There is a magic inflection point in the development of leaders whose functional background is built on professional competence. It’s that moment when they tip from moving from directive to collaborative leadership.
What makes it magic?
There are several reasons: it opens up the spectrum of possible solutions, allows significant talent development and provides scale to the savvy leaders’ influence – opening up the door to geometric growth for the leader and the firm.
I’ve noticed in my coaching practice that the traumatic business climate we saw in ‘01/’02, followed again by ‘08/’09, has created a gap in this important development area for some members in the leadership pipeline. So while leaders in earlier cohorts had a career step where they were able to develop the ability to lead without formal authority, these individuals rose into leadership positions during a time when professional development education budgets were cut – as was the emphasis and training from the traditional organizational development model that was practiced in prior years.
So what does that mean and why is it important as these leaders ascend toward the C levels?
What This Looks Like in Real Life
A common application of this skill is leading a task force of peers. The leader who is underdeveloped in this area will tend to use the task force as a source of additional horsepower to fill out an agenda that the leader has predetermined. The outcome? The task force will quickly become transactional and not rise above the performance of any individual on it.
Contrast this with an approach that enlists the full talent of the team to develop a crystal clear problem statement, a number of potential approaches and a cross-functional agreement on the solution path and execution. It’s a very different experience when the group gets comfortable building something bigger than any of them could have done individually.
While the first approach may be sufficient when a solution is within the knowledge zone of the leader, the skills built in the second approach allow leaders to transcend their own functional knowledge. This in turn helps the firm access applications and solutions that can only be built by integrating the knowledge of the team. Over time, this leads to exponentially stronger outcomes for firms.
The Impact of the Gap
The effect can be locally chilling on morale and individual performance when this gap is present in the lower levels of the firm. But the big effects are downstream when leaders are elevated beyond functional specialty roles.
Senior leaders need to be able to work in cabinet fashion, “across the aisle,” to enable the value creation that their stakeholders call for. In times of rapid evolution, the only way to respond quickly is when the full talent of the firm is brought to bear on the market challenges.
These are critical skills as we head in ‘22. The amount of change we’ve been dealing with is only going to increase as we learn to work together in new ways. Directive leadership models simply cannot evolve fast enough. Leaders who can work with their peers productively are going to make huge impacts for their firms and careers.
Closing the Gap
The path for working on these areas with candidates who are approaching cross-functional roles involves three steps:
#1: The first step is working with them to help see the mechanics and patterns, not only from their vantage point, but also their peers. Key to this step is establishing buy in for the powerful benefits of enlisting the full capability of the group.
Getting data and specific inputs is key to success. This is done through initial self assessment, followed by some brief interviews, or perhaps an anonymous 360 approach, depending on the context.
Once an intellectual (head knowledge) view has been established, the foundation for a course of coaching is in place. Powerful coaching is rooted in common observations and team insight tools to get at the expectations, communications styles and mindsets of the team members that the candidate is being called to lead.
#2: The second leg of the journey is typically pre-event and post-event follow up and coaching. We work out a course of coaching that lays the foundations for shifts in insight, mindset and approach. We anchor these with powerful pattern recognition that allows both early wins and also longer-term progress.
#3: Finally, we work to move this fresh approach into a core habit and skill base. This involves a deep look at the predisposition of the leader, identifying strengths and weaknesses that can be used to lock in the higher performance they’ve enjoyed in step two. We then establish awareness triggers into the new path until it becomes muscle memory.
How I Can Help
You deserve the success that comes with leading at the top of your game.
I specialize in helping high-performing tech leaders scale their innate skills and have the needed impact on their businesses. The impact that a tech leader wants is locked behind the development of high-quality influence skills – and they don’t cover those in most business curriculums.
Leaders I work with have found that my background in working across functional and senior leaders in more than 20 countries has enabled me to be a value-added partner with deep observation, diagnostic and coaching capacity.
If you’d like to learn more, please book a call using this link.
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