#116 - Leave means leave!

24 Jun 26

One of the hardest transitions in professional life is moving on from a role where you have built credibility, influence, relationships and expertise. It can be tempting to keep a connection to your previous position; stepping back in to advise, solve problems, provide reassurance or become the unofficial safety net.

However, there is a fine line between supporting a smooth transition and preventing both yourself and others from moving forward.

When you leave a role, the goal should be to leave the role not remain attached to it as a comfort blanket because your new environment feels unfamiliar. Like a fish out of water, it is natural to feel uncomfortable when adapting to a new role, culture or challenge. But growth rarely happens by repeatedly returning to the environment where you already feel competent.

Strong leaders recognise that succession is not about being indispensable. It is about creating something that can thrive without them.

What?

Leaving a role is more than changing your job title or moving to a different team. It is a transfer of ownership.

A common leadership challenge occurs when someone moves into a new role but continues to operate mentally, and sometimes practically, in their old one.

They may:

• Continue making decisions that now belong to their successor.
• Become the person everyone goes back to when there is uncertainty.
• Provide solutions rather than allowing the new team to develop capability.
• Stay emotionally invested in problems they no longer own.
• Compare the new environment unfavourably against the one they left.

Often this behaviour comes from positive intentions. The person wants to help, they want the organisation to succeed and they want to protect the standards they helped create.

But over time, this can create unintended consequences.

The previous role never fully transfers. The new leader struggles to establish authority and the departing individual never fully commits to their next challenge.

The organisation ends up with two leaders for one role, and nobody is clear who is truly accountable.

Why

The transition between roles is uncomfortable because competence takes time to rebuild.

In a familiar role, you understand the landscape:

• You know the people.
• You understand the unwritten rules.
• You know where the risks are.
• You have credibility built over time.
• You can operate almost instinctively.

Then you move into a new role and suddenly those advantages disappear. You become the person asking questions rather than answering them, or the person learning rather than teaching. Or you become the person navigating uncertainty rather than controlling it.

This is where the temptation to look backwards appears.

The old role becomes a place of comfort, a place where you feel valued and capable. A place where you know you can make an immediate impact.

But constantly returning to that comfort zone prevents the very growth the new role was designed to create.

Leadership is not measured by how easily you can return to where you were successful. It is measured by how effectively you can adapt, learn and create impact where you are now.

A leader who cannot let go may unintentionally send a message:

"The new team cannot manage without me."

A leader who truly lets go sends a much stronger message:

"I built something capable enough to continue without me and now I am going to build something new."

How?

Successfully moving on requires deliberate action.

1. Create a clear handover, not a permanent hotline

A good leader ensures their successor has the knowledge, context and confidence required to succeed. But there must be a point where ownership transfers. Support should have boundaries.

A useful question is:

"Am I helping them become successful, or am I making myself necessary?"

2. Allow the new leader to build their own identity

Every leader will approach a role differently. The temptation is to think:

"This is how I did it, therefore this is how it should be done."

But organisations evolve through different perspectives. The new leader needs the space to make decisions, learn from mistakes and develop credibility in their own way. A shadow leader prevents this.

3. Accept the discomfort of being new again

Feeling like a fish out of water is not a sign that you have made the wrong move. It is often evidence that you are stretching. The transition period is where new capability is built.

Instead of looking backwards and asking:

"How do I get back to where I was comfortable?"

Ask:

"What do I need to learn to become effective here?"

4. Replace attachment with contribution

Leaving a role does not mean abandoning the organisation, it means changing the way you add value. Your previous role should become a foundation of experience, not a place you repeatedly return to. The greatest legacy is not that people still need you, it's that people can succeed because of what you built.

In Summary

Moving on from a role requires more than physically leaving a position, it requires psychologically letting go.

Returning repeatedly to a previous role because the new one feels uncomfortable is understandable, but it limits both personal growth and organisational resilience.

Great leaders do not build environments that depend on their constant presence. They build teams, systems and cultures that continue to perform after they leave.

The next challenge may feel unfamiliar. It may feel uncomfortable and feel like you are starting again, but that is often where the next stage of leadership growth begins!

Whenever you're ready, here's how I can help you:

1. Resources - Reading is an essential component to developing your own authentic leadership style. Check out my resources page for really inspiring books which I have found invaluable within my own leadership journey,
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