How to Build a Leadership Pipeline Internally (Before You Need One)

David Buirs | Leadership & Executive Coach

How to Build a Leadership Pipeline Internally (Before You Need One)

David Buirs is a leadership coach and management trainer based in Amsterdam. This article explains how to recognise and develop leadership potential within your team, why doing so also strengthens your own career as a manager, and which pitfalls to avoid. Written for managers with 0 to 4 years of leadership experience.

Two years of solid work. One question you weren't ready for. The promotion goes to someone else.

It happens more than people talk about.

And the strange part is, it had nothing to do with your performance. Your work was good. Your manager knew it. But when they asked who would take over your team, there was no one ready.

So the timing wasn't right. Maybe next time.

No one told you that building a leadership pipeline internally is also building your own career.

So here's what that can look like in practice.

What You're Actually Looking For

Start thinking about one or two people on your team who might have the instincts for it. And "it" here doesn't mean the best technical skills.

It means the human stuff.

Can they communicate when things get uncomfortable? Do they pull people together or pull away? Do others feel good after a conversation with them? Does the energy in the room go up a little when they're in it?

Connection. Teamwork. A positive influence on morale. The ability to motivate someone on a bad day.

That's what you're actually looking for when you want to develop leadership potential from within.

What Happens When You Start Investing in Them

When you start investing in those people, you'll see the results fairly quickly.

You have someone capable covering the team when you're on holiday. Someone you can genuinely delegate to when you're stretched. And people who feel developed tend to grow faster, stay longer, and enjoy their work more.

That last part is easy to underestimate.

This is exactly the kind of work I support managers with through management training. Helping teams develop from the inside out, rather than relying on external hires every time a leadership gap opens up.

One Thing Worth Keeping in Mind

If you're thinking about more than one candidate, be careful with how that lands in the team.

The moment people sense a competition, things get complicated. Building a leadership pipeline internally should feel like growth. Not a race.

The Bigger Picture

The technical side of leadership is changing fast. AI is taking on more of that work every year. What teams will need from their managers going forward is the part that can't be automated. Coaching. Real listening. Clear communication.

The managers who are already developing these qualities in their people — and in themselves — will be the ones who are ready when the next opportunity opens up.

If you're early in your leadership journey and want to work on this, leadership coaching is one way to get there with more clarity and less guesswork.

Unless you started your role only months ago, take a few minutes to think about this today.

When a senior role opens up, you'll have an answer ready this time.

Interested or curious? Let's chat. Plan your free introduction here. Zero obligation.

Faster promotions for new manager: Impact over theater

Leiderschapscoach Amsterdam | David Buirs

This article contrasts political games with genuine impact as a strategy for promotion. It highlights the Power Paradox and the Peter Principle for new managers. Four concrete tips provide a path for sustainable growth through personal development and feedback.

Everyone wants to move up. You just became a manager and you are already looking at the next step. VP. Director. Climbing the ladder. That is normal. Ambition is fuel. However, there are two ways to get faster promotions for new manager. One works in the short term but leaves you empty. The other might take a bit longer, but it makes you a better leader.

The Fast (But Empty) Route

You know them. The managers who know exactly when the director walks by. Who are always in the right meetings. Who slime their way up by saying exactly what the boss wants to hear. Corporate politics. Visibility over impact. Talking about results instead of actually achieving them. Does it work? Yes, sometimes. You can become a VP that way. Maybe even quickly. And then? Then you have a title. But no respect. No team that truly has your back. No feeling that you are building something meaningful. You wake up as a VP and feel empty. Because deep down you know: you didn’t make the impact you were capable of. You just played the game better.

The Power Paradox

Psychologist Dacher Keltner discovered something interesting. People often rise to power through traits like empathy, collaboration, and helping others. But once they have that power, they lose those exact traits. They become more selfish. Less empathetic. More focused on themselves. And then they start losing that power. That is the paradox. The qualities that get you to the top are not the same ones you use once you are there. Unless you pay attention to it, for example through leadership coaching.

