Promoted for
the wrong skill.
Almost nobody gets made a manager because they are good at managing. They get made a manager because they were excellent at the job underneath it, and then the thing they were excellent at is no longer the thing being asked of them. Most organizations hand over a team, a title, and a login, and call that a transition.
These are free formats for running the ten concepts with new leaders. No cost, no license, no consultant. An HR lead, a director, or the new managers themselves can run any of them.
Written from the operator’s chair, not the consultant’s. Chris Sund is President and COO of Uniti Med, GQR Healthcare, and Nebula. He has promoted people into leadership, watched some of them struggle, and been the one who had to raise his own standard after a conversation he did not want to have. That story is in the first chapter.
The gap is not
information.
New managers are not short on frameworks. Most of them could describe good leadership accurately while doing none of it, because the hard part was never the knowing.
Before you ever lead another person, you are already leading yourself. Most new manager training skips straight to running one-on-ones, which is why so little of it holds.
The single most common first-year manager failure is the conversation that never happens. The book is direct about what waiting actually is, and why it feels so much like preparation.
New leaders want to be liked, and that instinct quietly costs them the team. The chapter on choosing truth over praise is about both directions, giving it and going looking for it.
No budget line, no vendor, no approval chain. If it works with one cohort, run it with the next one. If it does not, you are out an hour.
The four that
matter first.
There are ten in the book. These four are the ones a new leader needs in the first ninety days.
Lead Before You Are Asked
Leadership does not begin with authority. It shows up in whether you prepare or procrastinate, whether you follow through or let something slide, whether you handle the thing you know needs handling or decide it can wait.
Start here. It reframes the promotion as something that recognized what a person was already doing rather than something that made them a leader.
Read the concept →Own It. Every Day.
New managers inherit problems they did not cause, and every one of those explanations is true. A reason can be true and still not help you.
The session is about finding the part that is actually theirs to move, which is the difference between a manager who complains upward and one who gets trusted with more.
Read the concept →Seek Truth. Not Praise.
You can protect your ego or improve your performance, and you do not get both. First-year leaders are unusually exposed here, because the team stops telling them things the week they get the title.
Run this one before the first engagement survey, not after it.
Read the concept →Leave People Better
Success is what you achieve. Significance is who is better because of you. For a manager that stops being a nice sentiment and becomes the actual job description.
This is the session that changes how someone thinks about the people reporting to them, and it is worth ending a cohort on.
Read the concept →Four formats,
four calendars.
Same material at different depths. Start with whatever your managers will realistically protect time for.
The Lunch and Learn
All ten concepts at about five minutes each, with a full run of show and the exact question to ask for every one. Nothing to prepare beyond printing a page, and nobody needs to have read the book.
Works for: a monthly manager meeting, a leadership lunch, a new hire manager onboarding session, or an HR led development hour.
Open the Guide →The Book Club Guide
One session per concept, run by anyone in the group rather than by an expert. Honest questions, one that asks more of the room, and a challenge to carry into the week.
Works for: a manager cohort meeting monthly, a peer group of first-time leaders, or a leadership team working through it together. Everyone needs a copy of the book.
Download the Guide →The Boot Camp
All ten condensed into a day. Short teach, silent reflection, table discussion, decision, ten times over. People leave with a written plan rather than a binder.
Works for: a leadership offsite, a new manager academy kickoff, or a two half day version split across a quarter.
Open the Guide →The 10-Week Program
The deep version, and the right one for a cohort. A week of real management between every session, so people try something with an actual team and report back.
Works for: an emerging leader program, a new manager cohort, a high potential group, or a supervisor development track.
Open the Guide →Running it
with managers.
Things Worth Knowing Before You Start
Do not use it as remediation. The moment a manager suspects they were sent because someone is worried about them, the honesty leaves the room and never comes back. Run it with a whole cohort or not at all.
Senior leaders should go first. If a director answers the first question with something real about their own avoidance, the room follows. If they perform, the room performs back and you have wasted the hour.
Do not report the reflections upward. Written work stays with the person. Share what the group decided to do, never what any individual admitted.
Give them one thing to do, not ten. Every session ends with one action for the week. A new manager already has too much. The value is in doing one thing and reporting on it, not in leaving with a list.
If Your Managers Are Already Running on Empty
There is a longer piece on that, written for the people above them. Read what to do when your managers are running on empty.
Before you ever lead another person, you are already leading yourself.
Bring these
into the room.
The Comfort Ceiling Assessment
Twenty five questions across five areas. Answers stay on the person’s own device, which is exactly why a manager will answer honestly.
Take It →The Promise
One thing you have been putting off, with a date on it. For most new managers it is a conversation, which makes this a strong closing exercise.
Make One →The Printables
Worksheets for all ten concepts, ready to print for every seat in the room.
Print Them →Bring Chris In
A keynote for a leadership summit, a facilitated day with your managers, or bulk copies for a cohort.
Start a Conversation →
When I’ve got something worth sending.
Just a story or an idea I picked up that I think will help you.
Sometimes that’s twice in a month. Sometimes it’s not for a while.