Practical Leadership For First-Time Managers with Dalmo Cirne

Promotions are exciting until the work changes under your feet. We sat down with leadership expert Dalmo Cirne to unpack why great individual contributors can stumble as new managers—and how to replace uncertainty with clarity, systems, and steady wins. Dalmo makes a bold claim that resonates: leaders don’t suddenly become incompetent, they arrive unprepared. From there, we dig into how to prepare on purpose.

We break down the four streams of leadership—manage self, downstream, upstream, and sidestream—and show why most headaches come from over-focusing on the team and ignoring the other three. Dalmo explains how strong explanations beat raw facts for real decision-making, helping you avoid snap judgments about people and communicate trade-offs with sponsors. You’ll hear pragmatic ways to document processes before you teach them, so training matches the learner’s level and reduces friction during execution.

If this conversation helps you think differently about leadership, share it with a manager who just got promoted, subscribe for more practical playbooks, and leave a quick review telling us which stream you’ll improve first.

Meet the Host
Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements®, a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact [e-mail] or connect below!

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/
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Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com