.png)
How to Align Your Core Leadership Values When You Get Promoted
If you've been promoted and you're still finding yourself completing tasks and activities that got you there, this is for you.
Most new leaders never sit down and work out what good looks like at their new level and how their core leadership values need to show up differently now that they are here.
That gap is often what's keeping leaders stuck in old ways of working and unable to fully step into their new role so that their success feels as good as it looks.
This blog covers two areas:
What your core leadership values actually are and why they don't change when you're promoted
How to align them practically once they need to show up differently.
Why Delegating More and Setting Boundaries Isn't Working for New Leaders
If you've been promoted recently, you've probably already tried the standard advice. Delegate more. Set clearer boundaries. Stop solving every problem for your team. Protect your time and be less accessible.
For a while, it works, even though it takes a lot of effort, and whilst you are feeling like you are doing what you 'should' be doing, it feels off and just doesn't feel right.
It is uncomfortable because it's out of alignment with your values, and you find yourself back in the same habit and behaviour patterns. It's either hard work to sustain, or it's great for everyone else and not so great for you.
Either way, you tell yourself you lack the discipline to make it work, and things feel so unattainable that you even start to question whether or not you got promoted too soon.
Discipline isn't the problem. The habits and behaviours that earned you this promotion are colliding with a role that needs something different from you now, and since you got promoted, you haven't actually asked yourself to take some time to work out what that difference is.
What Are Your Core Leadership Values, and Why Don't They Change When You're Promoted?
Core leadership values are the small set of principles that shape how you actually lead, the ones you'd point to if someone asked what you stand for as a leader. In workshops I run with leaders, the same handful come up again and again: integrity, empathy, respect, making a difference, continuous improvement.
Most leaders can name two or three of their own without much thought. They've usually been there since the beginning of their career, often shaping the career they have gone into, and so have been influencing the way they show up in work long before their title changed.
Your values stay the same when you're promoted. Whether you've moved from tactical to operational, or operational to strategic, you're still you. What has to evolve is how those values show up in your day-to-day habits and behaviours.
Take "making a difference" as an example.
At a tactical or operational level, that value often looks hands-on: being visible, solving problems in the moment, being the person your team can escalate things to.
At a senior or strategic level, making a difference means the decisions, the structures, and the culture you're building for the long term. People won't necessarily notice it day to day and yet the impact of these decisions makes a difference on a much larger scale.
If you keep running the version of "making a difference" that worked two levels and roles ago, you're using an old operating system in a new operating model.
It won't work, not because the value itself is wrong, but because the habits behind it haven't caught up - yet!
Your Leadership Identity Has to Evolve Too
Most leaders get stuck here. They know something is off, and yet they can't quite put their finger on what is causing it, so the solutions they are applying are not working.
The real work is evolving your identity as a leader, not tweaking a few habits.
One leader I worked with recently was still leaning into being hands-on, still available, still solving every problem their team brought them, because that's what they believed making a difference and being a good leader looked like. It meant their time and attention stayed in the here and now, while the role they were actually accountable for needed them focused on the medium to long term.
A leadership strength can turn into a liability when the role changes underneath it. Reshape how it shows up rather than trying to strip it out. The role has changed, so the habits and behaviours attached to your values need to change with it. If you don't do that consciously, you risk becoming your own blocker, either by not supporting your team the way they now need, or by not doing the work you are now accountable for.
PIIPS™: The 5-Pillar Framework for Aligned Success
(And Where Leadership Identity Sits)
My PIIPS™ Framework for Aligned Success is the framework I use with leaders to help them align how they define and pursue success with their own values, across five pillars: Plan, Intention, Identity, Performance and Structure.
What you're working through sits inside the Identity pillar. Identity connects directly to Performance too, because performance is how you show up, what you're consistent with, your habits and behaviours in action.
Once you are clear on identity you can get clear on the habits and behaviours that will support the evolution of that identity.
You can understand the theory of what needs to shift, however, until you evolve the identity that sits underneath it, the performance piece won't move.
You have to start seeing yourself showing up differently, still aligned with your values, still aligned with how you want to lead, just expressed through different habits at this level.
How to Align Your Values As You Step Into a New Level of Leadership
The tool I use with clients for this, and the one I use myself, is my Aligned Choices Triangle™. You take your top three core values and put them into a triangle, so that when you're making a decision, or checking how you're showing up, you can see whether it actually aligns.
My core values are making a difference, positivity, and continuous improvement. When I'm evaluating a decision or reflecting on how I've shown up, I check it against that triangle, because sometimes it's slightly off kilter, and I want to make sure I'm living the principles and standards I say matter to me.
The more consciously you do this, the clearer you can be. Left unchecked, misalignment still shows up, just unconsciously, as a nagging sense that something isn't quite right even when you can't name why. Bringing it to a conscious level, and deciding with intention how you want to show up, is what lets you lead in a way that actually feels aligned.
It also makes things easier for your team. When you're anchored in your own values rather than constantly asking "what would a good leader do", you show up consistently, and your team knows what to expect from you.
3 Questions to Check Whether You're Evolving as a Leader
If you're new in a leadership role, or you've recently been promoted, ask yourself these three questions to check whether you're actually evolving, or just running the old model in a new role.
Which of your current habits actually earned you this promotion, and are you still running them because they work at this level, or because they're familiar?
Are you spending your time on what you value now as a leader, or on what proved your worth in your last role?
What are you still doing that someone at your level shouldn't need to be doing, and who on your team is ready to grow into it if you actually let it go?
Answer these honestly, and you'll have a clear read on whether your habits and behaviours are keeping pace with the leader you're becoming.
Ready to be a Better Leader with Better Balance?
I'm Zoë Thompson, leadership and performance specialist, and I help overwhelmed leaders transform from reactive to intentional leadership, so you finish work on time, take The Big Week Off with zero work, zero stress and zero guilt, and create success that feels as good as it looks. Do less, better.
The Leadership Community: a community built around learning, implementation, and support, so you can lead intentionally without losing yourself in the process.
YouTube Channel: Intentional Leadership with Zoë Thompson
Podcast: The Lightbulb: Weekly Insights for Intentional Leaders
Zoë
Good leaders can take a week off. Can you?
