When one of your top performers gets promoted into a senior role and they aren’t delivering as well as you thought they might, it's down to competence; one promotion too far isn’t it?

Or is it. Look more closely.

There can be many measures for how well you’re doing your job, but whether the team are ‘happy’ or not is a good one.

When I ask clients what ‘good’ looks like for them at work, the phrase ‘people are happy with what I’m doing’ is often heard. Whether it’s the first answer they give or perhaps the third or fourth as they reflect and think about it, it’s often there.

One of the big struggles I see managers wrestling with is 'letting go' of things. Everything they've done up to this point is based on the actual job they do, like being a press officer, an IT engineer or a designer. But when you make that step up, it becomes less about doing that job and more about helping others to do that job.

When people get promoted into a senior management role for the first time, while it’s great for their career, it can be daunting.

Suddenly they are not just leading a team, they are at the top table and impressions, reputation and perceptions become more important. The higher you go up the corporate ladder, the more people you meet and the less they know of you as a person or what you have achieved.

You’ve got a full schedule of meetings, reports to write and lots of emails you haven’t read. It’s very tempting to plough on and try to push things forward on several fronts. You may feel like you’re very busy - but what are you achieving? It can be tough to think about your priorities and what to do next. If you feel really stuck and overloaded by your to-do list, try this.