https://hbr.org/2025/06/navigating-the-jump-from-manager-to-executive

Navigating the Jump from Manager to Executive

by Melody Wilding

June 13, 2025

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Navigating the Jump from Manager to Executive

by Melody Wilding

June 13, 2025

Summary.   Becoming a leader of leaders is a change of both scope and attitude. Your decisions may now affect dozens (or hundreds) of employees. Your results depend on how well other experienced professionals do their jobs, not on what you can personally make happen. Stepping into these shifts doesn’t happen overnight and it can feel nerve-wracking for a while. This article outlines three key shifts you need to make: 1) Going from expert to coach, 2) Moving from execution to driving impact through others, 3) Evolving from oversight to scalable systems. Leading leaders isn’t “more of the same” just with bigger teams and budgets. In reality, you have to fundamentally shift how you think about your role, how you spend your time, and how you measure success.

Moving from frontline management to becoming a leader of leaders is a huge professional milestone. The role often comes with broader scope, bigger expectations, and influence to shape strategy, culture, and the organization’s performance at the highest levels. Reaching this point can feel thrilling, even validating. After years of proving yourself, you’ve earned a seat at the table. Your input carries more weight. You’re probably excited about setting direction and solving more important problems. 

But here’s where things get tricky. While a senior role comes with nice rewards, the transition itself can be disorienting. Leading leaders isn’t “more of the same” just with bigger teams and budgets. In reality, you have to fundamentally shift how you think about your role, how you spend your time, and how you measure success. 

Claudia, an operations executive, discovered this the hard way. She had built her reputation on solving any problem, from late shipments and client complaints to staffing shortages. When she was promoted to oversee four regional managers, Claudia saw it as an extension of her previous role. She jumped in to offer guidance, sat in on team meetings, and weighed in on almost every decision, not realizing she was crowding out her managers in the process. They seemed frustrated, not grateful—and Claudia’s boss questioned why she was still in the weeds. She found herself working longer hours but feeling less effective than ever before. 

This was a wake-up call for Claudia. What had made her successful at the frontline level—behaviors like being hands-on and swooping in with solutions—was now holding her back. She was competent and capable, but she hadn’t updated her professional identity to match her new operating altitude.

Maybe you also find yourself in the middle of transitioning to leading leaders and trying to find your footing. If so, then like Claudia, you might be realizing that it requires rewiring beliefs you have about what makes you valuable and effective. Here are the three key shifts you need to make.  

1. Going from expert to coach 

Your job is no longer to be the smartest in the room, but to grow your managers into independent decision-makers. That means resisting the urge to jump in with fixes and instead creating space for your team to build their own judgment. This can feel like a loss or even a dereliction of your duties, particularly if you’ve prided yourself on being helpful and knowledgeable. But if you’re the one doing all the strategizing, your managers don’t get the chance to hone that skill themselves. 

The next time your team brings you a challenge, push for their analysis before offering your own thoughts. Ask questions like these to push your managers to think critically and take ownership, instead of defaulting to you:

What’s the real challenge here?

What options have you considered? 

What’s your recommendation?

If I weren’t here, what would you do?

Get comfortable sitting with discomfort while your people wrestle with ambiguity. Get comfortable with pauses and silence. When a manager raises an issue, take a breath and say: “That’s complicated. Tell me what you’re seeing,” or “I understand why you’re concerned. What do you think is the best course of action?” 

2. Moving from execution to driving impact through others

As a frontline manager, you were probably deeply involved in assigning work, tracking progress, and keeping things on course. You might have gained a sense of comfort from knowing exactly what was happening on the ground.

But now, you have to loosen that grip. When you’re driving multiple teams’ performance, your role shifts to cultivating conditions where good work can happen without your direct involvement.

This shift can be emotionally challenging. Your satisfaction once came from checking tasks off a list and ending each day with concrete proof of what you accomplished. At the senior level, your productivity becomes intangible—strategic conversations, coaching sessions, and relationship-building that creates value you can’t easily measure.

When you catch yourself thinking, “I talked all day and have nothing to show for it,” think beyond the first-order effects of your actions. Did you guide an important decision? Align priorities so work moves forward faster? These wins may not come with a dopamine hit in the moment, but the second- and third-order effects compound over time. The feedback you gave a manager today might mean stronger performance next quarter. The way you challenge someone could give them the confidence to take a bolder approach that secures a major account three months from now.

3. Evolving from oversight to scalable systems

Since you’re overseeing more people and projects, the volume of information coming at you may double or triple. Without proper mechanisms in place, you may drown in details or miss critical issues entirely. So identify three to five priorities or risks you must stay closest to, such as revenue targets or client retention. Then establish clear guardrails for when your managers should escalate issues versus handle them independently, for example:

Run any new expense over $5,000 by me. 

New hires above the director level band need my signoff.

Any situation that could generate negative publicity should be brought directly to me.

Asynchronous systems also give you visibility without creating more overhead. You might ask for biweekly or monthly written updates highlighting key metrics, wins, challenges, and upcoming priorities from each manager. Or you can have each team create a dashboard that tracks critical data points so you can check status at a glance rather than schedule multiple meetings.

Becoming a leader of leaders is a change of both scope and attitude. Your decisions may now affect dozens (or hundreds) of employees. Your results depend on how well other experienced professionals do their jobs, not on what you can personally make happen. Stepping into these shifts doesn’t happen overnight and it can feel nerve-wracking for a while. But once you make peace with—and embrace—this new version of leadership, you’ll unlock new levels of impact and satisfaction you never imagined.

Melody Wilding is an executive coach, human behavior professor, and author of Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge. Download exact scripts to diplomatically say no at work here.