Starting a New Leadership Role: Bring Confidence, Stay Curious

Starting a new leadership role creates an interesting tension.

You were hired because of what you already know. At the same time, one of the fastest ways to get a new role wrong is to assume your past experience has already given you the answers.

I felt that tension strongly when I stepped into a new role after years of leading UX transformations, mentoring teams, and building human-centered product practices.

I wasn't starting from zero. But I was starting as a student of a new system.

Confidence and Curiosity Can Coexist

I don't think experienced leaders need to perform uncertainty about everything they know.

Experience matters. Pattern recognition matters. There are situations I've seen before, lessons I've earned the hard way, and principles I carry with me.

But experience becomes much less useful when it turns into certainty too quickly.

The question I try to hold is: What from my experience is relevant here—and what is different enough that I need to learn before I act?

Learn the System Before You Try to Fix It

New leaders are often under pressure to demonstrate impact quickly.

That can make action feel more valuable than observation. But organizations are systems. A process that looks irrational from the outside may exist because of a constraint you haven't discovered yet. A team dynamic may have history. A decision may make more sense once you understand the customer, technology, incentives, or organizational structure around it.

Listening isn't inactivity. Done well, it is how you build a better model of the system you're about to influence.

Ask Better Questions Before Making Bigger Changes

Early in a role, I want to understand things such as: What outcomes matter most? Where do customers struggle? What does the team believe is working? Where are people compensating for broken process? How are decisions really made? Which metrics actually influence behavior? What has already been tried?

Those questions help separate symptoms from underlying problems.

They also help me understand where change will create leverage and where it will simply create disruption.

Don't Confuse a Fresh Perspective With a Complete Perspective

One advantage of being new is that you notice things everyone else has learned to live with.

That perspective is valuable. So is the institutional knowledge of the people who have been there.

I want to preserve both.

A useful new-leader question is not just, “Why do we do it this way?” It is, “What problem was this originally trying to solve—and is that still the problem we have today?”

Learning Is Still Part of Seniority

Working toward my master's degree reinforced something I want to keep throughout my career: being experienced and being a learner are not opposites.

In fact, the more senior the role, the more dangerous it can be to stop learning. The problems become more ambiguous, the systems larger, and the consequences of assumptions more significant.

I want expertise to give me better questions and stronger judgment—not less curiosity.

A Few Resources I Return To

Different resources help me think about different parts of transition and growth:

• The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins — for understanding transitions, learning agendas, and where to focus early.

• The Creative Act by Rick Rubin — for staying present, observant, and open to possibility.

• It's Your Ship by D. Michael Abrashoff — for thinking about trust, ownership, and the environment leaders create.

• Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle — for coaching, candor, and investing in people.

• Journaling and reflection — for noticing what I'm learning, where my assumptions changed, and what deserves attention next.

Trust Your Experience. Stay Teachable.

A new chapter doesn't require pretending we know nothing. It also doesn't reward assuming we already understand everything.

I want to bring the full value of what I've learned while remaining open enough for the new environment to change my thinking.

Confidence says: I've handled hard things before.

Curiosity says: This situation still deserves to be understood on its own terms.

I think strong leadership needs both.