The Better Route: Focus on Impact

Here is another way to get ahead. Become obsessively good in your current role. Don’t play politics. Ask yourself this question instead: what positive impact can I make on the people around me? On your team. On other departments. On your boss. On clients. If you get promoted? Great. Bigger role, bigger impact. If it takes longer? You are already doing work that matters. You are building something. You are developing people. You are making things better. This approach might feel slower. But in the end, you go further. With more respect, more impact, and a team that actually supports you.

4 Tips to Grow Faster (The Right Way)

  1. Ask Your Manager What Success Looks Like
    Most new managers guess what their boss finds important. And they usually guess wrong. Just ask. “What would success look like for me in six months? What should I focus on?” And also: “How do you want me to communicate with you? Weekly updates? Only when there are problems? How often do you want to speak?” This sounds basic. Yet most managers don’t do it. They assume they know. And waste energy on things their boss doesn’t even see.
  2. Ask for Constant Feedback
    Many managers wait for their annual review. Too late. Ask someone every week: “How am I doing? Where can I improve?” Ask your boss. Your team. Colleagues. Even people outside your department. This also protects you against the Peter Principle. People get promoted to their level of incompetence. They were good in their previous role, so they get a new one. One they are less good at. And they get stuck there. Feedback helps you keep growing instead of stagnating.
  3. Spend 1-2 Hours Per Week on Personal Development
    This is where most managers fail. They are too busy. Too many meetings. Putting out too many fires. So they spend no time on learning. On reflecting. On consciously getting better. Here is the secret. Few managers do this. If you do it, you have a huge advantage over your competition. 1-2 hours a week. That is it. Read a book on leadership. Take a solid management training. Reflect on what went well and what didn’t. Write down what you learn. Managers who do this grow faster. Not because they play politics, but because they objectively become better.
  4. Make Other People Successful
    Do you want to move up? Help your team grow. Help other departments succeed. Make your boss successful. When you make people around you better, it comes back to you. Not always immediately. But it returns. And when you grow into a larger role, people follow you. Because they know you care about their success, not just your own promotion.

Where Do You Focus?

You can take the fast route. Play politics. Be visible. Slime up. Or you can focus on impact. On meaningful work. On helping people grow. Both can get you a promotion. Only one lets you wake up with the feeling that you are building something that matters. Getting faster promotions for new manager starts with the question: do you want a title, or do you want to be a leader people want to follow?

Interested or curious? Let’s chat! Plan your free introduction here. Zero obligation.

How to Influence Without Authority as an Early-Career Manager

David Buirs | Leadership Coach & Management Trainer

Influence Without Authority: What Most New Managers Get Wrong

David Buirs is a leadership coach based in Amsterdam who works with new and early-career managers. This article explains why influence at work functions like a currency that must be built before it can be spent, drawing on research by Adam Grant on reciprocity and giving at work. Readers learn how to build credibility, frame requests effectively, and create real organizational impact without relying on positional authority.

You send the message. You follow up. You get a polite non-answer.

Your title is real. Your influence is not there yet. And those are two very different things.

This is the gap nobody prepares you for when you step into a leadership role. The people around you, your team, other departments, senior stakeholders, none of them owe you cooperation. Not yet. You have to earn the right to move them.

That sounds harsh. It is also just how trust works between humans.

Influence is a currency

Think of it that way. Not as a switch you flip when you get promoted. As a bank account.

You can only spend what you have already deposited. When you walk into a new role, your balance is close to zero.

Most new managers don't realize this. They assume the title carries weight. So they start making requests before they've built anything. They ask Marketing to reprioritize. They tell Engineering what needs to happen by Friday. They give feedback their team didn't ask for and isn't ready to hear.

Then they wonder why nothing moves.

Organizational psychologist Adam Grant spent years studying how people build influence at work. His research found something counterintuitive. The most generous people in an organization tend to accumulate the most influence over time. Not because generosity is a tactic. Because people remember who made their work easier. You can read more about the underlying research in Grant's work on givers, takers, and how influence actually spreads through organizations.

The managers who try to extract cooperation before building trust get compliance at best. They get teams that do the minimum. They get departments that route around them.

The deposits come first

Before you think about asking for anything, think about what you're putting in.

Make other people look good. Give credit publicly when your team delivers. Loop in someone's manager when a cross-team project goes well. Offer to take the first draft off someone's plate. These are small moves. Over months, they build a reputation that precedes you.

