Many of the people I coach often look for help as they are about to embark on a new role. That might be a big promotion within the same business or indeed a new external role at a different organisation.

They generally have concerns about coping with new staff responsibilities, internal relationships and the usual uncomfortable issues relating to knowledge and the need to get up the learning curve in rapid time.

If you are not feeling at least a bit apprehensive about your new role, then it may be that you haven’t stretched yourself far enough. If everything seems within your grasp from the outset, then I would be concerned that you may not be challenged sufficiently in your new job.

Sometimes people become overly anxious as their first day in their new, higher-level role approaches. Their focus revolves around the internal belief that somehow, deep down, they are not really up to the new challenge, that they must have managed to delude everyone at interview and consequently all their shortcomings are going to be revealed on day one. This is commonly known as imposter syndrome. Fear not! Apparently most successful CEOs go through the same self-doubt.

Your success depends heavily on your team. Think about your new team. Consider where they are on their personal career life cycles and think about how you can match their career needs as well as meeting the demands of the business. Job rotation, secondments and project work all spring to mind.

But fundamentally, the starting point is for you to explain your vision as best you can and highlight where each member can help. Having this bigger picture is a sure-fire way to encourage commitment and reinforce job enrichment.

Discuss their development needs within this wider framework, agree how the business can help meet their broader development needs, and look for alternatives if opportunities are not immediately available. This is part and parcel of operating as a servant leader, whereby the prime focus of your role should be to create the environment in which your people can flourish - while allowing this team to grow and deliver all the ongoing objectives of the business.

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