Star Performer Equals To Great Leader? Navigating the Leap with the Leadership Pipeline

kristian8120
Oct 17
3 min read

Organisations are filled with a recurring, frustrating story:

A top salesperson is promoted to sales manager and struggles to lead the team.
A brilliant engineer is made a team lead and fails to inspire their peers.

The mistake is assuming that the skills that make someone a star performer are the same skills required to lead others. This common challenge is best understood as the first and most critical "turn" in The Leadership Pipeline.

Developed by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel, The Leadership Pipeline is a framework that maps the distinct leadership passages an individual must navigate as they move up in an organisation. Each turn requires them to consciously let go of old responsibilities and embrace entirely new skills, time applications, and work values. The first passage, from Managing Self to Managing Others, is where the foundation for all future leadership is built, and it's where most new managers stumble.

The Three Critical Shifts for First-Time Leaders

Successfully navigating this first turn requires a fundamental reinvention of one's professional identity. Doing more is not the case anymore; instead we’re asked to do different work entirely. The transition hinges on three specific shifts:

1. A Shift in Skills: From Doing to Delegating

Star performers are masters of their craft. Their success comes from their personal proficiency. A new manager's success, however, is measured by the output of their team. This requires a difficult shift from doing the work to getting work done through others.

Old Skill: Personal technical or functional expertise.
New Skill: Planning, assigning work, coaching, motivating, and measuring the performance of others. They must learn to derive satisfaction from their team's accomplishments, not just their own.

2. A Shift in Time Application: From Personal Productivity to Team Planning

An individual contributor’s day is governed by managing their own tasks and deadlines. A manager must learn to allocate their time to activities that enable the team.

Old Time Allocation: Completing assigned tasks.
New Time Allocation: One-on-one meetings, providing feedback, planning work for the team, coordinating with other managers, and removing obstacles for their direct reports.

3. A Shift in Work Values: From Valuing Individual Contribution to Valuing Managerial Work

This is the most challenging internal shift. High performers value their ability to solve tough problems and deliver results themselves. As managers, they must learn to value a different kind of work, the often-invisible work of building a successful team.

Old Value: Achieving personal results and being recognised for their expertise.
New Value: Finding fulfilment in the success of their people. They must genuinely believe that coaching a team member to success is a more important contribution than closing a deal or fixing a bug themselves.

Why This Matters for Organizations

Simply promoting someone without preparing them for these shifts is setting them up for failure. Organisations must treat leadership as a distinct discipline that requires training and support.

Train for the Turn: Don't assume new managers will learn on the job. Provide formal training on the fundamentals of management: delegating, giving feedback, and coaching.
Redefine Success: Help new managers understand that their performance is now judged on their team's results and their ability to develop people.
Provide Mentorship: Connect new managers with experienced leaders who can guide them through the emotional and practical challenges of this first leadership turn.

We offer you comprehensive leadership development for your star performers who are orientated to become the next successors.