Build relationships before you need them. This sounds obvious. Most managers skip it anyway. They're too busy. They'll connect later. Then they show up when they need something, and they're a stranger making a demand.

If you invest in relationships when nothing is at stake, you stop being a stranger. That changes everything when something is at stake.

This applies to your own team too. If the only time you talk to someone is in a one-on-one or when you need something, they feel it. You become transactional. People do the minimum for transactional managers.

How to make requests that actually land

Once you've built something, you can start spending it. But even then, how you ask matters.

Everyone around you is listening to the same internal station: What's In It For Me. When you make a request, they're not thinking about your deadline. They're thinking about their own priorities, their manager, their reputation.

So frame your ask around them.

To a team member: not "I need you to finish this by Friday." Try: "Delivering this on time will get you visibility with leadership."

To another department: not "Can you prioritize our request?" Try: "This feature is what enterprise customers keep mentioning. Moving it up puts your team in a strong position for the Q3 review."

You're not manipulating anyone. You're doing the work of connecting your need to their reality. Most people skip that step.

Ask questions you actually want answered

There's a difference between asking a question and genuinely wanting the answer.

When you ask "what would it take to get this done this week?" and you actually listen, something changes. You learn about constraints you didn't know existed. You find room for compromise. The other person starts to feel like a collaborator, not an obstacle.

Even with your own team, questions tend to get more commitment than instructions. "How do you think we should approach this?" creates ownership. "Here's what we're doing" creates compliance, if you're lucky.

To other departments: not "We need this by Friday." Try: "Friday is our ideal timeline. What's realistic on your end?"

Questions get you information. And they make people feel heard. Both matter more than most managers expect.

Connect it to something bigger than your deadline

People tune out when you talk about your project's timeline. They pay attention when you connect it to what actually matters.

To your team: not "we need to hit this deadline." Try: "Leadership is watching this project. Delivering well shows we can execute under pressure."

To other departments: not "we need this next quarter." Try: "The company is pushing into enterprise. This feature keeps coming up in those conversations."

People want to work on things that matter. Showing them why your thing matters is not spin. It is leadership.

This feels slow. That's the point.

Building influence the right way takes months. That can feel frustrating when you're already underwater.

But the alternative is faster and it doesn't work. Managers who lean on positional authority before they've built trust get teams that do the minimum and departments that work around them.

The managers who figure this out get things done across the whole organization. Long after anyone has stopped counting who owes whom what.

This is one of the first things we look at together in business coaching for leaders. At a more senior level, in executive coaching, the same dynamics apply. The stakes are just higher and the political landscape is more complex.

For organizations that want to build this capability across an entire management layer, a structured leadership track is often a more scalable way to get there.

Where to start

Pick one person you need something from this month. Before you ask, figure out what they actually care about. Frame your request around that. Connect it to something the company is working toward. Then ask a real question and listen to the answer.

That's it. Start there.

Curious what this looks like for your specific situation? Plan a free introduction here. Zero obligation.

Dealing with Unrealistic Expectations as Manager

David Buirs | Leadership & Executive Coach

Dealing With Unrealistic Expectations as a Manager

David Buirs is a leadership coach based in Amsterdam who works with managers and leaders at all levels on dealing with unrealistic expectations at work. This article helps leaders distinguish between demands that are structurally unreasonable and situations where they themselves are the bottleneck. Practical conversation scripts and prioritization strategies make the difference concrete.

Your calendar is full. The expectations are high. And no matter how hard you work, it never feels like enough.

This does not go away with more experience. Many of the leaders I work with are in the same bind after ten years as they were in their first management role. The pressure shifts. The expectations grow. But the feeling stays the same.

Dealing with unrealistic expectations as a manager is one of the most underestimated challenges in any leadership role.

The pressure exists at every level

As a leader, you get pulled from both sides.

Your team needs you. They need decisions, direction, and someone who shows up when things get complicated.

Your own manager, your director, or your board wants results. Progress. Proof that your approach is working. Organizations regularly skip essential management training, assuming their leaders can simply handle the pressure.

And you stand in between. Trying to do right by everyone at once.

