What's the most important mindset shift women need to make after their first promotion?
The most critical shift is this: you stop being judged on how hard you work and start being judged on the decisions you make. What earned you the promotion — being the hardest worker in the room — will not keep you promoted. The hardest part of the transition is learning to do less yourself and to help everyone else succeed instead.
In episode 451 of Ordinary To Badass, Marie Sonneman shares eight things nobody told her before her first leadership role — and this mindset shift sits at the center of all of them. The trap is familiar: you were rewarded your entire career for outworking everyone around you. So you keep doing it. But once you step into a supervisory role, that same behavior starts working against you. Your value is no longer measured in output; it is measured in judgment, in the quality of the decisions you make, and in how well the people around you grow. You can listen to the full episode on Listenly.
Sonneman is candid that she wishes someone had sat her down before she became a supervisor and told her exactly what was coming — that leadership could feel lonelier before it ever felt rewarding, that some friendships would shift, and that the instinct to prove yourself through effort would need to be actively unlearned. The new job is not doing more. It is creating the conditions for others to do their best.
"If people like you but they don't trust your judgment, you have a popularity problem, not a leadership advantage. Trust lasts longer than approval."
— Marie Sonneman, Ordinary To Badass, Episode 451