FROM STAR PERFORMER TO ACCIDENTAL MANAGER

Imagine this… you are excellent at your job, you hit targets, you handle pressure like a seasoned pro. You are the person people go to when things go wrong. Naturally, someone decides it is time for you to be promoted. Yay, a brand spanking new title, a bigger desk, maybe even a plant you will forget to water…and a TEAM!

Now you are responsible for a group of people who are… not you. They do things differently, they need support, feedback, boundaries, sometimes food bribes, sometimes therapy. Sometimes both. Welcome to the awkward transition between high performer and actual leader, where being good at your job isn’t the same as being good at leading.

This is a common story, you excel in your role and become the go-to person so naturally, the business promotes you. Your path goes straight on from star performer to stretched manager. Except, what made you great in your old role, your technical skill, output, consistency, may not help much in your new one.

Now it is not about how fast you can finish a task. It is about whether you can get five other humans to care enough to finish it without losing their minds (or each other). It is a shift most are not prepared for, not because they are not capable, but because no one told them leadership is not a continuation of their old job. It is an entirely different one.

Leadership brings surprises, like figuring out who keeps stealing the condiments from the fridge, or navigating the team member who cries when given feedback. Or learning how to say “That is not your job” without sounding like a villain. If you thought your job was doing the work, now your job is helping others do the work well, without quitting, fighting, or creating TikToks about toxic workplaces.

The Big Shift leads from doing to leading. Being a great leader starts with letting go of the need to be the best doer. Your job is no longer to execute perfectly as it is more important to create the conditions where your team can execute without chaos. The old identity of the fixer, the closer, the star has to evolve. Now, your wins come through others and your success is measured by what your team achieves, not just what you personally deliver. So how do high performers grow into high-impact leaders?

1. Great leaders learn to coach, not control, they guide decisions, not dictate them. They ask better questions instead of offering every answer.

2. They build trust, not just check-ins, they support so that people thrive under autonomy, not anxiety.

3. They define what success looks like together. If your team knows the outcome and the why, they will find their how.

4. They let go to level up by no longer wanting to control everything by doing the work they promoted themselves out of. 

   
   

Get mentored, trained, and challenged, study leadership like it matters. It can be weird at first, like learning to ride a bike and being told to throw the pedals away. But once you embrace the shift, everything changes and you get time and perspective back and you get the rare gift of seeing others grow because of your guidance, not in spite of it.

If you are a high performer who suddenly finds themselves leading, you should know that you were promoted because someone believed you could learn how to. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, leadership is not about having all the answers. It is about asking better questions, building better habits, and doing the one thing every great leader eventually learns to do…find the lunch thief, ha!

Many people don’t want to admit they are struggling in leadership roles because it feels like they should just know how to do it. If you are feeling like you are leading through chaos, you are not alone. Figure out how to make movement out of there.

The best leaders are the ones who keep learning how to do it better.