Taking a more senior role in an organization is a big change to go through. Even though you have all this new responsibility, you still basically feel like the same person. What is interesting is that everyone around you may start to treat you differently. They may become “yes” people and just tell you what they think you want to hear or make assumptions that you know more information than you do, simply because of your title.
This happened to me when I got promoted into a higher role in the organization. People told me it would, but I didn’t believe it. Everyone seemed to assume that I magically acquired all this new information that no one else knew! It is true you will start to learn more information at some point, but you don’t always know as much as people think you do. Just because you became a leader with a title doesn’t mean you stop meeting with people at other levels. It is still important to rely on the informal conversations with people at all levels to understand the bigger picture.
You want to hear the real story to understand where there are issues and where things are going well. Set the expectation that you want to hear both the bad and the good news. You don’t want to get blindsided or surprised by something that occurred and then get asked a question you can’t answer. These invaluable conversations will help you fill in the gaps on situations where you may not have the full picture, give you new perspective and allow you to make better decisions.