You got the promotion … now what? Here’s why new VPs need a coach more than they might think.
Congratulations, you’re now a VP. The title feels surreal, doesn’t it? Especially when you look around the table and see people who were your peers just months ago. People who now report to you. People who might have wondered (or you wondered) whether you were ready for this.
Here’s what I see with over half of my clients who are new to VP roles: they’re brilliant, capable leaders who are quietly drowning. They’re working harder than ever yet feeling less effective. They’re managing people they used to grab coffee with, trying to set strategy while their inbox explodes, and wondering when exactly they’re supposed to see their kids or go to the gym.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not broken. You’re just operating with a playbook designed for your last role.
Here are 4 struggles new VPs commonly face:
1. Managing Your Former Peers
This might be the most awkward transition in business. One day you’re complaining together about leadership decisions, and the next day you’re making those decisions. You want to maintain the relationships, but you also need to establish authority. You’re making calls that won’t be popular; and you know there are things you can’t share. The tension is real: be too friendly and you undermine your authority; be too distant and you lose the trust that got you here.
2. The Boundaries You Don’t Have
Your calendar is a disaster. Every meeting feels urgent. You’re still doing work from your old role because, “it’s faster if I just do it.” You respond to emails at 10 PM because that’s the only time you can think. Your team sees you always available, so they expect you always available. Meanwhile, your partner is asking when you’ll be home for dinner, and you honestly don’t know.
3. Role Clarity That Isn’t Clear
Your job description said, “strategic leadership,” but what does that actually mean? You’re supposed to be thinking three years out, but you’re still approving purchase orders. You should be developing your team, but you’re fixing their mistakes. You know you need to delegate more, but what if they do it wrong? What if it reflects badly on you? The result: you’re doing three jobs badly instead of one job well.
4. Strategy Time That Doesn’t Exist
You block time for strategic thinking. Then a crisis hits. Someone needs you. A meeting runs over. Suddenly it’s Thursday and you haven’t looked at that quarterly planning document. You’re reactive, not proactive. You’re in the weeds when you should be above them. The cruel irony: the higher you go, the more strategic you need to be, but the less time you seem to have for it.
How Coaching Actually Works on These Issues
A coach isn’t a consultant who tells you what to do. A coach is a thinking partner who helps you figure out what you already know but can’t quite access in the chaos. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
On Managing Former Peers
We don’t work on “techniques for managing former colleagues.” We work on who you need to be as a leader and how that shows up in every interaction. We examine the stories you’re telling yourself about authority, friendship, and leadership. We practice the hard conversations before you have them. We distinguish between being liked and being respected, and why you can’t optimize for both simultaneously.
One client kept trying to soften her decisions with her former peers, adding “what do you think?” to every directive. We explored her fear that directness would damage relationships. Once she saw that her hedging was creating confusion and resentment, she found her voice. Her team later told her they felt relieved – they wanted a leader, not a former peer pretending nothing had changed.
On Setting Boundaries
We don’t create a time management system. We examine your relationship with “no.” Why does it feel impossible to decline a meeting? What do you believe will happen if you’re not available at 9 PM? What are you optimizing for, results or the appearance of dedication?
We look at the boundaries you’ve already set in other parts of your life and ask why you can’t set them here. We test your assumptions. We design experiments. We track what happens when you leave at 6 PM versus 8 PM.
One client was convinced that leaving “early” (at 6:30 PM) would signal lack of commitment. We made it an experiment: leave at 6:30 for two weeks, be fully present at dinner, and notice what changes. Her team’s performance didn’t drop. Her boss didn’t comment. But her stress levels did drop, and her strategic thinking improved because her brain finally had rest.
On Role Clarity and Accountability
We map where you’re spending your time versus where a VP should spend their time. We identify what you’re holding onto from your old role and why. We design your role based on what the organization needs from this position, not what you’re comfortable doing.
We create a decision-making framework: What decisions should you make? What should your team make? What needs your input versus your approval? Where are you experiencing bottlenecks?
One client realized she was still reviewing every client proposal because she used to write them. We worked through her fear that her team would make mistakes that would reflect on her. She created a rubric for her team, reviewed three proposals together, then stepped back. Quality didn’t suffer. Her team grew. She reclaimed eight hours a week.
On Strategic Thinking
We don’t just block time and hope you’ll use it well. We examine what “strategic” means in your role. We identify the questions only you can answer. We distinguish between strategic work and important operational work that feels strategic.
We design your week to protect strategic time the same way you’d protect a board meeting, because it is that important. We build in accountability. We create structures that make strategy a practice, not an aspiration.
One client kept canceling his Friday morning strategic block when urgent issues arose. We reframed it: “If your CEO scheduled time with you, would you cancel it for this issue?” The answer was no. He started treating his strategic time as a meeting with the most important person in his career, himself.
The Pattern Beneath the Patterns
What I’ve learned from working with dozens of new VPs: the struggles aren’t really about time management or delegation techniques – they’re about identity.
You were promoted because you were exceptional at your last role. But that role rewarded doing. This role rewards thinking, deciding, and enabling others to do. That’s a fundamentally different muscle. A coach helps you build that muscle. Not by giving you a five-step process, but by helping you see your own patterns, question your assumptions, and design experiments to test new ways of being.
The VPs who thrive aren’t the ones who work harder, they’re the ones who work differently. They get comfortable with being uncomfortable. They build the self-awareness to catch themselves slipping back into old patterns. They have someone to help them see what they can’t see from inside their own experience.
You’re Not Supposed to Know How to Do This Yet
The reason this is hard is because it’s supposed to be hard. You’ve never been a VP before. You can’t know what you don’t know. But you can choose to learn with support rather than struggle alone.
The executives I work with aren’t weak or incompetent. They’re smart enough to know that the same approach that got them to VP won’t get them to the next level. They’re brave enough to admit they don’t have all the answers. They’re committed enough to invest in becoming the leader their role requires.
The question isn’t whether you need support. The question is whether you’ll seek it before you burn out, damage key relationships, or plateau in a role you fought hard to reach.
If you’re a new VP struggling with any of these challenges, let’s talk. The first conversation is about understanding where you are and where you want to be. No pressure, no sales pitch, just two professionals exploring whether coaching might help you lead the way you want to lead.