The three stages of leadership

Is leadership development a “once-and-done” process, or does it evolve as your role as a leader evolves?

That was the topic of a recent conversation with the HR Director of a local law firm. There was a sense of frustration within her organisation that senior managers lacked effective team leadership skills. This had a broader impact on the organisation - on staff morale and retention and on the quality of work. Confusingly for her, these senior managers were the same ones who had initially taken to manager roles with great enthusiasm and success.

The term “leadership at all levels” is often used to describe the fact that leadership skills apply to most roles in organisations, particularly if you consider the skills required for self-leadership. While this is true, I also think there are three stages in an employee's life during which they need a step change in their leadership skills.

The first arises when moving to a team manager role for the first time - Supervisory Leadership. The focus is on supervising and managing both tasks and people. Challenges include managing team performance, motivating others, and mastering effective delegation. Each of these skills can be broken down further—at a granular level, a person may need to know how to have difficult conversations, give specific and effective feedback, clarify performance expectations and manage a meeting effectively.?

The second step change is moving into a senior manager role - Team Leadership.

The focus here is on leading a multi-level team when you’re overseeing managers of people. Key challenges include understanding how to ensure everything is progressing well without having direct supervision, setting a team vision, and managing experienced individuals seeking autonomy. A historically good delegator can regress at this stage as they need to delegate more complex tasks and may not trust their direct report to do it in “the right” way. Interestingly, some of my clients at this stage feel guilt that what they now spend their time doing isn’t “real work”! Your focus will now be on having more meetings, influencing across teams and facilitating the path for your team to do their work effectively.

The third is transitioning to an executive role (or promotion to partner in professional services) - Organisational Leadership. This dual role involves leading an entire function or department while also being part of a senior leadership team, letting go of your specialist area and working as part of a collaborative unit to drive the whole organisation forward. These roles can sometimes conflict and require strategic thinking, influencing skills and a sound awareness of organisational politics. What helps here is to think about what you bring to the leadership team besides your functional expertise. It may be having a systems thinking approach or being the person who always asks challenging questions.

Approaches to developing leadership skills vary; at each stage, you will find that different methods will work best.

A well-designed management development programme can go a long way for Supervisory Leaders. It should address the behaviours that prevent skills from being fully utilised and offer plenty of opportunities for practice and feedback. Learning on the job can still be effective, but relies on having good role models to learn from consistently, a challenge exacerbated by hybrid working.?

For Team Leaders, one-to-one leadership coaching can be instrumental in pinpointing and eliminating sticking points in a person’s leadership style, ensuring that they can thrive in their new role. Leaders at this level are already successful managers of people but can struggle to let go of those habits that no longer serve them. If your organisation is large enough, peer group support can also be useful, allowing leaders to share challenges in a confidential space.

Executive and leadership coaching can also benefit those at an Organisational Leadership level. Promotion to an executive role is a significant milestone for anyone, and feelings of self-doubt can creep in. Confidence in what you bring to the top table is critical and coaching can help your people obtain that strong sense of self and have the courage to challenge even at the highest levels.

If, like the HR Director at the beginning of this article, you think that a lack of leadership skills is leading to problems across the organisation, then get in touch to see how I can help. By investing in your leaders at all three stages of leadership, you can apply a positive multiplier effect throughout your organisation and maximise its performance.