Tiếng Việt
What is different in leadership when leading leaders versus leading individual contributors?
Over 20+ years of experience in leadership development collectively, we became aware of several crucial differences between leading leaders versus leading individual contributors in organizations.
When looking for materials or resources on this topic, we see that most leadership literature, training or coaching measures are focusing on how to lead staff or individual contributors and limited focus or materials on ‘leading leaders’.
We experienced that the impact of “ineffective” or effective leadership in leading leaders is critical for organizations. In today’s highly uncertain times of several and parallel transformation processes, leadership becomes even more crucial, especially for leaders leading leaders because their influence in leadership and organizational culture is wider.
With additional challenges coming from changing business, work environments and the diverse expectations of leadership, we think that it is time to focus more on this specific situation of leaders leading leaders. Therefore, we started to collect our leadership experience for a joint reflection process and to share our observations and recommendations.
This article is relevant for all companies and organizations with more than one management level. We will focus on Higher Management Leaders (here understood as leaders leading Team Leaders) and Team Leaders (here understood as leaders or managers with people management responsibility), but the challenges and solutions may apply also for other situations in leadership.
These are three common challenges for managing leaders that we identified:
- The framework of responsibility and decision making for Team Leaders is unclear or not updated
- The Team Leaders are being overruled by Higher Management Leaders
- Higher Management Leaders are not walking their talks and leading by example
We are going to share our recommendations to address these three situations mentioned above.
Give your leaders freedom and autonomy with a clear framework to make them more successful
Let’s imagine you have a meeting with Marie, one of your Team Leaders. You want to discuss with her one important objective that is not developing like you expected and you wonder why she did not inform you about this. It seems Marie evaluates the situation very differently from you. She tells you that she did not know that she has to communicate about these kinds of situations. To her, the situation was not critical and therefore she did not inform you.
Does this sound familiar to you? This is a typical example when the framework between two leaders is not clear enough. Maybe something went wrong during the explanation of the framework, or the receiver thought she/he understood, but didn’t.
Framework means here that your team leaders know your vision, that you have a common understanding about objectives and when to inform or communicate with each other. It gives your team leaders freedom and room for own decision-making.
It should be as clear as possible what you expect and, often forgotten, how the achievements and results will be measured. These agreements need to be adapted to the position of the Team Leader, to the culture of the organization and also regularly updated in case of changes in the business environment.
A framework for team leaders can be understood as a roadmap or blueprint. It provides a structured approach to guiding and managing the organization. It outlines the goals, strategies, and processes that Team Leaders can use to make decisions, set priorities, and achieve the organization’s objectives. Think of it as a set of guidelines that helps Team Leaders stay on track and ensure the organization is moving in the right direction.
It happens regularly in organizations that a framework was not shared, was not clear enough (like in our example with Marie) or the conditions and environment changed, but the framework did not change at the right time. In some cases, a framework was never created by the Higher Management. In other cases, a framework was not really discussed with the Team Leaders and they don’t feel part of it.
All this can be the reason why objectives are not achieved, leads to and increases misunderstanding in expectations and have the risks that relationship between leaders is damaged. This might be even more relevant when you deal with Team Leaders with different backgrounds in an international environment, where the understanding of leadership may be very diverse. Also remember that persons in leadership positions often come with higher levels of experience and self-confidence. They want to be heard, contribute with their expertise and will challenge your framework, especially if it is not clear for them.
Invest time in the framework. A defined and updated overview with clear responsibilities gives Team Leaders freedom and autonomy to act and will empower and motivate them to better understand the expectations and agreed objectives. To do that, you will need to have a clear picture or visual based on the framework you received from your organization. If it’s not clear for you, clarify with your won management.
Also communicate clearly for your Team Leaders, when and why you want or need to be involved and assure that both sides follow this agreement. This will help mitigate conflicts and misunderstandings (like in our example with Marie) and avoid that your leaders are focusing on the wrong things and wasting their time and efforts.
Giving freedom and autonomy with a clear framework has also a great effect for the Higher Management Leaders. You will see that you will have more time for your tasks of leadership in supporting and developing their and your leadership skills and achieving clearer the expectations from your own management, stakeholders or customers.
For your reflection:
When you became a leader in your organization, did you receive a clear and updated framework? What about the Team Leaders in your team? How are the frameworks empowering and helping them to lead more effectively?
Lead with trust and don’t overrule your leaders
You come out from a Higher Management Team Meeting. And you just heard about a new IT trend highly relevant for your company. You go to the pantry for a coffee and meet by chance Minh, one of the staff of one of your Team Leaders. She is an expert in IT and you know her well. You ask her to quickly send you some information about this new trend. This situation is very common. Mostly, because it’s faster, a no brainer to get it done right there. at that moment. At the end, you may think, Minh is part of your whole team and she (hopefully) may inform the Team Leader anyway. Isn’t this the way of agile management?
There are several reasons why this is not effective leadership. While these leaders may have the best intention. It is does not serve great leadership.
We recommend addressing the Team Leader first and asking for his/her to support further. Why? One option to empower your Team Leaders is letting them find their own way to achieve the objectives. This should be part of the mentioned framework. By giving instructions to direct reports, like in this example with Minh, you accidentally interfere with your team leader’s work and could be perceived as not respecting them in their function. Regardless of why this happens, it damages the authority of the Team Leaders, and it demotivates them, making them feel less confident and even disrespected. And sadly this has the opposite effect of empowerment.
