Read time: 3 minutes 34 seconds

He's that pleasant fellow that was promoted to the level of his own incompetence. There's even a management principle named after him. He's about to turn 40.

Most of us want to grow as managers. We strive for promotion. We want to lead more impactful teams. When something goes wrong, we want to be the first call.

But none of us want to be Peter.

And if you're reading a weekly management playbook, chances are you made it past the first Peter test: the transition from individual contributor to first-time manager. Congrats!

Now be warned. There's a second trap that claims many well-meaning victims, and it's not running a bigger area in your zone of genius. It's being tapped to run a function in which you have no first-hand experience.

But if you're striving for the C-suite, you'll eventually be asked to lead despite not being a subject matter expert. This moment is defining.

So how can you navigate with confidence when you're moving through the dark?

Two things can kill you leading any new team:

To deal with knowing what you don't know, you need a good framework and a thoughtful process for filling it out. This practice ensures you're asking the right questions and covering all the bases. There are plenty of options to choose from: Bain's Organizational Navigator, Gap Analysis, and McKinsey's 7-S Framework.

But how can you answer it if you don't know how things work? You rely on smart people to tell you the answers. You're a thoughtful orchestrator and an active listener.

This is how you build a threshold level of understanding. And while the primary network around your new role (team, manager, peers, customers, and partners) should give you most of the intel you need, I suggest finding at least one outside expert to triangulate with.

A few notes of caution:

With a rigorous approach to building a new level of understanding, you've already surfaced much of what you didn't know.

Now let's layer in some tactics to ensure you're getting to the best outcomes.

Have the team make bets. Maybe this is via OKRs. Perhaps you're creating performance incentives. Or you're working through risks together. But if I want people to think hard and operate in the team's best interests, I want them to have skin in the game on big decisions. We win or lose together.

Overinvest in team culture. You can't compete on expertise, but you can create an environment for them to thrive. Name the non-negotiable behaviors. Build rituals to support them. Use those rituals to ensure the team self-governs. Regular problem-solving and feedback are two needed activities you can leverage. And they have the advantage of creating the much-needed surface area you need.

Maintain a view of What Excellent Looks Like. If you're team was operating perfectly and exceeding all of its goals, how does that look? Again, you'll likely have to create this mosaic based on expert input both on and off the team. But with this comparison point, it will be much easier to spot the most significant gaps when you look at where you are today.

Draw on analogies. While you may not be a subject matter expert, you likely have experience with something similar. And that will often give you enough of a starting point to ask better questions.

For example, let's say you need to build a leadership development program, but you're a software engineering manager. Not exactly your wheelhouse. But a leadership development program is similar to something you have experienced: university.

While it might not be perfect, you quickly have identified 5 pillars you're looking for when taking over this group. If they're missing, you can ask why. If they deviate wildly from what you've seen work, you can ask why. This leads me to...

Ask Why. Because you're new, people expect you to be curious. Channel your inner 5-year-old and leverage this moment to understand the logic behind assumptions. You'll be surprised just how many don't hold up to this one simple question.

Let the data do the talking. There will be times you disagree. Or you're uncertain but can't quite name why. That's ok. In this case, identify the smallest viable test to either confirm your instincts or give you the confidence to go against them. Agree on the path forward with the team before you run it.

Develop your replacement. It might sound weird to build yourself out from the job from Day 1, but that's what the most impactful leaders do. It allows them to be untethered when the next opportunity arises, even if it's an option they never exercise. And if you're not a subject matter expert, this is a smart way to achieve the goal sustainably.

That's it. You humbly stepped into the unknown. You used a framework to cover as much surface area as possible. You sourced expertise from a range of credible voices, and you've orchestrated them to make better collective decisions.

I hope these tactics help you rise to a new level of competence. No offense, Peter.

The next MGMT Accelerator cohort kicks off on April 30th, and it's filling up faster than previous cohorts. We cap enrollment because of the 1:1 coaching I offer.

Our partners at Maven are scheduled to do a big marketing push for us next week. If you don't want to wait until Q4, please grab a seat before they're gone.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you!

Dave

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