Promotions can be deceptive

 

Everyone understands that the role changes as they climb the corporate ladder. 

And they yearn for Leadership positions at the top. They miss out on the fact that Leadership starts at the bottom rung. 

If they do realise that, they assuming that the next level is simply more of the same leadership, at a larger scale.

It isn’t.

As leadership scope expands, the job itself changes.

You move from:

Leading Self  

Managing your own performance, discipline, judgment and credibility.

to

Leading Individuals / a Team  

Creating direction, trust, accountability, feedback and development.

to

Leading Multiple Teams  

Leading through other leaders, aligning priorities, creating operating rhythm and reinforcing culture.

to

Leading Cross-Functional Systems  

Managing interfaces, trade-offs, competing priorities and dependencies across functions you may not control directly.

to

Leading a Business Unit  

Balancing customers, people, operations, financial performance, risk and capability-building.

and ultimately

Leading the Enterprise  

Shaping strategy, allocating capital, building leadership capacity, managing external stakeholders and preparing the organisation for a future that may look very different from today.

At every stage, the balance between operational and strategic leadership shifts.

Early stage leadership is: “How do I deliver?”

Later it becomes: “How do I enable others to deliver?”

And Then: “How do I create a system in which multiple teams can deliver together?”

And eventually: “Where should this organisation go and what must We become to get there?”

This is why Promotions can be deceptive. 

Star Performers often do not understand why they are stuck and not getting the elusive promotion in spite of ticking all the boxes (on their flawed internal checklist)  

The skills that made someone successful at one level can become insufficient or even limiting at the next.

A bigger role does not merely require more capability.

It requires a different leadership operating system.

And one of the most important transitions for any leader is recognising when the job has changed before continuing to lead it the old way.

#Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching #Management #Strategy #OrganisationalLeadership #LeadershipTransition