Leading in Three Directions: Why HR Teams Must Prepare First-Time Leaders for This Critical Competency

New leaders face pressure from three directions simultaneously right from the start: the team expects clear orientation, superiors want to see results, and peers from other departments need collaboration at eye level. Anyone in a first leadership role who focuses on only one of these directions risks loss of trust, conflicts, and early turnover – within their own team as well as for themselves. The good news for HR and L&D teams: with the right development structure, this triad can be systematically supported – and this is exactly where the Sharpist Hybrid Journey comes in.

The Topic in a Nutshell

What Does "Leading in Three Directions" Mean – and Why Do So Many First-Time Leaders Fail at Exactly This?

Stepping into the first leadership role feels for many like being thrown into the deep end. Suddenly, one is no longer just part of the team, but stands in the middle of a web of expectations: the team looks upward for orientation, one's own manager looks downward for results, and colleagues from other departments expect collaboration at eye level. This triangle of leading downward, upward, and sideways is not a theoretical construct – it is the daily reality of every leader from the very first day in the role.

The Sandwich Position: Between Expectations From Above and Below

First-time leaders are structurally in a sandwich position: they are simultaneously recipients and senders of expectations. From above come strategic guidelines and performance expectations, from below come the need for orientation, expectations of protection, and sometimes resistance. Anyone who does not actively shape this tension becomes a mere conduit – and loses effectiveness on both sides. According to practical reports [URL NOT MAPPED], the role conflict between "leader" and "follower" is among the three biggest challenges in everyday leadership – with an increasing tendency.

Why Classic Seminars Address Only One of the Three Directions

The problem does not lie in companies' intentions, but in the structure of the available formats. A two-day seminar for new leaders typically costs between €1,400 and €2,500 per person, but in terms of content covers almost exclusively downward leadership: delegating, giving feedback, conducting critical conversations. Managing up and lateral leadership rarely appear as independent topic blocks in most programs. Added to this is the forgetting curve: without continuous reflection, up to 70 % of seminar content is lost within 24 hours. The result: after the seminar, first-time leaders are theoretically trained in one direction – but completely left to their own devices in the other two.

The Three Leadership Directions in Detail

To effectively develop first-time leaders, HR and L&D teams must understand all three leadership directions as equally important competency fields – not as an optional extension, but as an integrated system. It is worth taking a closer look at the specific requirements of each direction.

Leading Downward – From Colleague to Manager

The transition from subject matter expert to leader is the best-known, yet also the most commonly underestimated challenge. Whoever was a peer yesterday must today clarify expectations, demand performance, and make decisions – even toward former friends within the team. Many new leaders try to maintain their previous peer relationships and thereby unconsciously undermine their own authority. According to an analysis of typical challenges facing emerging leaders [URL NOT MAPPED], the emotional isolation caused by the role transition is one of the least discussed yet most corrosive experiences: one can no longer complain to the team about superiors, can no longer openly share doubts, and there are things one knows but cannot pass on. The core competencies in this direction are: delegating instead of doing it oneself, communicating expectations clearly, building trust despite a changed role, and giving constructive feedback.

Leading Upward – Managing Up as a Learnable Competency

Managing up – or "cheffing", as it is called in German-speaking regions – is the most neglected of the three leadership directions. Yet it is decisive for whether first-time leaders are perceived as strategic partners or get lost in the noise of the hierarchy. Gudrun Happich of the Galileo Institute describes cheffing [URL NOT MAPPED] as the ability to positively influence one's own manager in the interest of a shared company goal – without manipulation, but with clear intent. In concrete terms, this means: making results visible, informing proactively rather than reporting reactively, advocating for the needs of one's own team upward, and translating management decisions for the team. Anyone who does not develop this competency risks their team's concerns being systematically overlooked – with direct consequences for motivation and retention.

Leading Sideways – Lateral Leadership Without Formal Authority

Lateral leadership means influencing people over whom one has no disciplinary authority: peers from other departments, project partners, internal service providers. As the consulting firm CONTUR describes [URL NOT MAPPED], lateral leadership requires pronounced social skills and emotional intelligence – because it often takes place in unclear power relationships. Ambiguous communication or blocked cooperation can trigger immense conflicts. At the same time, this competency is becoming increasingly important as hierarchies flatten and cross-departmental projects become more common. The Wharton School describes lateral leadership [URL NOT MAPPED] as the ability to develop important dependencies and to shape collaboration across departmental boundaries – a competency that first-time leaders often only begin actively developing in month six or later, even though they need it from day one.

