You’ve just been promoted to a manager. Now what? The truth is that new managers hardly receive formal training before taking on their roles. Instead of hitting the ground running, most of them try to figure out how to lead as they go along, says Vibha Gaba, The Berghmans Lhoist Chaired Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership and Professor of Entrepreneurship at INSEAD.

In this podcast, Gaba takes a deep dive into leading, especially for first-time managers. Being a leader in the contemporary workplace clearly requires new competencies; technical expertise alone is no longer enough. As the director of INSEAD’s “Learning to Lead” executive programme, Gaba has been training executives, complementing their existing technical chops with people management skills –  from how to assign tasks to the right team members to coaching people and managing conflicts. 

As the nature of the job changes from solving more technical problems with clear solutions to tackling adaptive challenges, new managers need to draw on the diverse knowledge and expertise of their teams. This is where the three dimensions of leadership come in: tasks, managing relationships and self-awareness.

Beyond managing tasks, new managers also need to manage themselves, their teams and their networks. Managing themselves calls for constant reflection – on their roles, key priorities, what success looks like and what it takes to get there. Managing their teams is about setting expectations and priorities and creating a climate of trust and psychological safety. 

Finally, as a conduit between their teams and top management, as well as relevant stakeholders, managers need to navigate these relationships to get things done and deliver for the organisation. That said, the power of relationships goes beyond functional reasons. Networks – peers, people below or above in the organisational structure, or even those outside the company – are an important form of social support. They can become mentors or advisors, offer feedback, act as mirrors and even provide emotional support in times of need.

Acknowledging that it may seem like a steep learning curve, Gaba says, “It’s about [pushing] yourself out of your comfort zone, because you are learning new ways of working, new behaviours and new styles, which do not come to you naturally. But practice makes you more comfortable.”