Elite Edge | Vol 2 Week 44

🔥 Two Promotions. Opposite Problems.

Picture two people getting promoted on the same Monday.

One has spent fifteen years earning it. She walks into her first leadership meeting and waits for someone to figure out she doesn't belong there.

The other is 24. He's spent the last 18 months running a fleet of AI agents: scoping work, delegating it, reviewing output, fixing errors. He walks into the same meeting thinking, "I've basically been doing this already."

They're both wrong. In opposite directions.

We've talked about imposter syndrome for years. I see it every single week in the leaders I advise. But lately I'm seeing its mirror image show up in my inbox, in interviews and in the stories hiring managers tell me. I call it overconfidence syndrome. And unlike imposter syndrome, the person who has it is usually the last one to know.

This week, I'm breaking down both. If you're the veteran who still feels like a fraud, this is for you. If you're the agent-fluent rising star who just got handed real humans to lead, this is especially for you.

📊 The Breakdown: Same Promotion, Opposite Errors

Here's the truth from the recruiter's seat. Directing agents builds real skills: clear briefs, sharp success criteria, disciplined review. I want you to keep those.

But agents remove nearly everything that makes managing people hard. Agents don't have feelings, so blunt feedback costs nothing. They don't have agendas, so they never quietly disagree or lobby your boss. They don't need to be motivated. And they don't remember the meeting where you embarrassed them. People do.

Look at that last row. That's the one that matters. Imposter syndrome hurts, so you know you have it. Overconfidence feels great, so you don't. Overconfident managers rarely fail on output. They fail on trust. And by the time they notice, their best people are already interviewing.

🛠️ The Toolkit: If You Manage Agents (and Just Got Handed Humans)

Treat your first human team as a brand new discipline. Not a promotion of the old one. Assume you're a beginner at the parts that matter most.

EQ: People aren't prompts.

1. Listen twice as long as you talk. In every 1:1, ask "What's getting in your way?" and then sit in the silence. The good stuff comes after the pause.

2. Rewrite how you give feedback. "This is wrong" works on an agent. With a person, say what you saw, why it matters, and that you're telling them because you want them to win. Praise in public. Correct in private.

3. Read the quiet signals. Shorter messages. Cameras off. Fewer ideas in meetings. Agents fail loudly. People check out quietly.

4. Keep a motivation file. For each direct report, write down what they want from their career, what drains them and how they like to be recognized. Revisit it every quarter.

Politics: The org chart is not the map.

1. Map real influence first. Spend your first 60 days learning who people actually go to for advice and whose "yes" really matters. Don't launch anything until you know.

2. Pre-wire every big decision. Never surprise a stakeholder in a meeting. Walk your idea through 1:1 first. The meeting should ratify, not debate.

3. Build relationships before you need them. Coffee with peers when nothing is at stake. Agents don't need goodwill. Your career runs on it.

4. Being right isn't enough. Ask yourself, "Who loses something if this happens, and how do I bring them along?"

Self-awareness: Check your calibration.

1. Get upward feedback within 90 days, ideally anonymous. Your team already sees your blind spots.

2. Find a mentor at least ten years ahead of you who has led people through layoffs and conflict. Ask what surprised them most in year one.

3. Borrow a little imposter syndrome. A bit of doubt keeps you curious. With people, you're usually missing something.

Try this prompt this week: "Here's a piece of feedback I'm about to give a direct report: [paste it]. Rewrite it so a human hears it as support, not a code review. Then tell me how they might react and what I should say next."

🎯 The Toolkit: If You're the One Waiting to Be Found Out

You don't need more confidence in the abstract. You need evidence you can't argue with, and rules that stop doubt from making your decisions for you.

1. Start a Friday "wins and saves" log. Three lines a week: a decision you made, a problem you prevented, a person you helped grow. Reread it before every review and every hard meeting.

2. Change your scoreboard. Your output is now your team's output. Pick three team metrics you own (delivery, retention, engagement) and judge yourself on those.