Is it unrealistic, or are you the bottleneck?

This is the question most leaders avoid. Because the answer is sometimes uncomfortable.

The expectations may be unrealistic if:

  • You do not have the resources that other teams or leaders at your level have.
  • Timelines ignore dependencies that are outside your control.
  • Your team is understaffed or structurally under-resourced.
  • You are being asked to fix problems that existed long before you took the role.

You may be the bottleneck if:

  • You are constantly busy but rarely finish anything strategic.
  • You are doing work your team could handle.
  • You have not delegated anything meaningful in the past month.
  • You keep postponing difficult conversations because they feel uncomfortable.

Both can be true at the same time. The expectations can be too high and you can still work more effectively. Getting clear on that distinction before you have the conversation makes a real difference.

How do you talk to your manager about this?

This is the conversation most people avoid. You do not want to come across as weak. You do not want to make excuses. You want to figure it out yourself.

But staying quiet does not solve anything. Start from what you want to achieve, not from what is going wrong.

A script that works: “I want to talk about priorities. I want to make sure I am focused on what matters most to you this quarter. Can we align on what success looks like for me right now?”

You are not saying “this is too much.” You are saying “I want to do this well. Help me understand what that means.”

Then get specific: “Right now I am juggling three major things. If X is the priority, I want to make sure I have the space to do it properly. That might mean Y moves back, or we organize Z differently. What makes the most sense to you?”

You show that you understand the trade-offs. You are managing expectations, not complaining.

What you negotiate, and what you just do

Pick your battles when dealing with unrealistic expectations as a manager.

Do not negotiate on:

  • Being present for your team when it counts.
  • Following through on commitments you have made.
  • Taking responsibility for the outcomes of your team.

Do negotiate on:

  • Timelines that ignore reality.
  • Taking on new projects when your plate is already full.
  • Work your team can handle but you are still doing yourself.
  • Meetings where your presence adds little.

When the problem is you

Sometimes the expectations are not unrealistic. You are just not leading as effectively as you could be.

Signs that might be the case:

  • You are the only one who can make certain decisions, even small ones.
  • Your team waits for you instead of acting independently.
  • You keep putting off difficult conversations, hoping things improve on their own.
  • Your agenda is filled by others, not by you.

If this sounds familiar, leadership coaching is often a logical next step. Not because something is wrong, but because getting an outside perspective is how good leaders keep getting better.

It takes honesty to see this in yourself. But it is fixable.

Control starts with an honest picture

Leaders who handle high expectations well do not have less pressure than you. They have a clearer picture of what they can take on, what they delegate, and where they say no.

That clarity does not come automatically. It takes reflection. Sometimes it takes someone holding up a mirror.

But it starts with being willing to ask the question: is this unrealistic, or am I?

Start here

This week:

  1. Write down what you think your manager or leadership team expects from you. Concrete, not vague.
  2. Schedule a conversation to check whether you are right.
  3. Identify one thing you need, clarity, space, or resources, and ask for it directly.

You do not have to carry the pressure alone. You do need to understand it.

Interested or curious? Let’s chat. Plan your free introduction here. Zero obligation.

Managing a Negative Employee as a Manager: What Works

David Buirs | Leadership Expert

Managing a Negative Employee as a Manager

David Buirs is a leadership coach based in Amsterdam who works with managers and leaders at all levels on handling negativity within their teams. This article helps distinguish between temporary frustration and damaging patterns, and explains why the manager’s own mindset is often the deciding factor in how the conversation goes. Practical scripts make clear how to step in without escalation.

Someone on your team is negative. Every meeting, they have a complaint. Every decision gets an eye roll. Every new initiative gets a “yeah, but…”

Do you say something? Ignore it? You do not want to shut people down, but you also cannot pretend this is not happening.

Managing a negative employee as a manager is not optional. It is part of the role.

Why managers wait

Most managers see it and do nothing. You worry about making it worse. You worry they will get defensive. You worry it will look like you cannot handle feedback.

So you wait. And hope it gets better.

It will not.

The oil stain effect

One person starts complaining. Then someone else joins in. Before long, half your team is focused on what is wrong instead of what is possible.

