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Why First-Time Senior Leaders Struggle: The Three Shifts That Define Success
- Nazly Frias
- Sep 25
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 12
Stepping into senior leadership is unlike any other promotion. It isn’t just a bigger job; it’s a profound shift in identity, scope, and visibility. Leaders who have excelled in functional leadership or managerial roles suddenly find themselves navigating whole-of-organization dynamics, where every decision carries symbolic weight and every relationship matters.
For organizations, these transitions are moments of both promise and risk. They can unlock renewal, or stall momentum. Too often, talented leaders are promoted or hired with the assumption that they will “figure it out.” But the evidence is clear: without support, first-time executives frequently stumble, not because they lack skill, but because the nature of the role itself demands a different way of leading.
This article focuses on leaders taking on senior executive responsibility for the first time — whether called C-level, VP, or Partner in different contexts. Regardless of the title, the dynamics are remarkably similar.
The Three Shifts of First-Time Senior Leadership
Most first-time executives underestimate the scale of this shift until they are living it. The dynamics cluster into three themes: scope of leadership, relational dynamics, and the symbolic weight of the role. Together, they redefine how leaders see themselves and how others experience them.
1. The Altitude Shift: From Expertise to Enterprise
Most leaders are promoted because they excelled in a function, finance, operations, client service delivery, strategy. Their success was built on mastery, depth, and problem-solving. But the first shock of an executive role is that those strengths are no longer enough. At the top, the work is not to be the smartest expert in the room, but to make trade-offs for the whole system.
One first-time CFO described her first months as “intellectual whiplash.” She was used to owning the numbers in detail, but now the board expected her to shape choices about organizational direction and financial risk. She realized her real job wasn’t accuracy, it was judgment.
One of the hardest lessons is decision altitude — learning not just how to decide, but which decisions belong at the top and which should stay with the team. Many new executives exhaust themselves by pulling decisions upward instead of setting them free.
Failing to make this shift keeps leaders stuck in the weeds. They over-function, exhaust themselves, and disempower their teams. The opportunity, when embraced, is to rise above function and become a true steward of the enterprise.
2. The Relational Shift: From Peers to Networks of Influence
The second shift is relational. A new executive may suddenly be managing people who were once peers, or joining a senior team where dynamics are less collegial and more political. At the same time, external stakeholders — funders, regulators, clients, partners — begin to see them as a proxy for the organization.
This creates both isolation and exposure. Many first-time executives describe feeling lonelier than ever: the easy peer group is gone, and safe spaces for candor are fewer. A program leader promoted to COO in an international NGO put it this way: “I went from being part of the team to being the person people watched. I didn’t change, but my relationships with everyone else did.”
Another surprise is the feedback gap. As relationships change, candor drops. People edit themselves around a senior leader, which means executives must build deliberate channels to hear the truth.
When leaders underestimate this shift, they misread signals, lean too much on old alliances, or avoid hard conversations. The cost is erosion of trust. When they learn to see relationships as systemic — not personal — they unlock new influence and build networks of alignment across the organization.
3. The Presence Shift: From getting things done to shaping culture
Finally, stepping into senior leadership changes not only what leaders do, but what they represent. Every word, every decision, every meeting behavior carries more meaning. What was once a casual comment becomes interpreted as a signal of priorities. Staff read into what leaders wear, how quickly they respond to emails, whether they sit down for lunch or rush past.
This symbolic weight can surprise and overwhelm. One new CEO recalled how her first offhand remark about budget “being tight” rippled through the organization as a de facto freeze, long before any formal decision was made.
Leaders who fail to recognize this symbolic dimension often underestimate how much culture they shape or how much confusion they create. But those who embrace it can model values, set tone, and communicate priorities in ways that align and inspire.
Finally, the symbolic role also changes the rhythm of work. More travel, more external commitments, more visibility — all of which stretch time and energy. Leaders who fail to recalibrate risk exhaustion, mistaking activity for presence.
