Quick summary: While effective customer success leadership requires confidence, strategic thinking, and boundaries, these are learnable skills. Discover how to make the shift to a leadership mindset.
Customer success leaders everywhere are exhausted. It’s not surprising, but what can we do about it? Burnout isn’t just a personal issue—it’s a leadership liability. Navigating stress, role transitions, and team dynamics has become a defining challenge for today’s CS managers, especially those new to leadership who are still developing their strategic footing.
It often comes down to mindset and confidence, says customer success expert and founder of Provan Success, Rachel Provan.
“The more we overwork and people-please, the less we lead,” says Rachel. “True leadership requires confidence, strategic thinking, and boundaries. Those are all learnable skills.” Especially when paired with strategies for managing stress as a customer success leader, these mindset shifts lay the foundation for effective, sustainable leadership.
Skills matter, Rachel says, but leaders need to shift their mindset first. Because the real issue isn’t strategy, but how to approach a leadership role in the first place.
During her recent ChurnZero webinar, Rachel walked through some of the most common leadership challenges in customer success, and the truths behind them. She also highlighted her top five mindset shift tactics to help leaders unlearn bad habits, combat imposter syndrome, and focus on what they can truly change.
You can watch the webinar in full below.
Five truths about effective customer success leadership
To switch from reactive to proactive, strategic leadership starts with recognizing how we’re currently managing our time, priorities, and the company’s or customers’ expectations.
Rachel asserts that if we take stock of how we think about our current team and workload, and are realistic about outside pressures to prove value, then we’re well on our way to building a new set of beliefs that will instill confidence. This is how we evolve from being a great individual contributor to becoming a great leader.
Here are Rachel’s top truths to understand as you make the shift to that leadership mindset.
1. Being a one-man band isn’t sustainable.
Playing every instrument at once is exhausting. It doesn’t have longevity and it doesn’t command respect. A conductor ensures all that instruments play in harmony, guiding musicians and highlighting their own strengths.
Likewise, being ‘great with people’ doesn’t equate to great leadership. In fact, it’s a slippery slope into people-pleasing. Caring about your team doesn’t mean acquiescing to everyone. Your success will come from practicing guiding, influencing, and empowering them.
2. Leadership isn’t a personality trait.
It’s a skillset that can be learned, and people aren’t just born with it. Most new leaders need guidance, so don’t be afraid to ask: what results are you looking for? What does that look like in action?
3. Micromanaging isn’t helping.
It’s easy to default back to that contributor role, double-checking everyone else’s work to make sure nothing falls through the cracks or just trying to do it yourself, because that is familiar. It’s not leadership and it doesn’t instill trust.
4. People don’t need to like you.
Ineffective leaders try to be friends with their employees first. Typically, this leads to a strange combination of vague directives and moments of smothering. Don’t try to be cool—be clear.
And don’t avoid negative feedback. Assume good intent, and it won’t feel like an attack.
5. Coach more, teach less.
Giving an answer is not always helpful, and neither is just passively absorbing info. Ask questions and allow your employees to explore options and solutions on their own or alongside you. A favorite question to use: What would you do if I wasn’t here?
Five effective mindset shift tactics for CS leaders
Once the challenges are clear, it’s time to take action. Here are Rachel’s recommendations to shift into a strategic leadership mindset:
1: Perception. What moves the needle on your KPIs? As the leader, it’s time to tie everything you and the team do back to revenue for the company. It never pays off to be a “miscellaneous/everything” department.
2: Scheduling. It’s imperative to prioritize your work before anyone else’s. Rachel’s focus formula says block 1 hour per day with a recurring, no-end-date meeting in your calendar. Close all your comms, put your phone on the other side of the room, and make progress on the next step in your number one project.
3: Prioritization. Rachel recommends using the Eisenhower Matrix to pick what has the greatest impact as you strategize. Essentially, do what is urgent and important, schedule what is important but not urgent, and delegate or delete the rest.
4: Alignment. Be proactive and get into agreement with your boss in this new role. Book a meeting and bring ideas on how you plan to set top priorities and reduce your workload.
5: Understanding when to say yes. Staying in the weeds is tempting. Jumping into customer accounts is tempting. Helping others is tempting. Learn kind boundaries, trust your team, and keep your scheduled time sacred.
Watch Rachel’s full ChurnZero webinar.