Negativity spreads. Meetings turn into complaint sessions. Good ideas get shot down before they get a chance.

That said, negativity is sometimes useful feedback wrapped in frustration. Your job is figuring out which one you are dealing with. That is exactly what leadership coaching helps managers work through.

Is this a bad day or a pattern?

Watch for a bit. Is this person having a rough week, or is this who they are every day?

One bad day does not make someone negative. Even a bad week does not. People get frustrated. That is normal and human.

But if it has been three weeks and every conversation is negative, you have a pattern. Patterns do not fix themselves. The longer you wait, the harder the conversation gets.

When to step in

Step in when the behavior is a pattern and not a one-off, when it is affecting other people on the team, and when it is about attitude rather than legitimate concerns about a specific problem.

Let it go when someone is having a bad day, when they are raising valid concerns even if the tone is not perfect, or when the criticism is aimed at a problem and not at people.

The difference: “This process is broken because X” is feedback. “Everything here is terrible” is negativity.

Start with yourself, not with them

Here is something most people do not say out loud: before you go into the conversation, it matters to be honest about your own state of mind.

If you have been irritated by this person for weeks, you may barely notice it anymore. But the irritation is there. And it leaks. In how you look at them. In a silence that runs just a beat too long. In a tone that sounds just a little too flat.

People pick up on that. Especially people who are already on edge.

If you walk in with a hidden verdict, “this person is just difficult,” they feel it. And the conversation becomes a confirmation of what they already suspected: that you have already made up your mind about them.

Try seeing the behavior as a puzzle you want to understand, not a problem you want to get rid of. What makes someone react this way? What has this behavior gotten them in the past? What does it say about what they need?

That shift, from judgment to genuine curiosity, changes everything about how the conversation goes. You might ask the same questions. But you mean them differently. And they feel that.

How to have the first conversation

Pull them aside privately. A casual conversation, no formal setting.

“Hey, I’ve noticed you seem frustrated lately. Is everything okay? Is there something I can help with?”

No accusations. No “you’re being negative.” Just genuine curiosity. And that last part is not a technique. You have to mean it. If you are internally thinking “I’m doing this because I have to,” that is exactly what comes across.

Real curiosity opens things up in a way no script can. Maybe there is something going on you did not know about. Listen. Do not defend yourself or explain anything. Just hear them out.

If there is a real issue underneath, work on it together. “What would make this better?” Now you are solving something, not managing an attitude.

If nothing changes

Sometimes the gentle approach does not work. They seemed better for a day. Then they slipped back into the same behavior.

This is when you set a boundary.

“We talked last week and I thought we’d made some progress. But I’m still hearing a lot of negativity in meetings. I need to be direct: this is affecting the team. When Sarah suggested the new process yesterday, you immediately said it would not work without hearing her out. That makes it harder for everyone to stay focused.”

Be specific. Not “you’re always negative,” but a concrete example of when and what.

Then: “I want to support you, but I also need this to change. What do you need from me to make that happen?”

You are still supportive. But you are making it clear this cannot continue.

Your team is watching

Your team is paying attention to how you handle this. It is a core part of what organizations build through management training: protecting the culture of the team. That matters more than being liked.

Let negativity run unchecked and people learn that complaining is fine. Shut down all criticism and they learn to never speak up again.

Managing a negative employee as a manager is really managing the culture of your whole team. Handle it well and everyone benefits. Avoid it and everyone pays the price.

What to do this week

If you have someone who is consistently negative:

  1. Decide whether this is a pattern or a rough stretch.
  2. Ask yourself honestly: have I already passed judgment? If so, set that aside first.
  3. Schedule a casual one-on-one. No agenda, no formal tone.
  4. Start with genuine curiosity: “I’ve noticed you seem frustrated. What’s going on?”
  5. If nothing changes after two weeks, have the boundary conversation with a specific example ready.

Your team needs someone willing to have uncomfortable conversations when it counts. And who goes into them wanting to understand, not just to correct.

Interested or curious? Let’s chat. Plan your free introduction here. Zero obligation.

Twenty years of experience vs. your new role: The Veteran Wall

David Buirs | Leadership Coach & Management Trainer

Detailed guide for starting managers facing the “Veteran Wall” of giving feedback to senior employees. Explains the application of DISC colors to mitigate status-threat responses. Positions personal leadership and internal validation as the core for effective feedback.

