when it comes to a manager-employee relationship, there’s always a certain level of pressure involved. Yes, you could spend time with your team members and have a lot of fun. But at some point, there will inevitably be a stressful conversation. It could be with a team member who is unsatisfied with the percentage of their salary raise. There could be some critical feedback about team members’ performance that needs to be highlighted. Another concern of mine was that I would never be able to have the light and cheerful relationship with the team that I had when I was an IC.

Was this concern a valid one? Yes, but only to a certain extent. I was always a strong supporter of a transparent approach to building relationships with my colleagues. Yes, it’s not always possible to share everything. And yes, you’re not always able to provide positive feedback. But as long as you have honest and respectful conversations with your team members, this will not be a big problem. Certain boundaries must be established, but it most definitely doesn’t mean that you must build a wall between yourself and the team members.

I will not get regular praise

Generally speaking, people like to be praised when they do a good job. Praise helps them feel that their work is recognized by the leadership team. But as you start climbing the corporate ladder, it becomes your job to praise team members while not always getting it yourself. To me, praise is not just something that makes me feel good (while it does, of course) — it’s an indicator that I’m on the right track and the direction I chose to take is at least somewhat correct.

I’m very lucky to work for a company where people at the very top do not forget to praise not only the ICs, but also the managers. This was not the case for every company I worked for. Some managers considered great work to be the norm and only shared critical feedback when problems emerged. In any case, my recipe here is praising yourself for good results. You, above all people, know when you performed well as a leader. So take the time to celebrate these moments — by yourself and together with the team.

As you can see, while some of the concerns I had were valid, it is possible to find solutions for them — and the experience you get as a leader is very rewarding.