The Critical Mindset For New Leaders

Leena Rinne

So you’ve just been promoted to a leadership position, congratulations! You’re going to find that leading people is an entirely different ballgame than it was when you were an individual contributor.

The quality of your results as an individual contributor was probably what got you promoted to manager. But what made you a great star performer may actually prevent you from being a great leader.

While you used to be a player, now you need to see yourself as a coach. It’s not about getting results on your own but getting them with and through others.

Your personal benchmarks, while still important, will need to take a back seat to help your team members learn, grow, and become leaders themselves. You win by helping your team win. You’ll be measured by the quality of their results, not yours.

As a leader, your people are your results.

Leading a team requires a different skillset than working as an individual contributor. To succeed in the face of new challenges, first-level leaders need to shift how they think and act. Download our latest guide and develop your people into a high-performing team.

About the Author

Leena Rinne is FranklinCovey's Vice President of Consulting. She is responsible for the management and development of the consultant team and the ongoing world class delivery of FranklinCovey programs and solutions. Leena is co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book, The 5 Choices: The Path to Extraordinary Productivity, and also co-authored the forthcoming book, Leading Customer Loyalty: Cracking the Code to Customer Devotion. Currently in her 14th year with FranklinCovey, Leena’s passion lies in supporting client to develop great leaders and create winning cultures.
More Content by Leena Rinne

How New Leaders Can Handle Resentment

Going from team player to team coach can be tricky, but hiding from resentful people will only make things ...

3 Habits Of Great Leaders

Becoming a great leader can seem daunting and out of reach, but if you consider these tips carefully, you m...

80% of your results will come from 20% of your activities - are you focusing on the right ones?

Download Tool

Return to Home

Enabling Greatness in People and Organizations Everywhere

The Critical Mindset For New Leaders

About the Author

Previous Article

Next Article

The Critical Mindset For New Leaders

About the Author

Previous Article

Next Article

Other content available

In times of great uncertainty, leaders can freeze to the point of inaction or execute with excellence, increase trust, achieve more, and transform fear into engagement.

Leaders responsible for building organizational cultures must lead with a clear vision and strategy while simultaneously reflecting an openness for changing course as needed.

Can you sense when something deeper is happening under the surface? If you want to build your intuition as a leader, it’s a muscle like any other—you must consciously build it.

For many of us, the success of thought leaders or celebrities is unrelatable. We want it in our lives but don’t think we’re smart enough to achieve it.

Leading leaders is arguably the most demanding role in any organization. One that can sink you or elevate you, depending on how well you practice many of these principles.

Pre-forgiveness is a simple but profound leadership concept. Try it with your team today and see how quickly trust grows.

Maintain value for your own experiences and resist making them the lens you always look through when hiring and promoting your associates.

As you determine what you want in life and prioritize your efforts around it, ask yourself these revealing questions.

After having interviewed nearly 150 influencers for the FranklinCovey On Leadership podcast series, Scott Miller shares two traits common to every successful guest.

It’s time to offer someone the benefit of your successes and failures. You don’t need to be a celebrity or CEO to share your learnings with someone traveling the same path you did.

Use humor as a means to build trust and nurture an inclusive culture. Improve your ability to communicate effectively with these four tips.

Why, for nearly all of us, does it take a life-altering event to bring our lives into focus? To force clarity on our mission and purpose?

How would you rate your service? Not your customer service, but rather your life of service. Are you putting your talents and passions to work for others?

How can you possibly achieve your moonshot if you haven't even identified it? Identify your goal and recruit help to achieve it, after all, no one ever went to the moon alone.

In an era when trust is hard to come by—and more important than ever, as we work to solve unprecedented problems—leaders at all levels need to understand three fundamental truths about trust.

If you’re a people leader, ask yourself these six questions to educate your team on your money-making model and all of the levers at their disposal to drive profitable growth.

Thought leadership is the new public relations and Scott Miller shares eight points to consider as you develop and perfect your thought leadership strategy.

Scott Miller reflects on an experience with Stephen. M. R. Covey to compare and contrast effectiveness and efficiency.

Whether you are a drama maker or avoider, Scott Miller shares four ways to lessen the drama in your life and the lives of those around you.

Let go a bit. Loosen your grip. Step back and realize you’re not controlling nearly as much as you think you are.