You sit in the meeting room. Your palms are sweating. Across from you sits the person who built this department. They have twenty years on the clock. You have six months in your seat. You need to tell them their behavior is toxic. The silence feels heavy. You feel like an imposter.

The “Veteran Wall” is the invisible barrier of seniority. It is built from years of service and institutional knowledge. Most new managers try to climb it with politeness. This fails every time. You cannot “nice” your way into respect.

Experience is not a shield

You are the manager for a reason. Tenure does not grant immunity from feedback. High turnover often starts with one untouchable expert. Your team looks at you. They want to see if you have a spine.

Do not hide behind your job title. That is corporate theater. Speak to the person. Address the behavior directly. When an expert is allowed to underperform, the culture rots. Your high-performers will leave first. They are waiting for you to lead.

‘Coloring along’ with DISC

The DISC model helps you build a real connection. Everyone communicates through a specific color preference. A Red personality wants the bottom line fast. They respect strength and brevity. Do not apologize for the feedback.

Yellow types need to feel heard. They fear social exclusion. Frame the feedback as a way to reconnect with the team.

Green seeks safety and a steady pace. They hate sudden change. Use a calm tone and offer clear steps forward.

Blue demands facts and logic. Show them the data. Prove why the current behavior fails.

Speak their language to lower their guard. This is about removing friction. It has nothing to do with manipulation. It is about recognizing the human on the other side.

The trap of seeking validation

Many young leaders suffer from “approval addiction”. You want the veteran to like you. You want them to say you are doing a good job. This is a dangerous trap.

If you need their validation, you cannot lead them. Neuroscience shows that status threats trigger a fight-or-flight response. When you challenge a senior expert, you trigger this response. They will push back. Your job is to stay grounded. Do not take their defense personally.

Personal leadership as the foundation

Real leadership coaching starts with looking in the mirror. Stop seeking validation from the senior experts. Your authority comes from your internal values.

Acknowledge the tension. Tell them you respect their history. Then tell them why the current path fails. This is how you build a real connection. True leadership is being the same person regardless of who is in front of you.

Schedule a free introduction call to discuss the possibilities for your situation here.

The Help-Trap: Your Good Intentions Might be What’s Exhausting You

David Buirs | Leadership Coach & Management Trainer

Summary: This article explores the “Help-Trap,” where leaders inadvertently hinder their team’s growth by providing all the answers. It explains how shifting focus to increasing team ownership and resourcefulness reduces manager burnout and builds long-term capability. By prioritizing independent thinking over short-term popularity, managers can transform from an “answering machine” into a catalyst for growth.

Many managers have some sense of what success looks like: generating output X or hitting a growth percentage Y. But they are often confused as to how to actually achieve that. They channel their energy towards short-term solutions and struggle with their team’s dramatically low sense of accountability and ownership.

When the team comes to them with a problem, the manager gives the answer. Problem solved. These are good intentions, but they are channeled incorrectly. It is short-term thinking. Well-intended, but ineffective long-term. Our ego’s love it though. I’ve been there many times. Nothing beats giving a smart answer and feeling useful.

The Thinking Manager

But this newsletter is for the Next Level Manager (NLM), the type of manager that works intentionally. They don’t just “do” management; they think deeply about what effective leadership actually is and how to help their team achieve their long-term goals.

They realize that in order to achieve those business goals, the development of their team’s capabilities is critical. Because they are the people that have to deliver those results. Help them become 20% more capable, and results can increase by 20%.

Strategies for Increasing Team Ownership

An essential driver behind that process is the amount of ownership and resourcefulness a team possesses. This is a dynamic metric, not a static one. You have influence over it. If you make increasing team ownership your objective, you will approach questions from your team differently.

This requires sacrifice. You might have to disappoint your team. You might even have to leave them hanging. You have to accept short-term hits to your popularity because you need to move away from giving them the answers to every question they bring you.

