Built for Your First Year in Leadership
First Year Leader was created to support new leaders navigating their first 12–18 months in role.
Because too often, talented people are promoted without clear onboarding, structure, or support and expected to figure it out. This work exists to close that gap.
First Year Leader is part of The Leadership Systems Lab, Dr. Jessica Diop’s broader work focused on leadership systems and onboarding design.
The Mission
At First Year Leader, we believe your first year in leadership shouldn’t feel like survival mode.
Leadership is not just about working harder or being more confident. It’s about understanding the role shift, building structure around your decisions, and developing systems that make the job sustainable.
Our mission is to give first-year leaders the support most organizations forget to provide, so they can lead with steadiness, not constant second-guessing.
The Founder
Meet Dr. Jessica Diop
Dr. Jessica Diop studies leadership onboarding and the critical first year of management.
With over 20 years of experience in organizational learning and leadership development, she has seen the same pattern repeatedly: talented professionals promoted into leadership without the structure or support the role actually requires.
Early in her own career, Jessica stepped into leadership without clear onboarding. She remembers the pressure, the role shift, and the quiet second-guessing that comes with navigating something no one fully explains.
Her doctoral research focused specifically on how first-year leaders experience onboarding and support and what helps them stay, grow, and build sustainable teams long-term.
Before founding The Leadership Systems Lab, she worked in leadership and consulting roles supporting cross-functional teams across education, workforce development, and program operations. That broader work now informs First Year Leader, a platform created to directly support leaders navigating their first 12–18 months.
Her philosophy is simple:
The first year doesn’t test your talent.
It tests your support.
A Personal Note
from our founder
As a working mom of four, I’ve learned that calm and consistency aren’t luxuries, they’re leadership tools.
That perspective shapes how I support first-year leaders: clear expectations, practical structure, and realistic systems that make the role sustainable.
Because leadership isn’t about doing more. It’s about building the right support around the work.
Welcome to First Year Leader.
You don’t have to navigate your first year alone.
