In the past 15 years, I’ve coached quite a number of first-time execs. Over the next 5 days, I’ll share some lessons that caught my clients by surprise and how we worked through it.
These lessons apply to any leadership role.
But they matter most when you’re stepping up to the top.
Let’s start with an important flip that catches many new execs off guard:
The moment you step into the C-Suite, one thing quietly changes:
Your value is no longer in having the answers.
If you still try to be the smartest person in the room, you’re not leading. You’re holding the team back.
Because here’s what happens:
The more answers you give, the fewer they find for themselves.
Every time you step in with the answer, you close the loop before they’ve had to think it through.
It feels helpful in the moment.
You’re removing uncertainty, speeding things up.
But over time, it builds a subtle habit.
They stop wrestling with the question themselves.
Because they’ve learned they don’t need to.
You’ve got it covered.
So they stop looking.
They stop thinking bigger.
They stop challenging what’s possible.
And instead of leading the team,
you end up dragging them behind you.
Step by heavy step.
And that’s the problem with so much of the “lead the way” advice out there.
You were never meant to carry it alone.
You were never meant to be the smartest person in the room.
You were never meant to have all the answers.
→ You were meant to light the path.
And focus the team’s brilliance on that journey.
So they can find better answers than you ever could.
Because a team that thinks together will always be smarter than any one person thinking alone — no matter how smart you are.
When you stop giving all the answers, you make space for this:
→ They bring ideas you’d never have thought of.
→ They spot risks before you see them coming.
→ They find faster, smarter paths forward — together.
In other words, no need to pull the team forward.
They will move the whole thing with you.
Which means you finally get to do what you’re really here to do.
Not to answer every question.
But to make sure they’re asking the right ones.
In the end, it’s not about how smart you are.
It’s about how smart you enable your team to be.
Keep lighting the path!
