As a leader, you hold a great responsibility. You are
the architect of the plan that will take your people to a better place, not
just in terms of the achievement of common goals, but also in terms of the
fulfillment of their basic, as well as their more complex needs as human beings.
Regardless of whether you lead a small or a large
organization, for-profit or non-for-profit, a religious community or a sports
club, as a leader you are ultimately responsible for certain decisions
affecting other people´s lives.
People do not mess around with their livelihoods,
therefore human beings only follow those who care about their needs.
Your ability to visualize joint goals, alongside your
capacity to satisfy common human needs, becomes instrumental for good
leadership.
But while leading people in general is always a
difficult task, leading leaders is certainly a much more complex challenge.
The complexity in leading leaders resides in the fact
that the needs of those who have already reached a leadership role are not
necessarily related to the basic needs of the "general public", such
as financial stability, protection against unexpected adversities and sense of
belonging.
People holding leadership roles expect those above
them to understand their "more complex" needs. Leader's needs have
more to do with status, contribution and self-actualization, than with mere
monetary compensation per se.
We all have seen examples of organizations promoting
super-achievers at mid management level, to senior leadership roles.
The problem with this type of policy is that in most
cases the super-achiever does not understand what it takes to manage other
leaders effectively.
Super-achievers tend to struggle when promoted to
C-level roles due to a variety of reasons, including:
- Selfishness.
- Inability to delegate.
- Incapability to empathize.
- Result-centeredness.
Working at C-level is radically different to managing
a team of doers or being a super-star.
As a senior leader you will need to gain the aid and
support of other leaders in order to be able to materialize common strategic
goals. Otherwise you take the risk of being sabotaged very quickly.
In this article, I will recap on what attitudes and
behaviors you must nurture in order to be able to lead a team of leaders.
# 1. Empower Your Team:
Once you are in a C-level role, you should no longer
tell your people what to do or how to do it. You are leading leaders, so they
know perfectly well the what´s and how´s.
Telling other leaders what to
do or how to do it is a clear sign of your lack of confidence in their ability
to lead their teams.
People in leadership roles like to feel empowered.
They need to feel that those above them have full confidence in their ability
to make the most out of the resources avilable to them.
# 2. Be Humble:
Ask your team about their opinion and incentivize open
debate. Don´t impose your thoughts. Promote discussion and challenge status
quo, so you give other leaders the opportunity to express their ideas too.
Humble leaders understand and
apply a balance of being strong, yet gentle. They are opened to constructive
criticism and innovative ideas.
Other leaders need to feel that their opinion matters
and most importantly, that they are no longer compensated for what they “do”,
but for their strategic contributions.
# 3. Be Coherent:
Your behavior will be permanently under scrutiny.
Other leaders will incessantly judge your actions as most likely their ultimate
goal is occupy your chair and that´s fine, succession plans are a key part of
every organizational strategy.
It is critical that your
actions are consistent with your words. Never ask other leaders to do what you
cannot or you would not do yourself.
Don´t abuse your position of authority and always
apply a rational judgment behind all your actions.
# 4. Be Generous:
If you are in a C-level role, make sure you share the
spotlight with other leaders who may benefit from additional visibility and
exposure. Give them the opportunity to shine when the right occasion arises.
Self-actualized individuals are concerned with solving
problems, including helping others and finding solutions to problems in the
external world. These people are often motivated by a sense of personal
responsibility and ethics.
Admirable leaders come across
as very personable and generous human beings; they express their
self-confidence through inclusiveness and generosity.
If you don´t allow other leaders to exploit their
intellectual talent and reward them for their contributions, you may soon see
them break away.
Self-actualization, creativity and status are all key
motivational drivers for people in leading roles. As a leader of leaders your
primary responsability is to fulfill those needs.
Remember that you do not need
to be the one calling all the shots anymore, that´s why you lead a team of
leaders now!
