The 10 Important Roles Of Leadership

While my job is leading technology development for DuPont Transportation & Industrial (T&I), a large part of what I do is leadership development. I have the honor and responsibility of leading over 800 talented technology employees globally with over 50 people leaders and even larger number of technical leaders. People are the heart of a successful innovation company. Leadership matters throughout the product and application development process. Innovation is chaotic and messy, and every company needs a team with strong leaders that can easily handle the ebb and flow of the development process.

Strong leaders are critical to our success. Leadership development is a personal passion of mine and is part of my personal mission statement at work which is "Delivering new innovation into the market while growing strong people-first leaders who have fun making a positive difference in the world." The 10 important roles of leadership describe how to be a strong people-first leader.

"Being a leader is like being a lady. If you have to remind people you are, you aren't." - Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister (1979 - 1990)

There is much more to being a leader than the title. It is important to understand the various roles that leaders play. Over my professional career, I have studied many leaders (both strong and weak ones) and have identified the 10 roles that are the key to being a strong leader. These 10 important roles of leadership help give more insight into what is expected of a strong people-first leader. Leaders are expected to:

1. be a Bulldozer to help remove obstacles/barriers so that the organization can get its work done
2. be a Champion to advocate for the group, function, business, company to the rest of the organization and externally
3. be a Coach to give other members of the organization a second pair of eyes and a different perspective
4. be a Connector to help connect people and ideas to each other internally and externally
5. be a Manager to help manage supply/demand balance of work and projects of the organization
6. be a Visionary to define a compelling vision of the future and develop plans to move to that future state
7. be a Developer and mentor, to work jointly with members of the organization on their employee development
8. be a Motivator, to infuse a positive can-do spirit into the organization
9. be a Communicator, to keep organization properly informed in a translucent manner
10. be an Owner, to make good triple bottom line decisions (Financial, Social, Environmental)

I have been using the 10 roles of a leader model in the organizations that I have led for over 15 years. I share it broadly with the people I have the responsibility of leading so that they can hold myself and the other leaders in the organization accountable. It sets the expectations for leadership. I also evaluate the leadership team against these 10 roles to see where they personally can continue to grow and develop (no one is ever strong on all 10 dimensions). A copy has always hung in my office to remind me of my responsibilities. Our job as leaders is to serve the people we lead and creating a positive and productive workplace where people can do great things. 

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” ― Ronald Reagan, US President (1981 to 1989)

The 10 important roles of leadership are all about how to help the people you are entrusted to lead. They are to remind us that leadership has multiple dimensions and over the course of a year all 10 roles are needed and important. These 10 important roles of leadership are what teams are hungry for - strong people-first leaders. When you play these 10 important roles of leadership, your teams will shine and do great things. Here are the 10 roles of a leadership in more detail and what you can do to play each of these important roles:

• A Bulldozer pursues better ways to get things done, always looking to simplify and provide focus on the few, key choices that matter most. She has good ability to work across functions, external partners and technologies in a collaborative fashion but with a strong bias for action. She acts as a facilitator, asking questions of her employees and people in other functions to determine what obstacles/barriers are in the way. She tackles tough issues and strives to resolve them in a timely fashion. A bulldozer is expected to smooth the way for the team, so everyone can succeed more easily.
• A Champion is always advocating for their people and their organization with passion and purpose. He has a broad sphere of influence and his presence is positively felt throughout the organization and highlights the great things the team are doing. He encourages and promotes teamwork (inside and outside the team) and instills a strong sense of team spirit promoting a cooperative work environment. A champion has good ability to gather information about their team and communicate it in a compelling light to spotlight the good things happening in their organization.
• A Coach is always looking to improve their team and inspiring others to achieve their potential. A coach is very important to give a different perspective in situations the team finds themselves in. She gives enough feedback and encourages people to continuously stretch and develop themselves. She is strong at relationship building, builds rapport, has strong interpersonal effectiveness and notices when others need support. She is fully accessible when and where needed and is providing appropriate coaching and support. She is an inclusive leader, listens effectively, values diversity, appreciates and encourages differences between people in thought and style and most importantly doesn't give one-size fits all coaching. A coach is about teaching and growing their teams but being flexible not to use the same coaching style for each individual team member.

