Leadership and management
From expert to team leader
Mari Rosenlund, CEO, organisational developer · 19 August 2026
Experts are usually promoted for their expertise – and then left alone with a new role. The transition succeeds when it is deliberately supported.
Experts almost always become leaders through substance: they know the most and do the work best. Then the role changes, and responsibility for other people's work, targets and wellbeing arrives alongside the expertise.
This is a bigger shift than is usually admitted. An expert tells. A leader asks and listens.
What changes
| Expert | Team leader |
|---|---|
| Responsible for own work | Responsible for others' conditions to succeed |
| Valued for knowledge | Valued for trust |
| Solves problems | Builds the capability to solve problems |
Without support, organisations often lose a brilliant expert and gain an insecure leader. It is an expensive trade – and entirely avoidable.
Five stages of the transition
1. "I'm fine – but what about the others?"
At first the gaze is on others: the team, the organisation, the circumstances. Development starts only when the mirror is turned towards your own behaviour – the part you can actually influence.
2. "Do I dare stop and look at myself?"
Leading people is a self-esteem profession. You are observed and imitated constantly. Recognising your own behavioural style – for example with LI Tempo – makes visible why the same message works for one person and misfires with another. There is no "one size fits all" leadership.
3. "So I'm not alone?"
Others hesitate too. A peer group is the most underrated support structure a leader has: it normalises the challenges and strengthens the leadership identity. Leaders also need feedback and a sense of belonging.
4. "We know the theory – but how in practice?"
There is no script for human interaction, which is why practice decides. Every encounter is training, and demanding conversations are worth rehearsing once before they happen for real. The LiCo sparring partner is built exactly for that.
5. "This actually works."
Confidence comes from successful repetition, not from theory. When the first difficult conversation goes well, the role starts to feel like your own.
What the organisation can do
- Give a new leader a support structure for the first hundred days, not only once problems appear.
- Make expectations explicit: what they own and what they do not.
- Secure a peer group or a mentor.
- Measure the starting point so that progress can be verified.
A well-supported transition produces a confident leader. An unsupported one produces two losses at once.