Leadership is a critical component of any organization’s success and comes in many forms. Whether you are an individual contributor, manager, senior manager, director, or executive-level leader, there are development milestones you can work towards to grow into your next role. Knowing the benchmarks and goals to work towards to manage others directly or indirectly influence business decisions effectively is essential.
We will explore the critical skills and milestones that individuals can focus on to progress from one level to another, as well as the essential skills that every leader should master to be successful in their respective group.
If you are an Individual Contributor or Manager, focus your goals on mastery of the following:
- Developing others (coaching and feedback, positive reinforcement, regular 1:1 meetings, and career development)
- Performance management (goal setting, coaching for performance, monitoring and measuring progress)
- Delegating and priority setting
- Team building and remote team management
- Composure (managing your emotions)
- Conflict management
- Hiring (interviewing, candidate selection, and job design)
- Communicating (relationship building – up, down, and sideways, cascading messaging for organizational alignment and execution, and communication with clients and partners)
- Business acumen
- Planning and project management
- Equipping teams with tools and resources
- Fundamental employment law, HR practices, and business administration (PTO, hiring/firing, expense reports, etc.)
If you are Senior Manager or Director level, focus on mastery of the following:
- Shift from managing individual contributors to managing managers.
- Select and develop frontline managers or emerging leaders.
- Holding frontline managers accountable for managerial work (performance management, regular 1:1 meetings, coaching and feedback, and career development)
- Setting priorities for the entire team/unit
- Shifting resources among teams in response to business needs
- Managing the boundaries that separate units which report directly to and with other parts of the business
- Annual planning and budgeting
If you are Senior Director level, focus on mastery of the following:
- Leadership maturity (empathy, timing, judgment, humility, listening, creativity, long and short-term planning, and a global view of the business beyond your team, function, or region)
- Communication and influencing (developing trust and credibility, relationships built on fairness, and communication with multiple layers and groups)
- Decision-making and mature business acumen (complete understanding of the business model, longer-term strategic direction and goals, ability to make decisions based on analysis and experience, knowing what it takes to win in the market, and making trade-offs that support business strategy, profitability, and competitive advantage for the greater good)
- Valuing all functions equally and taking a broader focus in thinking
- “Do better” → “Should we do it?”
- “How are we going to grow?”
- “Is this profit level sustainable?”
- “How will we increase our competitive advantage?”
- Leading change and culture (driving alignment between strategic direction, organization, and culture)
If you are a VP or Executive Level Leader, your goals should focus on the following:
- High-impact decision-making, strategic differentiation, and risk-taking
- Driving critical business strategies throughout the organization
- Creating horizontal synergies across businesses and functions
- Employing holistic and broad-based leadership skills
- Building external relationships on behalf of the whole enterprise
- Strategic agility (creating competitive and breakthrough strategies and anticipating innovation)
- Select, assess, observe, coach, and develop leaders
- Inspire and support quality performance
- Trust the authority of managers without violating the leadership level
- Measure managers on more than financial results
- Value and derive satisfaction from others’ successes
- Evolving and leading within your business and area of expertise
Whether you are starting as an Individual Contributor or already at the Executive Level, there are developmental milestones that you can work towards to grow into your next role. Focusing on critical skills such as developing others, performance management, delegation, communication, and business acumen can help you progress from one level to another. As you move up the ladder, the focus shifts to managing managers, setting priorities, leading change, creating synergies, and developing high-impact decision-making skills. Ultimately, being a successful leader requires holistic and broad-based leadership skills, inspiring and supporting quality performance, building external relationships, and evolving with your business and area of expertise. By focusing on these key milestones, you can achieve your leadership goals and succeed in your career.