Why These Shifts Matter
Taken together, these shifts create an identity change as profound as the job change. What makes this transition difficult is not just learning new skills, but letting go of the old markers of success — detail mastery, peer familiarity, private contribution — and stepping into a role defined by judgment, systems, and presence.”
These three shifts are not isolated. They reinforce one another. Leaders who stay stuck in functional detail often fail to show up with the authority and presence expected in symbolic leadership. Those who don’t recalibrate relationships misinterpret the cues their new symbolic role generates.
Together, these dynamics explain why so many talented leaders struggle in their first senior roles. It’s not that they lack ability. It’s that they’re playing a new game with old rules.
What Organizations Typically Miss
Promotion does not equal readiness. Past success predicts very little about capacity to lead at enterprise altitude. Without an explicit shift in mandate and decision rights, new executives default to doing more of what made them successful before.
Onboarding is not orientation. Tours, documents, and welcome emails do not replace a deliberate integration plan. First-time executives need help re-contracting relationships, setting decision cadence with the top team, and understanding how authority signals travel.
Leadership team integration is the work. Many organizations invest in the individual and forget the group. If the senior team does not realign around the newcomer, the newcomer ends up carrying the transition alone.
Symbolism is substance. Appointments are treated as staffing events when they are actually cultural events. People watch who sponsors whom, which priorities get airtime, and how quickly misalignments are corrected. Those signals either steady the system or unsettle it.
How to Navigate the Transition Well
This passage is a shared responsibility. Individuals adapt their leadership. Organizations design the conditions where that adaptation can succeed.
For leaders stepping in
Trade expertise for enterprise. Decide what you will stop doing so you can see the whole. Shift your calendar toward strategy, talent, and external relationships.
Build an inner circle. Identify three to five truth-tellers inside the system and one or two outside sounding boards. They are your pressure valves and reality checks.
Name the reset. With former peers and new counterparts, state how you intend to work, where you will rely on them, and how decisions will be made. Clarity beats comfort.
Mind your signals. People now read how you show up, not just what you say. Be intentional about a few symbolic actions that reinforce your priorities.
For organizations hiring or promoting
Write the mandate, then say it together. Document scope, decision rights, and interfaces, then have the board, CEO, and senior team communicate it consistently.
Design integration, not just onboarding. Pair the executive with a senior sponsor. Map critical stakeholders. Schedule early alignment sessions that tackle real decisions, not introductions only.
Hold the team accountable for the handover. The senior group owns stability during the leader’s first 90 to 180 days. Publish a decision cadence, surface conflicts fast, and close ranks around agreed priorities.
Manage the moment as a cultural event. Honor what came before, welcome what is new, and make visible how the organization will carry the transition together.
Final Thoughts: A Shared Passage
The first step into senior leadership is a profound passage, both for the individual and for the organization. It tests adaptability, resilience, and alignment in ways that no prior role demands.
When supported, these transitions create fresh energy and renewal. When mishandled, they drain capacity and leave organizations vulnerable at the very top.
In this sense, it is never just an individual transition. It is an organizational inflection point. The question is not only whether the leader is ready, but whether the system around them is prepared to make the passage together.
This article is part of a three-part series on leadership transitions, exploring what really changes when leaders step into larger roles, why familiar strengths often become ineffective, and how leaders can grow into the identity their new context demands. Next in the series:
About the Author
Nazly Frias is the founder of Leadership Impact, a boutique leadership advisory practice specializing in executive teams and senior leaders in impact-driven professional service firms and organizations.
With over 15 years of leadership experience across global impact consulting firms and public innovation labs, Nazly combines the credibility of an insider with the clarity of an external advisor and executive coach. She helps senior leaders and executive teams navigate high-stakes leadership and organizational transitions.
Originally from Colombia, Nazly works with clients across the globe in English and Spanish and is based in Berlin.