Are You Leading at the Right Level?

Ross Judd

Your title may have changed, but has the way you lead changed with it? Discover why capable leaders often keep working at their previous level — and how that can create dependency in their teams

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

Are You Still Leading the Role You Were Promoted From?

Ross Judd | Team Focus Plus | 5 min read

Here’s a question worth asking yourself: What level are you actually leading at?

Not what your job title says. Not what your position description says. What does the way you spend your time say?

It’s surprisingly common to find leaders who have been promoted but are still, in practice, leading their previous role.

It often looks like being helpful

You solve a problem because you know how. You step into a difficult situation because you can sort it out quickly. You check something because you know what good looks like. You answer the question because it’s faster than coaching someone through it.

None of those things necessarily look like poor leadership. In fact, they can feel responsible. That’s why this problem can be difficult to recognise.

Do it often enough and your people learn something: When things get difficult, take them to the boss.

Now you’ve created a cycle. Your people bring you problems because you solve them. You solve them because your people keep bringing them to you. Eventually you become essential to everything.

That might feel like leadership. It’s actually dependency.

“Your title may have changed.
But has the way you lead changed with it?”

Your role has changed. Have you?

As leaders move through their careers, the balance of their role changes.

There is generally less value in personally having all the answers and increasing value in developing people who can find the answers. Less doing. More developing. Less controlling. More creating capability. Less being the expert everyone depends on. More building expertise and leadership around you.

That’s an uncomfortable transition for many capable people because technical expertise was often what made them successful in the first place. Letting go can feel like becoming less valuable.

The opposite is true..

A different measure of leadership

We encourage leaders to measure success more broadly than simply hitting their targets.

Results matter. But also ask: What are your relationships with your people like? Can you maintain a healthy work-life balance? Is your team becoming increasingly capable? Are you developing leadership in the people around you? Can people make good decisions without you?

And perhaps one of the best questions: What happens when you’re not there?

Exceptional leadership shouldn’t make the organisation increasingly dependent on the leader. It should create more capability around them.

Leadership changes as your role changes.

So if you’ve recently been promoted - or you’re hoping to be - don’t just ask what you need to do differently.

Ask: Who do I need to become as a leader at this level?.

Explore the Leader's Identity Guide for Individual Leaders

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