After being promoted to a sales leadership position, it’s very likely that you’ll feel a whole host of emotions. Nervousness, imposter syndrome, excitement, perhaps even fear. Try to identify and discern the reasons why you are feeling what you are feeling. You will need to be cognizant of these new inputs and the effects they may have, in a way you never had to consider before. Ignoring and pushing on regardless is not a recipe for helping to grow your leadership capability.
Negative Emotions
Negative emotions are an inevitable part of the human experience. Learning to navigate and manage these feelings is crucial for maintaining emotional balance, and fostering resilience. By understanding the root causes of our negative emotions and employing effective coping strategies, we can transform our reactions and cultivate a more positive and constructive mindset.
For those newly promoted or joining new companies in leadership positions, what you are feeling is as important a data set as any other, and understanding negative emotions is key to ensure that you are leading with impact. We can all be our own worst critics, so check on your confidence levels and especially how unkind you are being to yourself. Remember, the stories we tell ourselves are a way of programming the mind. Sometimes, we need to reprogram ourselves to break engrained, embedded neutral pathways and ways of thinking. So, start with your values and understanding what got you here. Once you have done this, focus on your vision, mission, and goals and start to lean into some positive, more confident thoughts.
This can be challenging, especially if your industry is complex and you are unsure of where to start in your new role. This desire to get going can push inner reflection aside too easily. It is, however, entirely on you to focus on managing yourself, carving out the time to build the inputs that you can shape into a confident narrative to back yourself.
Adopting a Growth Mindset
Embarking on personal and professional growth often involves deliberate placing of oneself into uncomfortable situations. This concept is rooted in the idea that stepping outside of one’s comfort zone is fostering learning, resilience, and adaptability. Investigating your emotions and fears might be uncomfortable but consider them an opportunity to grow and enhance your leadership capability. When individuals purposefully expose themselves to challenges or unfamiliar territories, including internal reflection, they confront new perspectives, skills, and experiences that contribute to their overall development. It’s about recognizing that true growth often lies just beyond the boundaries of familiarity and complacency, encouraging individuals to embrace challenges as stepping stones toward becoming their best selves.
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Changing Neural Pathways and Fixed Thinking
Changing ourselves can be the hardest thing to do but it is entirely possible, and being in situations beyond our comfort zone is something one should strongly embrace in order to challenge oneself, as it is now that you can truly learn and grow.
Start by taking a moment to acknowledge the feelings you are experiencing and ask yourself in each case why they are there. Jot these down without immediately trying to find solutions; consider now putting them through a positive forward-thinking structured exercise. An example exercise to undertake at this point would be to ask yourself some open questions:
- What am I feeling? (Lack of confidence, lack of expertise, imposter syndrome, not knowing where to focus, fear of conflict, etc.)
- What is the impact this emotion is having on me right now?
- Why am I feeling this way toward this situation or person or perceived weakness?
- What is the leadership shift I would like to make right now and why?
- How will I address these feelings the next time they arise?
- What is the one thing I could change to improve my performance?
By thinking about and answering these questions you are already putting things into a more positive light. Try to come up with a mission statement for yourself as a response. An example might be:
“I want to be better at navigating complexity and change. I want to use effective and clear communication, while working collaboratively and in comfort with conflict.”
With a powerful mission or problem statement prepared, you can then review the journey you will need to make. This in turn can psychologically prepare you for the effort you will want to make to get to your destination. This is all in the context of you defining what it is you need to be to be able to win.
It is at this point that you can break down the components of the changes or actions you need to make into clear categories of where you are and where you would like to be. Examples could be mindset, behaviors, impact, and desired results. In terms of actions, these could be, for example, ask for training, learn about a topic or a detail of your business, or to sit down and explore your working relationship with someone. Write these down somewhere and return to them as you evolve in your journey. Now, you can address those demons you have originally acknowledged and focus to work on thinking about the changes you will affect as you enter into your new role.
Negative emotions are a natural part of transitioning into new roles but they need not be a hindrance. By recognizing and addressing these feelings early, you can transform them into valuable insights that enhance your leadership capability. Embracing a growth mindset and being proactive about self-reflection allows you to navigate complexity and change more effectively. Remember, your emotions are an essential data set that can guide your development. Take the time to understand and manage them, and you’ll be better equipped to lead with confidence and resilience. Your journey toward effective leadership begins with this conscious effort to understand and harness your emotional landscape, turning potential obstacles into opportunities for growth and success.
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