In a position as Higher Management Leader, you don’t not know the details of how your Team Leaders are planning the work of their teams, their work scope or capacity, but giving direct instructions to their staff will have a direct impact.
They need to adjust, adapt their work, plans without a “choice” and could then struggle to achieve what they planned. Some Team Leaders may also start to lean back and let you do the leadership work. “Why should I do it when somebody else does it anyway?” Additionally, the staff of your team leaders will be confused and not know anymore which leader to address/report to and will start to communicate with both or will start to communicate only with the person in the higher management position. And can’t blame them for this confusion.
Let’s be clear. It is not about avoiding any contact with the staff of your Team Leaders, but please don’t delegate tasks to them. Your task now is to lead leaders, not their teams and staff.
Another important point to avoid overruling is that you will need to accept that your Team Leaders may do things differently than you would do, as long as they are in the agreed framework. For some Higher Management Leaders, this could be hard to learn. They expect that their Team Leaders follow strictly their way of doing it because they themselves were successful doing so or maybe because they’re thinking this is the only way or to avoid wasting time and exploring new ways. But this would reduce creative thinking and limit innovation, may not be adapted to the current business environment and will become frustrating, fears, demotivation for both sides.
Here you should support your Team Leaders by clearly defining the expected result but avoid getting into the details about the way or how exactly to achieve it. Focus on leading, empowering with trust and giving constructive feedback focusing on objectives and results.
Give them all the freedom, autonomy possible as long as this does not put in danger the expected results or it goes against orientations and rules of organization. Be in contact with your Team Leaders and their staff, but don’t overrule your team leaders.
For your reflection:
Have you ever been overruled by your own boss, leader? How did you feel when that happened? Have you accidentally overruled your leaders? How can you avoid this mistake?
Walk the talk and lead by example
It is time for the annual performance assessment with James, one of your Team Leaders. Because of other priorities, you had to move the date several times. You arrive a little bit late and when it comes to the review of his objectives and you haven’t done as much preparation as you should. While discussing this, your assistant interrupts you informing that the next person is already waiting. You tell James that another meeting will be arranged and you go quickly to the next one…
How do you think James will feel after this assessment? And how could this affect his way of thinking about good leadership and his own behavior as Team Leader?
Would he conduct the assessments for his own team in a similar (unprofessional) way?
For the employees this kind of situation is frustrating and disappointing, but for persons in leadership positions like James the negative impact will be even more severe. Your Team Leaders know the challenges of leadership and will therefore observe very carefully how you are leading and how you are using leadership instruments like the mentioned annual performance assessment.
You are the leadership role model for them because they see your leadership on a regular basis. Your actions, behavior, what you say, what you do. They will take notice of your strengths and weaknesses in leadership and this will influence their own behavior. In consequence, you need also to be a good example, giving the example and invest time and energy in your own leadership skills.
For sure, no one cannot be the best in everything. Nobody is perfect. But your Team Leaders need to see that you take these tasks seriously and that you are always open for improvement, even by learning from them. If you lead in a positive way, giving a clear framework, trust and feedback and being consistent, they will trust, respect and follow you.
Please remember that by being a good example you are supporting the Team Leaders who already are leading well. This will support the development of a positive leadership approach and will improve the working environment and results of your whole organization.
Leading by the example starts with you communicating. Be consistent and transparent and do what you say. Remember that in this position, you cannot ask your Team Leaders to do something which you are not doing or have demonstrated/ willing to do yourself.
Be open to their feedback about your leadership. If you have to adapt, explain to your Team Leaders the reasons for your change. And if there is an exceptional case, explain this too. If you are struggling to be a good example, get in contact with your own manager and get feedback on how you can improve and develop to become a better example.
And if you received support from somebody, share this whenever possible with your Team Leaders. They will see that you have challenges too and that you look for help, but that you are actively working to learn, improve and level up. Last but not least, being the example helps you gain authority.
For your reflection:
Who were great leadership examples you knew of? What are you currently doing to lead by example?
Resume
These three recommendations show exemplary the complexity of leading leaders. A clear framework, avoiding overruling and being a good example in leadership are important steps to develop higher management skills and to create successful leadership teams. We think that the main challenge in this kind of leadership position in Higher Management is to be balanced. Give freedom and autonomy with a clear framework to achieve the agreed objectives, give support and avoid overruling and to empower and influence your Team Leaders positively with your own leadership, without expecting that they will do the same way as you do. The better you manage this balance, the better results you achieve.
How is your experience in leading leaders? What would you add in on this topic of ‘leading leaders effectively?’
Join us later in February where we will discuss this further in a Live LinkedIn Event, so stay tuned.
About us
Loan Tran is Danish Vietnamese and started her leadership journey in Vietnam 11 years ago and has been leading different teams in different countries and led a company where she also was leading leaders. Loan is the owner of Loan Tran Coaching & Consulting and currently coaching and training leaders on all levels in 10 countries and enjoys conducting workshops and seminars on leadership and people skills.
Dennis Quennet is from Germany and has been in leadership positions for more than 11 years. Over 8 years he has been leading leaders in an international organization. He gained leadership experiences in countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia dealing with international teams and leaders in different working environments. At the moment, he is working for the German Cooperation GIZ in Vietnam.