"A coach is someone who tells you what you don't want to hear, who has you see what you don't want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be." - Tom Landry, American football player and coach

• A Connector has a broad network of people internally and externally that can be drawn on to solve problems and is able to connect things others don't see as related. He introduces a different slant into almost any discussion and proactively helps connect their teams to the right people needed for their project or task. He has strong critical thinking skills and can bring together and analyze information and help their team draw out the right conclusions often by connecting in other people with specific skill sets or knowledge. Today's problems are increasingly complicated and the way that you solve complex problems is to use more computing power. This means helping your teams tap into a broad and diverse set of people and experts. A connector must always be helping their teams grow their network.
• A Manager is successfully prioritizing portfolio of projects, assignments and roles for the team. She helps you prioritize your workload if needed. She helps set realistic deadlines, tasks and standards and appropriately communicates timelines, allowing for flexibility in how work is accomplished. She has an appropriate amount of involvement in the team's work –not a micro-manager but there when you need her. She has courage to make tough decisions without perfect information, demands accountability of self and others. Keeping plates full but not overfull and managing through the ebbs and flows of business and the development process. A manager optimizes the organization and helps people to meet strategic goals by manage supply/demand balance of work and projects for their organizations.
• A Visionary provides direction around a vision, generates enthusiasm and has good ability to steer organization to future state. He translates the corporate and business vision into actionable plans, empowers others to set and achieve goals in line with vision. He thinks strategically and grasps the big picture and can persuade and influence the organization. He is strong on change management skills. A visionary develops a compelling vision of the future and then moves the organization to that future state through change management and influencing skills.
• A Developer is personally engaged and working with their teams on employee development and encourages continuous growth and learning. She is working jointly with the team members to ensure they have strong development plans and shares fair and constructive performance feedback that is timely and direct. The best model for development is the 70:20:10 model for learning and development and a developer plays a key role in ensuring the development plan addresses these three categories: 70% of development is on the job, learning by experience (assignments, tasks directly related to role and often time adding stretch assignments). 20% of development is near the job, learning from others (feedback, coaching, mentoring, job shadowing). 10% of development is off the job (structured training courses and programs, development books, videos, articles). A developer is always making sure that each of their team members have a strong 70:20:10 development plan and ensuring that performance reviews always have actionable recommendations for continued growth and development.

"The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay." — Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company Founder

• A Motivator creates an atmosphere that inspires team to achieve at a higher level. Motivation is a goal-oriented characteristic that helps a person achieve his or her objectives. He recognizes team’s contributions and ideas, gives praise and open recognition. He says thank you on a routine basis. He helps motivate team members by projecting a positive attitude and can-do spirit and understands and recognizes what each team member does for the project and the team. A motivator creates and leads a cohesive team by delegating authority, encourages independence and trusts others appropriately. A motivator helps his team stay energized and inspired.
• A Communicator communicates in a consistent and timely manner to the organization to keep the informed in a translucent manner. Transparency means everything passes through (Clear glass is transparent). Translucency means some things pass through (frosted glass is translucent). Opaque means nothing passes through (a brick wall is opaque). The characteristics of translucent communication is to give the information in a timely manner for people to understand the business situation but with some filters/buffer built in to manage confidential and sensitive information. She can present ideas and concepts in the language of the target audience (articulating complex ideas and concepts) and can simplify/clarify so all understand purpose. A communicator keeps their organization properly informed in a translucent manner
• An Owner understand the importance of the triple bottom line (social, environmental & financial and can comprehensively grasp the larger business environment, assessing risk and anticipating future trends. He helps infuse an owner mindset into the organization with a strong ability to prioritize work based on business and financial impact. He presents information in language of business: reward (value), risk (probability) and timing. Creating an owner mindset ensures employees are driving toward a shared vision and acting on behalf of the business. Customers, employees and communities increasingly expect companies to serve a social good, not just make money. An owner makes good short-term and long-term decisions balancing each carefully with a focus on the triple bottom line (planet, people, profit).

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou, American poet, singer, and civil rights activist

In today's fast-moving business world, and how organizations are moving to leaner and flatter organizational models, every professional needs good leadership skills. Good leaders are role models for the people they lead, motivating them, keeping them informed, supporting them, providing valuable feedback and inspiring them. The 10 important roles of a leader model provides an outline of the different roles that leaders play to create a supportive workplace for the teams they lead.

"If you want an innovative environment, hire innovative people, listen to them tell you what they want, and do it." - Arthur Levinson, American businessman and current Chairman of Apple (2011 - present)

A strong people-first leader creates a positive work environment in which people feel valued and appreciated and where they can grow and thrive. Good leadership (10 important roles of leadership) and meeting the needs of the people you lead translates to long-term business success, high morale and a high rate of employee retention and engagement. To drive innovation, focus on people and not technology. Ultimately, innovation is about people, their passions and talents in the right supportive environment. Strong people-first leaders create a powerful can-do innovation culture that encourages employees to search for the latest breakthrough.