Business Core · Organisation · Module
Leadership
What leadership is expected to do in this organisation, how that work changes from one layer to the next, and how leaders are judged against it.
The idea
How it works
Leadership is easier to work with when it is described as work, not as a set of traits. Mintzberg’s observation of managers found fragmented days of interpersonal, informational and decisional work, not the calm planning the textbooks described. Kotter’s distinction adds that management copes with complexity and leadership copes with change, and that both are needed from the same people. An organisation can write down which of those it expects, at which layer, in terms someone could observe.
The work also changes with the layer. Charan, Drotter and Noel describe each step up — from leading oneself to leading others, then leading managers, a function and a business — as a transition that requires letting go of the work that earned the promotion. Many leadership problems are a transition that was never made: a manager of managers still doing the team leader’s job.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Write expectations as behaviour
A statement such as “inspires the team” cannot be checked. “Holds a monthly one-to-one with each direct report” can.
- 02
Differ them by layer
What is expected of a team lead and of a head of function should not read the same. If it does, one of the two is being described inaccurately.
- 03
Name what must be let go at each step
Promotion adds work and removes some. Stating the removal is what makes the transition visible.
- 04
Judge on evidence from several sides
Results alone reward leaders who spend their team. Upward feedback and team retention show the cost.
One level in
The components of leadership
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Leadership expectations
What leaders here are expected to do, per layer, written as observable behaviour.
Learn
If leaders are assessed on results alone, the expectations document is decorative. Assess against what it says, or change what it says.
The other modules in organisation
Structure
How work is divided into units and joined up again: the basis for grouping, the spans and layers of management, and what coordinates across units.
LearnDecision rights
Which recurring decisions exist, who makes each one, who must agree or give input, and what authority is delegated below the board.
LearnAdoption
The human side of change: who is affected and how much, how far each group has actually taken the change up, what resistance is saying, and what holds it in place.
Learn