The Timing Dynamic: Which Direction Is the Focus, and When

A common mistake in development planning: HR teams treat all three leadership directions as competencies to be developed simultaneously. In practice, however, competency building follows a temporal logic that coaching programs should reflect.

This phase logic does not mean that the other directions are irrelevant in earlier phases – but it helps HR teams structure coaching content and micro tasks in a phase-appropriate manner, instead of overwhelming with all topics at once.

What Happens When the Triad Is Not Addressed

The consequences of insufficiently developed first-time leaders are far-reaching for companies – and measurable. According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 [URL NOT MAPPED], global employee engagement fell to 20 % in 2025 – the lowest figure in years. Manager engagement dropped from 27 % to 22 % – a decline of five percentage points in a single year. Particularly affected: young managers under 35. Since managers, according to Gallup, account for 70 % of the variance in team engagement, this decline has direct consequences: disengaged managers lead disengaged teams – and that comes at a cost. According to Gallup, disengagement cost the global economy over 10 trillion dollars in lost productivity in 2024 alone.

At the company level, the consequences manifest in three typical patterns when the triad is not developed:

How Companies Systematically Prepare First-Time Leaders for All Three Directions

The question for HR and L&D teams is not whether first-time leaders need development support – that is undisputed. The decisive question is which format can actually develop all three leadership directions in an equally weighted and sustainable manner.

Why One-Off Seminars Reach Their Limits

In-person seminars for new leaders are the most widely used format – and at the same time the most severely limited. Besides the one-sided content (almost exclusively downward leadership), they lack the decisive element: the opportunity to reflect on real leadership situations after the fact. A difficult conversation with one's own manager, a conflict with a peer from a neighboring department, the first feedback session with a former colleague – all of this happens not in the seminar room, but in everyday work. According to Training Industry [URL NOT MAPPED], fewer companies than ever are struggling to build a genuine coaching culture – even though the need has never been greater. The ATD State of the Industry Report also shows: 96 % of companies name coaching as their most common form of on-the-job learning – yet very few use it in a structured way for first-time leaders.

Coaching as a Format for Continuous Reflection of Real Leadership Situations

The decisive advantage of 1:1 coaching lies in the combination of confidentiality, individualization, and continuity. While a seminar conveys knowledge, coaching creates the space to reflect on concrete situations from one's own everyday leadership and to gradually anchor behavioral change. The proven benefits of executive coaching lie exactly here: not in the transfer of knowledge, but in guided behavioral change over time. This is the core of what first-time leaders need in all three leadership directions – and what no one-off format can deliver.

The Stakeholder Map Approach: A Practical Tool for All Three Directions

One of the most effective methods for structuring coaching support for first-time leaders is the stakeholder map. The principle is simple: new leaders identify the 5–7 most important people in their environment – distributed across all three leadership directions – and clarify three questions for each person:

The stakeholder map makes the abstract concept of "leading in three directions" operational: it shows concretely which relationships need to be maintained, built, or repaired – and gives the coaching process a clear action structure. This approach combines ideally with micro tasks: a task in the first week might read "Have a conversation with your manager in which you proactively report on your team's goals" – a concrete implementation of upward leadership competency in everyday work.

How Sharpist Supports First-Time Leaders in All Three Directions

Sharpist's digital coaching platform was developed to close exactly the gaps that classic formats leave open: individual support over time, practical transfer between sessions, and scalability for entire leadership cohorts.

Human Coaching, AI Coach, and Micro Tasks Working Together

The Sharpist Hybrid Journey combines three elements into one continuous learning experience. In 1:1 video coaching with a certified coach from the certified coach network – over 1,500 ICF/DBVC-certified coaches in more than 55 languages – first-time leaders work through their real leadership situations in all three directions. Coach matching succeeds on the first attempt in 97 % of cases, often within one hour. Between sessions, the Sharpist AI Coach is available around the clock – without scheduling appointments, with five selectable coaching styles. Whether preparing for a difficult conversation with one's own manager, reflecting on a conflict with a peer, or planning the first team feedback session: the AI coach delivers instant sparring exactly when the situation requires it. Micro tasks – over 2,000 individually assignable tasks, each a maximum of 5 minutes – translate coaching insights into concrete actions in everyday work and demonstrably increase learning efficiency by +20 %. After every session – whether human or AI – the platform generates action items that promote knowledge transfer and sustainable behavioral change.