3. Delegate one thing a week. Hoarding work feels safe. It quietly caps your team and keeps you invisible.

4. Use the vacation test. Before you escalate, ask: "If my boss were on vacation, would this be my call?" If yes, decide, then inform up.

5. Speak in the first ten minutes. One question, one data point or one risk. Waiting for the perfect comment guarantees silence.

6. Know your edge. Your worry about people and consequences is exactly what your overconfident peers are missing. That's not proof you don't belong. It's proof you do.

My advice to leaders: pair these two people up. Reverse mentoring between a seasoned manager and an agent-fluent newcomer gives each one exactly what the other is missing. Managing agents can make you a better delegator. Only managing people makes you a leader.

📚What I Read This Week…

FORTUNE: "The amazement is kind of wearing off a little bit": Wharton survey reveals managers are learning what Gen Z already figured out 

Wharton Human-AI Research and GBK Collective surveyed managers and executives at large U.S. companies about how AI is changing their jobs. The short version: they're using it more than ever, and they're getting a lot more clear-eyed about it.

What jumped out:

• 62% of managers use AI daily, up from 46% a year ago. But only 51% still describe themselves as excited.

• 72% say their focus has shifted from creating work to managing AI-generated work. For VPs and above, it's 82%.

• Nobody agrees who's accountable when AI gets it wrong. When an autonomous AI makes a costly mistake, 28% would blame a governance team, 26% the employee's manager and 25% the employee. One in five managers and directors said no one is clearly accountable, or they don't know.

• 78% of managers say employees got enough AI training. Only 56% of entry- and mid-level employees agree.

Wharton's Jeremy Korst put it well: AI is "putting a bunch of strain in the middle of the organization."

My read: look at that 72%. Almost every manager's job is turning into reviewing what AI produces. That's exactly the trap I wrote about this week. Checking output feels like managing. It isn't.

Now look at the training gap: 78% of managers think their people are prepared, and barely half of their people agree. That's overconfidence syndrome in one statistic. It's what leadership looks like when you're reading the dashboard instead of the room.

And the accountability question is the one that will define careers. When an agent makes a costly mistake, someone has to own it, explain it and rebuild trust. That's not a technical skill. That's a people skill, and a political one. Agents can do the work. Only people can own it.

🎙️What I Listened to This Week… (Podcasts)

🎙️ We can’t excape the potential Anthropic IPO story…

Until next week,

You’ve got the Edge. Now sharpen it.

Until next week,

THE ROOM IS OFFICIALLY OPEN! 🎉

✨ WELCOME TO ELITE EDGE+ ✨

Welcome to Elite Edge+, a membership community where we take career advice and put it into action.

I created Elite Edge+ to bring you closer to the people, resources, and guidance that can help you move your career forward.

Here’s what you’ll get:

♟️ Live webinars and monthly group office hours with me to work through your career questions.

🤝 Access to my network of executive recruiters and internal talent acquisition professionals, giving you opportunities to build relationships, gain insights, and increase your visibility. [COMING SOON]

📝 Templates, playbooks, and practical resources for your job search, LinkedIn presence, personal brand, interviews, and negotiations.

💬 Spaces to get feedback on your content, share wins and leads, and connect with professionals navigating similar challenges.

🚀 Support for your next chapter, whether that’s a promotion, a pivot, a job search, or building a portfolio career.

My team and I want to be here for every season of your career. We hope you’ll join us!

Membership details and Founding Member pricing below. 👇

🌟 About Me 🤝🏻

🎥  FOLLOW ME

🔥 ELITE RECRUITER ON THE MARCH TO 1 MILLION 🚀

We’re almost there! If you’ve found this newsletter useful, help me scale it:
Share, forward, comment, or repost. Every action gets us one step closer.

Feedback is a Gift

I would love to know what you thought of this newsletter and any feedback you have for me. Do you have a favorite part? Wish I would add something? Felt confused? Please reply and share your thoughts!