By Harry Kraemer, Contributor. 

Harry Kraemer, Jr. is a professor at the Kellogg School of Management.

Feb 11, 2025, 10:30am EST

It’s arguably the most difficult career transition in business—moving from being a single contributor to leading a team. Suddenly, everything changes. Let’s take a look at why this jump to leadership is so challenging.

When you were in school, even though you may have been one of 30 students in a class and you were expected to collaborate with others, you really wanted to be among the best—the top 5% or even 1%. Although you cooperated and worked with others in group projects, when you were a student, it really was all about you.

In your first job not much changed. You brought a good work ethic and values, and you cooperated with your colleagues. But you and your peers were all on the same level, and no one was reporting to you. You viewed your performance as your chance to shine so the boss would think of you as the best person to promote. In other words, it was still mostly about you.

Then came an enormous change: being promoted to managing a team for the very first time. No longer a single contributor, you were now a leader who was expected to take responsibility for the development of others. You were aware of the importance of talent management and leadership development—you read the business books and took the courses. But knowing something and actually doing it (and doing it well) are not the same thing.

As research has found, as many as 20% of first-time managers are rated as doing a poor job by their direct reports and 26% of first-time managers said they did not feel ready to lead others. Tellingly, nearly 60% of those first-time leaders said they never received any training as they assumed the role of leading others.

For business leaders at all levels, supporting and developing first-time managers is a priority across the organization. To understand what should be done, let’s take a step back and look at the obstacles and challenges facing these new leaders.

Three Problems When Advancing From Single Contributor To Leading The Team

Based on my forty years in business, including being chair and CEO of a $12 billion global health care company and now a clinical professor of leadership at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, I see three problems that undermine first-time managers. The first problem is that they are used to doing everything by themselves. In fact, they’re so confident in their own capabilities that they hesitate to delegate tasks, knowing that other people will probably take longer to perform the work.

The second problem is micromanaging. Although first-time managers know they are expected to delegate, they check and double check everything that every team member is doing. It may be that, based on how their former bosses acted, they think micromanaging is a sign of being engaged with the team. Micromanaging others, however, is not delegating, nor will it develop others. It’s also demoralizing for the team members who don’t feel they are trusted to do the work by a manager who is operating as a one-person army.

Third, even when a new manager knows the importance of developing others, they are still focused on looking good to their boss. When the department head or division leader asks for a summary of a project, the new manager gathers information from the team and makes the presentation by themselves. In their mind, the manager thinks the “big bosses” will see them as irreplaceable—and that is a double-edged sword. Someone who is irreplaceable in a role is not likely to be promoted out of it; after all, there’s no one who can do it as well as they can!

Conversely, when a manager brings the whole team that worked on the project to the meeting with senior leaders, everyone gains visibility. The team feels empowered and appreciated, and the bosses see that people on the team are being developed who could one day assume the manager’s role. That means the manager is more likely to be promoted into roles with increasing responsibility. And that’s why the focus should be making yourself replaceable not irreplaceable.

What Leaders Can Do To Support First-Time Managers

The struggles of first-time managers are a wake-up call for more experienced leaders in the organization to step up and support people transitioning into their first leadership roles. Not only will first-time leaders become more effective, but the organization will also build and sustain a leadership pipeline of the most promising people at all levels.

Here are some foundational tips for first-time managers and the leaders who are supporting, mentoring, and coaching them:

• Not Just A Leader—A Values-Based Leader: We start with a definition of leadership: the ability to influence others. Values-based leadership takes it to the next level by continuously reflecting on and prioritizing what matters most to make a positive impact on others. My approach to values-based leadership is anchored in my four principles of self-reflection, a balanced perspective, true self-confidence, and genuine humility. These principles apply to everyone and at all levels—not just the CEO and other senior leaders, but also middle managers, first-time managers, and even individuals working on their personal leadership.
• The Importance Of Self-Reflection. The first principle, self-reflection, is the regular practice (ideally daily) of stepping back, filtering out the noise and distractions, and asking yourself questions to gain clarity about your values, your priorities and goals, and what matters most. Self-reflection is the key to increasing your self-awareness and self-knowledge. As I tell my students and aspiring leaders, if you are not self-reflective, how can you know yourself; and if you do not know yourself, how can you lead yourself? And if you cannot lead yourself, how can you possibly lead others? That’s why self-reflection establishes an invaluable foundation for values-based leadership.
• You Don’t—And Can’t—Know Everything. Being a valued-based leader requires developing a balanced perspective. This applies to gathering input from others on the best way to tackle a project, as well as to engage with people who hold different and contradictory views, especially in today’s polarized world. A balanced perspective also brings with it an appreciation of the fact that, no matter how senior someone is in the organization or how many years they’ve been in business, they cannot possibly know everything. Therefore, it is important to listen to and understand as many perspectives as possible. In addition, as they develop a balanced perspective, first-time managers can learn how to communicate their own views much more effectively. Instead of engaging in a tit-for-tat argument, trying to shoot down opposing opinions, they will be able to draw parallels wherever possible to show where the various viewpoints agree; where there is divergence, they can explore the contrasts.
• Learning To Motivate Others. To foster a collaborative workplace, we need to appreciate that the best ideas can come from anywhere. To spark such creativity and cooperation within their team, managers need to learn how to motivate others. In fact, it’s one of the biggest challenges not only for those leading for the first time, but also for senior leaders. It comes down to this: to motivate people is to empower them to lead change. With the right atmosphere, attitude, and openness—within a team and across the organization—everyone at every level can add valuable insight and ideas. The more people feel seen and heard, the more motivated they’ll be to speak up and offer their input.

Becoming a first-time manager may be the most challenging transition in a person’s career, but there are ways to make it less daunting and more successful. It starts with understanding that with this role comes a shift in perspective—from it’s really about me to it’s all about others. In learning to empower and develop others, first-time managers showcase their leadership capabilities—while also modeling the behaviors their team members will need when they, too, become values-based leaders.