Results From Practice

The results of Sharpist customers show that this approach works. LVMH recorded a +18 % improvement in leadership competencies – a result that directly contributes to competency building in downward leadership. IKEA Switzerland achieved a +8–10 % improvement in its leadership index and shows that scalable programs for entire leadership cohorts deliver measurable results. Miro achieved 100 % retention of key personnel during a restructuring – a result directly linked to the quality of leadership development. And Palfinger recorded a 20 % reduction in absenteeism – an indicator of how coaching programs strengthen the engagement and wellbeing of leaders under pressure.

For HR teams, this means: Sharpist's L&D dashboard delivers real-time analytics, ROI tracking, and an activity feed with coach logs after every session – without administrative burden. Success rates of coaching programs at Sharpist stand at 80–90 % activation, compared with 10–20 % for classic e-learning platforms.

Checklist for HR: How to Launch a First-Time Leader Coaching Program

For L&D teams looking to build a structured program for new leaders, five concrete steps are recommended – based on insights from practice and research.

Conclusion

"Leading in three directions" is not a metaphor – it is the daily reality of every leader from the first day in the role. And it is the least systematically developed competency in leadership development. Classic seminars address almost exclusively downward leadership and leave managing up as well as lateral leadership structurally underdeveloped. The result: first-time leaders are left to their own devices in two out of three leadership directions – at exactly the moment when they are most vulnerable.

For HR and L&D teams, this implies a clear recommendation for action: development programs for new leaders must address all three directions as equally weighted competency fields, provide continuous support over at least 6 months, and make behavioral change measurable. The Sharpist Hybrid Journey offers exactly that – scalable from the first team lead to an entire leadership cohort, without administrative burden for HR teams and with measurable results that can be defended before senior management.

FAQ

What Does "Leading in Three Directions" Specifically Mean for First-Time Leaders?

"Leading in three directions" describes the simultaneous requirement for new leaders to be effective downward (people management), upward (managing up toward superiors), and sideways (lateral leadership toward peers without formal authority). All three directions place different competency requirements and arise simultaneously from the first day in the leadership role – even if the development focus varies depending on the phase.

Why Aren't Classic Leadership Seminars Sufficient for First-Time Leaders?

In-person seminars address almost exclusively downward leadership in terms of content and leave managing up as well as lateral leadership structurally unaddressed. In addition, there is the forgetting curve: without continuous practice reflection, up to 70 % of seminar content is lost within 24 hours. What first-time leaders need is not a one-off knowledge-transfer format, but guided reflection on real leadership situations over several months.

When Should Coaching for New Leaders Begin?

Ideally, coaching support begins 4–6 weeks before the official role transition. This allows first-time leaders to engage with new expectations, stakeholder constellations, and role requirements even before their first day – before suboptimal behavioral patterns become entrenched. Coaching that only begins after 6 months in the role often has to correct patterns first, rather than shaping them sensibly from the outset.

How Can the ROI of a First-Time Leader Coaching Program Be Measured?

Effective ROI measurement goes beyond satisfaction surveys. A proven approach combines three elements: 360° feedback at the start and after 6 months (behavioral change in all three leadership directions), engagement data from the teams of new leaders, and retention metrics. Modern coaching platforms such as Sharpist offer an integrated L&D dashboard with real-time analytics and ROI tracking for this purpose – without additional administrative burden for HR teams.

How Can HR Scale a Coaching Program for Many New Leaders at the Same Time?

Scalability and individualization are no longer mutually exclusive with modern digital coaching platforms. Through a flexible credit system and a cohort system, entire cohorts of new leaders can be enrolled in individual coaching programs simultaneously – with automatic coach matching, centralized progress tracking, and without manual coordination effort. Sharpist customers report over 200 hours of time savings for L&D teams thanks to the platform's zero-admin approach.