Promotion can recognise the investment skill that made a portfolio manager effective, while introducing responsibilities that require a different use of their time. There are people to develop, disagreements to resolve and decisions about the wider firm alongside the portfolio.
Doing more of the work that earned the promotion may no longer be enough. The role now asks: how will other people become more effective because you are leading them?
Define what the role needs now
A title can arrive before there is a shared understanding of the job. The portfolio manager may assume that investment performance remains the only meaningful measure. Colleagues may expect hiring, feedback, collaboration and a contribution to firm leadership as well.
Those expectations need a conversation. What remains yours? What should others now own? What will the firm protect time for? Without that clarity, leadership responsibilities can become work done around the edges of the day.
Lead former peers with clarity
Leading people who were recently your peers changes a relationship. Avoiding the change can leave decisions unclear; asserting authority too heavily can weaken trust.
A more deliberate approach is to be explicit about responsibilities and consistent about how decisions are made. You can respect someone’s experience while still giving feedback, setting expectations and addressing a difficult issue.
Develop judgement rather than dependence
Giving the answer can feel efficient, particularly when markets are moving and time is scarce. Repeated often enough, it can make the leader the point through which every decision must pass.
Developing another investor requires space to hear their reasoning. What do they think matters? Which assumption is doing the most work? Where would they seek challenge? What would change their view? The aim is to understand how they think, not to make them guess your answer.
Feedback is more useful when it distinguishes the quality of the process from the eventual outcome, and when the person knows what to practise differently.
Choose how you use your influence
Leadership is also visible in what receives attention. Which work gets recognised? Whose contribution is heard? What happens when someone raises a concern or acknowledges a mistake?
These choices help define the team’s working culture. They deserve the same deliberateness as the formal investment process.
A useful starting point is to identify one responsibility you are still carrying because it feels easier to do it yourself. Then ask what another person would need in order to own it well. The answer may involve clearer expectations, feedback or support, rather than another instruction to be more proactive.
I work with these transitions through executive coaching for investment leaders in London. For firm-wide questions about delegation, challenge and developing talent, explore my investment-team advisory.