Edited By Jo Gardner
November 29, 2021
There are layers of skills and leadership in a business firm. We categorized multiple layers of skill into three main leadership levels in business. Businesses are comprised of doers, or your workforce, managers, who oversee the doers, and leaders who oversee the managers. Each promotion to a new level, requires focus adjustment for successful results.
Doers: The Basic Level
The basic level, made up of the most people in your firm, is the “Doers”. These people work hard and get things done. The focus of doers is things. Their job to is complete tasks or to produce product. While they may work hard enough to be promoted to another level, doers don’t normally oversee other people. The majority of your workforce can be found in the Doers level of business.
Managers: A Leadership Level Beyond Doers
The next level holds managers. Mangers oversee other people and the work they do. This requires a new focus. A manager must shift the focus from things to time and efficiencies within the work of the people they oversee. As a leader in management, it’s your job to make sure your people have the skills, time and resources they need to achieve the target. Your focus targets whatever it is that makes your team better at doing their job. If necessary, clear any deadwood (useless clutter) out of the way.
Leadership Level: Oversees Managers
Once a manager is promoted to a leader of managers, he or she needs to shift his focus again. The new focus instead of on time and efficiency, is directly on the people who focus on time and efficiency. It is a difficult change of focus to make. Until this moment, everything in your life has been about individual development and growth. Now you are providing the vision and guidance to lead other people on the team. You are the one who needs to help managers with their first and most difficult transition from focusing on things to focusing on others.
To Lead, you have to change your perspective. You’ve got to start looking at the world differently.
Your Perspective
By perspective, we are referring to the way you view the world around you and how you communicate that view to others. The way you describe achievement will change the way you and your entire team see success. What does “success” look like for you at the end of the day? How do you want to grow your department? Do you see achievement in terms of how it will impact you, or your company? If winning is about the company, you will help your team will develop company pride and loyalty.
Leadership over Friendship
Part of your perspective is the way you see your relationship with your team. Your view will impact both you and your team. The way your team sees their relationship with you can determine your success as a leader. It is natural to seek out friendships with those you work with daily. You may have a lot in common, both at work and outside the office. But you are not your team’s friend. They have friends they work with. They have friends at home. For them, you are an authority figure and your team needs objective leadership from you. Your team doesn’t want assignments to be based on friendship. They want assignments based on skills or fairness. Once you become the authority figure they need, your team can grow and become much more productive.
Command Ready takes Complex leadership skills and organizes them into easy to follow modules. Today’s Leadership Levels in Business is covered in more detail in our courses. Find out more about learning how to become the leader you want to be at https://commandready.com/contact/
