you have a struggling new leader
A first question to ask: Do they just not know how to lead?
Leaders’ job descriptions typically don’t contain leadership skills that transfer across domains. Leaders often get selected for proving themselves in different competencies than the ones they need now.
Even when they know better, these new leaders will think their job is something like “devise, roll out, and manage a scripted curriculum / feature like the one you used to build.” But the real job is handling disgruntled adults. Handling disgruntled adults requires a small bundle of skills, skills which can be taught, skills which you, as the leader of this new leader, must teach her.
If your new leader was a coder before, there’s a good chance she’s trying to code (or edit code) instead of trying to manage people. The best way to teach her how to shift this is for you to model it for her, narrating your choices and moves as you make them. You slip into her role while she observes. You tell her what decisions you’re making.
As you’re modeling and narrating your own decisions, prompt her to notice
her bias toward thinking in terms of the technical competencies of her prior role and
that you keep returning instead to the question “What leadership skills should we use to address this shortcoming?”
-ben
