When Many High Performers Fail As Leaders

Moving from the individual contributor role to leadership is a new skillset that must be supported.

By Megan Marshall

I’ve always been ambitious. I want to give my full effort to the work in front of me and I want to do well. That drive led me to want to grow in my career. And it led me to my first leadership role.

I had spent years performing well, delivering results, and earning trust. When the promotion came, it felt affirming. I had worked hard for it. I knew the new position would be harder. But what I didn’t anticipate was how disorienting the transition would feel.

The skills that had made me successful before (deep expertise, execution, and reliability) suddenly weren’t enough. I was being asked to think more broadly, manage more stakeholders with competing priorities, make decisions with incomplete information, and lead through others rather than through my own output.

Looking back, I wish someone had told me this was normal. I wish I had been more prepared for how difficult the transition would be, and for how much it would quietly shake my confidence.

The transition from high-performing individual contributor or functional leader into a broader leadership role is not just a step up. It’s a shift in identity. And it’s one of the hardest transitions leaders make. That’s why 60% of leaders fail within two years of a promotion.

And it’s why many of those who manage to keep their job still struggle. Research shows that virtually all leaders need at least 90 days to become effective in their new role. Almost half needed more than six months.

Over the past five years, I’ve worked with dozens of leaders going through the exact same transition. And I’ve helped organizations design coaching and development programs that have supported hundreds more. Here is why the transition into a leadership role is so difficult, and what your organization can do to ensure a more successful transition.

THE NEED FOR NEW SKILLS

As Marshall Goldsmith said, what got you here won’t get you there. The skills that earned leaders their promotion are rarely the skills they need to succeed in their new role.

Take the shift from tactical to strategic thinking. Many people get promoted because they’re exceptional executors. But senior leadership demands the ability to think about the big picture, make decisions with incomplete information, and translate vision into action. Those are skills many leaders have never had to develop.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TOLL

Beyond the challenge of the job itself, stepping into a bigger leadership role is psychologically taxing. Why?

Identity dissolution and imposter syndrome: Most leaders’ professional self-concept was built on being excellent at their previous role. While they were promoted based on demonstrated success, now they’re operating in unfamiliar territory. Not only are they having to rebuild their professional identity, every decision feels weighted with the possibility that someone will realize they don’t actually know what they’re doing.

The confidence paradox: New leaders often feel the need to project certainty. However, senior leadership rarely offers certainty. Leaders operate in ambiguity and make decisions with incomplete information. The work isn’t having all of the answers. It’s asking the right questions.

Isolation: It’s true that it is lonely at the top. Leaders can’t confide in their direct reports and may feel uncomfortable showing vulnerability to their peers, especially in competitive cultures. And their boss expects them to figure it out. Who can they turn to when they’re struggling? For most newly promoted leaders, the answer is: no one.

And there’s a cost of getting it wrong. When promoted leaders struggle, the damage ripples outward quickly. Their direct reports perform 15% worse and become significantly more disengaged. Gallup research shows that in 2025, a lack of employee engagement globally cost the economy $438 billion in lost productivity. Morale drops, and the organization’s best people start looking elsewhere.

HOW TO HELP LEADERS SUCCEED IN A TRANSITION

The good news is, we know how to help leaders succeed through this challenging transition. Research consistently identifies three critical elements for successful leadership transitions: role clarity, skills and support, and social acceptance.

Role clarity means having transparent conversations with leaders about what success looks like. Not just the formal job description, but the real expectations, how decisions get made, the political landmines, and the unwritten rules of the culture. This requires alignment between the new leader and their boss on priorities, and regular check-ins to recalibrate as the role evolves.

Skills and support means naming the gap between what the leader knows and what they need to learn, then providing structured ways to develop those capabilities. When researchers asked senior leaders what would have made their last transition more successful, 42% pointed to more guidance and feedback.

For me, having an executive coach was transformative. My coach provided a space where I could be honest about my struggles, get feedback, and build and practice the leadership skills I needed to succeed.

Social acceptance means creating real opportunities for connection. We spend around a third of our lives at work. Relationships aren’t nice-to-have—they’re predictive of retention, engagement, and performance.

For newly promoted leaders, building relationships might mean cohort-based learning where they can process their experiences with peers going through the same transition. It might mean structured team integration work that allows the leader and their team to slow down, establish new norms, and build trust. It definitely means creating space for authentic connection, not just transactional networking.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Promotions are so often treated as the finish line. In reality, they are the starting point of a difficult transition. When organizations leave new leaders to figure it out, they shouldn’t be surprised when many don’t. But, with clarity around expectations, intentional skill development, and real human support, newly promoted leaders can move through uncertainty faster, build confidence grounded in competence, and become the leaders their organizations need.