When you move up, you are not doing more of the same. You move from expert to integrator, from doing to enabling, and from functional thinking to organisational perspective. Your impact increasingly comes through others.

Helpful questions to ask yourself include:

• What leadership reputation do I want to build at this level?
• What evidence and behaviours do I want others to see?
• What are the outcomes I will be judged by?
• Where do I need to become a more visible leader? What might be holding me back?

We often use the letter “T” as a metaphor. Previously you may have been operating mainly on the vertical line, knowing all about your function. Moving up means inhabiting the full breadth of the horizontal line, with its wider responsibilities and perspectives.

You can’t occupy the whole of the horizontal line in the “T space” and still expect to occupy the vertical line.

At more senior levels, confidence comes from knowing the unique contribution you can make, not from having all the answers. Senior leaders focus on judgement, accountability and influence.

These leaders:

• Are clear about their responsibilities and the outcomes needed of them
• Exercise “soft power” through presence, listening and influence.
• Are curious about different viewpoints and prepared to change their minds when the evidence shifts—explaining why.
• Are deliberate in when and how they make decisions, and how they bring others with them.
• Recognise that sometimes it is better to make an imperfect decision than to make no decision at all.
• Accept that they cannot please everyone.
• Stay calm under pressure, enabling others to stay calm too.​

The impact we intend is not always the impact felt by others. Don’t be afraid to explore how you come across.

If you get one criticism and 20 advocates, explore what might be behind the criticism but keep it in perspective. If you get consistent messages about things you need to change, engage with the feedback-givers and seek their support in adapting your approach. Observe what seems to work for other leaders and experiment with what they do – provided this is consistent with your values.

Prioritisation is about making clear choices. Try the “rocks, pebbles and sand” model to identify where to focus your energies:

• The rocks are the essential objectives that only you can deliver.
• The pebbles are essential tasks that can be done by others.
• The sand is desirable activity that could be dropped or postponed.​

The rocks need to go into the jar first, or there will be no space for them. For most senior leaders, these rocks include:​

• Being an effective corporate team player.
• Reviewing strategic direction and balancing the immediate with the longer term.
• Building critical stakeholder relationships .
• Building a high-performing team.
• Coaching others to grow.

A key question is whether your diary reflects your rocks. Leaders often talk about the tyranny of wall-to-wall meetings, but if the meetings don’t match the rocks, why are they there?

At senior levels, you share responsibility for the success of the whole organisation, not just your own function.

This means:​

• Helping set overall strategic direction and culture.
• Resourcing a forward plan to support the overall strategy.
• Actively managing internal and external risks.
• Working constructively with partners in the wider system.
• Ensuring that all team members collaborate in the interests of the whole.​

If you notice silo thinking, a lack of time for longer-term issues or recurring tensions between functions, you share responsibility for addressing it. You might, for example:​

• Ask “What is the strategic issue we are really trying to solve here?”
• Suggest a dedicated session to look beyond immediate operational pressures.
• Offer to convene a cross-functional group to explore a specific challenge.​

The more you think and speak in terms of “we” and the wider system, the more you inhabit your role as a leader in the whole enterprise.

Reputations are often built on delivering short-term results, but can be broken by neglecting the longer-term view. Leaders who sustain confidence and trust deliberately make space to step back and consider how the landscape may evolve.​

One useful practice is a “pre-mortem”:

• Imagine a point in the future where a key initiative has failed
• Ask: what went wrong? what did we miss? what did we underestimate?
• Identify which risks you can mitigate now or monitor more closely.​

The balance between strategic thinking and operational delivery will shift over time, but it is rarely “either/or”. The discipline is to protect time for horizon scanning, even when the inbox is overflowing.​ There will be opportunities out there as well as risks.

The higher you go, the more your impact depends on influence rather than control. Influence grows through relationships, credibility and understanding stakeholder motivations.

With your team, you can:

• Map your stakeholders and rank them by importance to your objectives.
• Identify which are reliable allies, which are indifferent, and which may be resistant.
• Decide who needs your personal attention because of the level of influence they hold.​

Influence is as much empathy and positioning as it is about logic. Consider, for each key stakeholder: What motivates them? How do they like to receive information? Who do they listen to? What language or frame will resonate?​

Senior leaders also have convening power. Rather than waiting to be invited, they initiate conversations and bring the right people into the room. Over time, the goal is for others to come to you proactively, because they recognise you carry influence and perspective in the system.​

Create the conditions for success by setting clear expectations, building trust and enabling others to grow.

Your success at senior levels is inseparable from the success of your team. Great teams often describe a sense of being “in it together”, drawing on one another’s skills and watching out for each other’s well-being.​

Your role includes:

• Providing a clear sense of direction and expectations.
• Building a team with complementary skills and perspectives.
• Ensuring connections are made across silos and that the evidence base is strong.
• Holding people to account in a way that helps them learn and grow.
• Deliberately balancing face‑to‑face and virtual interactions.​

A key shift is from “rowing” to “steering”: moving from doing the work yourself to creating the conditions for others to deliver. That may mean letting go of tasks you enjoy and tolerating some discomfort as others learn. Coaching your team is an investment in the future, not a luxury.​

As you grow, you will need others to grow too. If you see yourself as protecting them, you may be limiting their chance to grow.

Questions to help you coach your people include:

• Have I been clear enough about what success looks like and why it matters?
• Have I given them space to express what support they need and what might be holding them back?
• Am I making assumptions because of their background or life experience?
• How can I tailor my approach to their preferred way of learning?
• How can I give feedback so it can be heard and used?
• How well do I understand what will motivate each person?

There are times when an individual simply may not be suited to a role, and you have to have a different kind of conversation. Approaching that with respect and a genuine desire to help them succeed elsewhere is part of being a confident, humane leader.​

It’s natural to feel nervous about speaking in high-level meetings when you have just stepped into a bigger role. You may feel you don’t know enough about the business, or that others are more experienced and confident. Remember that you have been invited to join for a reason and that fresh perspectives create value.

• Do your preparation. Read any papers, think about the questions they raise and maybe talk your ideas through with a colleague
• Notice where people sit in these meetings and how they influence the discussion
• Ask open questions more than you make statements
• Experiment with the speed and tone of your delivery to find a wavelength that others tune in to
• Don’t wait to find the perfect sentence or you may miss your chance to speak
• Be clear and concise. Nervousness can lead you to talk for too long and lose the room.

Confidence develops over time through reflection, resilience and alignment with your values.

You will still have days when self‑doubt appears, when your inner critic is loud, or when the complexity feels overwhelming. Setbacks are inevitable, whoever you are. What changes over time is your ability to step back, remind yourself of your strengths, learn from your experiences and reconnect with who you want to be.

The suggestions in this article can support you in that process: clarifying your priorities, finding your voice, playing your part on the corporate team, building influential relationships and developing others. They are also a useful framework when you are mentoring or coaching colleagues who are stepping into bigger roles of their own.​

Stepping up is not just about holding the role — it is about truly inhabiting it.

As you look at the role you hold now, what is one small shift that would help you inhabit it more fully, on your own terms?