Avoiding the Dependency Cycle

Every time you offer an answer, you create a little more dependency. They see you as a little bit more important, and you are slowly setting yourself up for long-term failure. This is the Help-Trap. I have been on both sides: the trapper’s side and the trapée’s side. Both feel good short-term, but keep you stuck long-term. The more answers you give, the more questions will come your way, and the busier you will be. Many leaders who burn out are caught in this trap.

With the rise of AI, individual knowledge becomes less valuable. If you cling to being the person with all the answers, your position devalues over time. Instead, become a catalyst for your team’s learning. Instead of giving the answer, express your trust in their capabilities to find it themselves: “I know what you’re capable of, I’ve seen you do it before. See what solutions you can come up with.”

Practical Steps Toward Resourcefulness

It is important to distinguish between questions your team cannot know or solve on their own (budget, leave dates, etc.) and questions they can solve (internal conflicts, client problems). As we all use AI more, we are becoming worse at creative thinking. This makes this an uphill battle, but it is one worth fighting. Tell your team: “Anytime you come to me with a problem, tell me what solutions you have already considered.”

To make this practical, the NLM facilitates monthly sessions where team members show the rest of the group the process they followed to find a creative solution. The focus is not on the actual solution; it is on the steps they took to get there. During these sessions, use public recognition for the team members who showed the most resourcefulness. By highlighting someone who solved a problem without waiting for an answer, you signal to the rest of the team that you value independent thinking over simply “checking in.”

Investing in Long-term Impact

Think of it this way: if they are lost in the forest, do you give them direct instructions to get out? Or do you teach them to read a map and use a compass? I’ll zoom in on the process, and importance, of teaching new skills to your team, in a future edition of this newsletter. How to teach them to ‘read a compass’. But before we get there, we must let go of the tendency to give our team all the answers.

This shift is a vital part of leadership coaching. The leaders I work with transform their definitions of success, in ways that helps them, and their careers.

If you are ready to stop being the “answering machine” and start building a high-ownership team, schedule your free introduction call to discuss the possibilities for your specific situation.

The Identity Crisis: What are we actually here to do?

David Buirs | Leadership Coach & Management Trainer

Summary: This article defines the fundamental responsibilities of a first-time manager by addressing the “Player-Coach Trap.” It argues that primary duties shift from technical output to human-centric leadership and providing team perspective. The core responsibility highlighted is the development of an inner compass through reflection to lead others effectively.

Welcome to the first edition of The Next Level Manager.

I am David. I want to help you find some breathing room in your own to-do list.

In my coaching work, I see the same pattern over and over. I call it the “Player-Coach Trap.” It happens when you think your value still comes from the technical tasks you used to do: the code, the deals, or the designs.

It does not.

The Shift: Leading from the Inside Out.

Moving to the next level means your priority has to change. You are not responsible for the work anymore; you are responsible for the people.

This requires a different kind of growth. It is not about learning a new software, but about developing the maturity to handle the human side of business. This is where “perspective” comes in. To bring it, move from giving the answer to asking deepening questions:

  • “What haven’t we thought of here?”
  • “What is a different way this could work?”
  • “What is the essence of what we’re trying to accomplish. Are we still moving towards that?”

The source of these questions must be your own deep sense of what you and your team’s mission is, and why. If you have that inner compass, you will naturally sense when the team deviates from the course. You’ll get it through reflection. Quiet, focused, thinking-time. Even 5 minutes a day is enough.

The Main Question to Ask

You can ask yourself: achieving what 3 objectives will make you score your year a 100/100 at the end? That’s where your compass is pointing.

You cannot give your team clarity if you do not have it yourself.

From this position of clarity, you can help your team gain perspective. Through questioning. By asking these questions, you don’t “fix” the problem for them; you help them see the path back to the track themselves. Giving someone the answer is like scrolling their social media feed for them: it’s forgotten the next minute. But helping them find new answers themselves, is what actually helps them grow, comparable to making their own social media post. That’s what they’ll remember.

The First Step

Leave the hero role behind. Your job is no longer to be the most productive person in the room, but to be the one who brings the most perspective to it. When you make that shift, you will feel it immediately. You’ll have achieved a different, more relaxed state. And from that, you can start making a much bigger impact.

The next level is not a promotion. It is a decision to lead from the inside out. It starts with you.