How to make an impact in your first year as a leader

New leaders naturally want to prove their worth and maximize their impact as soon as they start.

Whether you’ve worked your way to the top of one company, you’ve moved into your first leadership role at a new organization, or you’re a fractional CFO who has secured your first portfolio client, what you do in your first year will be vital in shaping your leadership career.

You may feel the need to deliver quick wins to validate your position and add value, so how can you achieve this?  

Let’s take fractional leaders as an example. These leaders have left corporate 9-5 life in favour of more flexibility, working with a portfolio of multiple organizations simultaneously.

As they work as freelance executives, providing expert services to companies that tend not to need nor be able to afford full-time, employed C-level leaders, they must prove their worth and make an impact quickly. As such, there is a lot that any leader can learn from them.  

To create impact, fractional leaders develop psychological ownership with their clients. It is the key for any leader, whether employed or fractional, to foster long-term, productive, rewarding and value-adding relationships within their company.

So, what is psychological ownership, and how can new CFOs cultivate it to maximize their impact in their first year?  

Psychological Ownership Explained  

Psychological ownership (PO) is a strong feeling of belonging, identity, responsibility or loyalty towards something else – you feel that something is “yours”, even if you don’t legally own it.

At work, this feeling could be towards an idea, a piece of work, a team, or the workplace itself. Essentially, the stronger the psychological ownership, the stronger the impact a new leader can make.  

The Roots: WHY does PO exist in relationships?  

Pierce et al. explain that there needs to be three roots or motives of PO which underpin why the state exists:  

Efficacy 

For PO to emerge, new CFOs and their C-suite colleagues must understand each other’s needs, feel knowledgeable about the range of services offered, and be confident that the service and relationship are working to meet desired goals.  

To cement efficacy, new CFOs can: 

1. Invest time at the start of relationships to learn about your new company’s products and services and the other leaders’ dreams and desires. What do they want the business to do for them? Take time to do the onboarding and induction. 
2. Initiate a conversation early on about expectations for the relationship. What do all parties want from it in the short, medium, and long-term? How will you know when you are successful? How will you measure value and progress? What is your vision for the future? 
3. Share your needs regularly. How will others get the best out of you? It must be mutual. 
4. Keep the relationship on track by using the headings Service, Educate, and Monitor. Draw up a workplan to outline how the service is delivered and received, ensuring everyone is clear on the nature of the work, when it gets done, and the expected output. Educate everyone about the relevant work issues and business initiatives, including them in briefings and updates. Monitor the overall service by conducting quarterly reviews of working relationships, inputs, outputs and agreed metrics.  

Self-identity 

People use ownership to define themselves, express self-identity to others, and ensure the continuity of the self across time. In this context, new leaders and their C-suite colleagues work together with shared identities and use them to establish and contribute to their own identities, fostering feelings of PO.  

To cement self-identity, know what motivates you in your work and business e.g., Are you driven by finances and KPIs, do you put your team first, or is it all about the customer? Become clear about your identity and communicate this with your C-suite colleagues to ensure your priorities align.  

Having a place  

Working together enables new leaders and their colleagues to be part of a group of likeminded people. This transforms the workplace into a place of belonging, contributing to their feelings of PO towards each other. 

To cement this third root of psychological ownership to maximize your impact, invest time to get to know and have interactions with the wider team. What requirements do they have that you can help with? 

The Routes: HOW is PO created in relationships?  

There are 4 major routes to develop PO which are interrelated: 

Control 

The extent to which new leaders and their colleagues can control and access each other impacts feelings of ownership. This includes how accessible, approachable, and available they find each other.  

Here are 3 tips to cultivate control:  

1. Ensure you are accessible, approachable, and available. Communicate your availability regularly. Be flexible. 
2. Check in with C-suite colleagues regularly when not on-site to open communication channels. 
3. Explain to your C-suite colleagues how they can communicate with you to ensure they know how to contact you.  

Intimate knowledge 

The more information and intimate knowledge the new CFO and the other C-suite executives have about each other, the deeper the relationship between them and the stronger the feelings of PO.  

To cultivate intimate knowledge, take the first steps in being vulnerable with colleagues by sharing small amounts of personal information, recognizing the importance of sharing this to build intimacy in relationships. It is also important to know when you have reached the limit for a healthy professional friend relationship. 

Investment of self 

Investment can take many forms: time, skills, ideas, physical and psychological, and intellectual energies. The more the investment – e.g. the more the new leader and their colleagues work together to co-create outputs – the stronger the feelings of PO.  

Here are 3 tips to cultivate investment of self: 

1. Co-create rolling three-month workplans with C-suite colleagues to schedule activities, desired outcomes, and discuss progress. 
2. Invest in other shared activities across the organisation to foster co-creation e.g., strategy planning. 
3. Find ways to immerse yourself into the company. The best ways are those which aren’t expected as a normal part of your role e.g., showing support at an exhibition, or joining in with a charity event in your own time. 

Psychological Safety 

Kahn defines psychological safety as “feeling able to show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences to self-image, status, or career”. Both new leaders and the other C-suite executives need to feel psychologically safe in their group settings to build feelings of PO. 

To cultivate psychological safety, new CFOs should: 

1. Start building interpersonal trust from the outset by being open, reliable, and caring. 
2. Prepare for difficult conversations. Consider the timing and place, but don’t shy away from them – your colleagues want to hear your views. 
3. Ask for positive and negative feedback and make time to review this. 

Creating lasting impact beyond your first year 

Cultivating the roots and routes of psychological ownership won’t just help you to make an impact in your first year as a leader. It will set you up for an impactful leadership career in the long run.

Ultimately, it provides you with the skills to nurture strong relationships with fellow leaders in your organization, where you can work together harmoniously to achieve maximum impact and success.  

Sara Daw is a fractional leadership researcher, speaker and Group CEO of The Liberti Group and The CFO Centre. She is also the author of Strategy and Leadership as Service – How the Access Economy Meets the C-Suite, which explores the fractional leadership trend. 

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