The new title is on your signature, and for a moment, it's a win. But that feeling quickly gives way to the real question: what, exactly, are you supposed to be doing?
The job description, if one even existed, was an abstract set of aspirations. “Empower your team.” “Drive outcomes.” “Foster collaboration.” These are lovely sentiments, of course, but they offer no instructions. They are the marketing copy of a role, not the operating manual.
This feeling of walking onto an empty stage is not a personal failure. It is a feature of the modern corporate structure. The reality, confirmed by countless HR reports and academic studies, is that most managers are promoted for their competence in their previous role, not for their readiness for the new one. The new role itself is largely undefined.
This ambiguity leads to a predictable problem: decision paralysis.
Because there are no clear directions, you're tempted to keep doing the tasks you're good at. The work of an individual contributor. You end up being an expensive and inefficient member of the team, doing work that's not yours while your reports wait for guidance.
As you focus on doing instead of leading, the team's momentum stalls while they wait for you to clear a path. Your workload doubles, your sense of purpose evaporates, and the new job title feels more like a burden than a reward.
There is no simple answer to this, because there is no simple job. This is not a situation that can be fixed by "setting boundaries" or "finding your purpose." The point is simpler and drier. The promotion was not to a different role, but to a role that requires you to define it.
Your value is no longer your ability to do a specific thing, but to see what needs to be done. The work is not to follow a script, but to write one. It means listening to your team, finding what's slowing them down, and then deciding which of the many problems is actually yours to solve.
The job title is a starting point. The real work begins after the congratulations stop, in the quiet process of figuring out what your job actually is. And then doing it.