Preparing for Senior Level Leadership

What are the unique dynamics at play for senior leaders and how can one best prepare for them?

I asked my readers to give me some questions that are on their minds that they'd like me to address. Boy, I got some doozies in response.

I began to dialog with those who had privately emailed me or who offered very insightful questions in the comments. I realized I could not answer such probing questions with a "tweet-length" response. Some time and dialog were needed. I would need to get after these questions over multiple entries in DruGroup. I won't be doing that in one long series of questions and my responses, but instead will address them occasionally coming up in your inbox, interspersed with other articles to keep it fresh, and I suppose to keep you guessing more than a little as well.

The first question I want to tackle is one I didn't see right away, but it's one I had already thought a lot about in my work coaching senior-level leaders.

Here's the question:

"What do you wish someone had told you about senior-level leadership and preparing for it?"

Senior-level leadership is a different ball game than other levels of leadership. I'm not saying the other domains of leadership are less-than; they are just different. I served as a second-chair and staff leader for nearly two decades, and I believe you can make a huge difference when you're leading but not in charge. However, there are at least four unique dynamics involved in senior-leadership roles: Pressure, Decisions, Time-management, and Delegation. 

Pressure

There is a unique pressure involved in senior leadership that can be pretty intense--it rests on the shoulders at all times, hard to escape. In getting quite close to many senior-level leaders, I've noted that weekends, days off, and vacations don't lessen the pressure much. Many in these slots require a sabbatical or study leave occasionally just to survive the pressure (and it's one of the only times the "mantle of leadership" tends to lessen enough for their soul to be fully restored.) It takes a good deal of emotional security and thick skin to be a senior leader, or it gets messy. 

Preparing for Pressure

The best preparation for handling the pressure of senior leadership is to carry some of the pressure of the senior leaders over you now. They will love the fact that you are carrying some of the "entire org ownership" with them (not just your area of responsibility. It will help you get used to what that pressure feels like, even if you are getting a little more out of days off and vacations than they are because the pressure doesn't rest entirely on you.

Decisions

Senior-level leadership means you make a good deal of decisions that are in reality "only your decision." That means you have to get a lot of input from others, of course, but realizing the buck stops with you in many cases is good, and helps you realize that even if you act like others made the decision you are the one who in the end made it. It's like being the coach of a football team who decides to go for it on 4th down on your own 40-yard line. Regardless of what happens with that play, you'll be blamed or celebrated for the result. You might as well own the fact that you made the decision, even if you could blame your quarterback, running back, or other assistant coaches. (Sorry for the extended Football metaphor but my Colts just lost a game they should have won, and for the record this time I blame the QB, not the coach since he threw two of the dumbest interceptions known to mankind.) Being a senior leader involves a good many decisions. Oftentimes you need to order your life so that there is a lot of clarity about when you're making a decision, as opposed to when you're just in a discussion. The life of a leader is often split between three things: preparation (usually for speaking/writing), meetings, and decision-making.

Preparing for Decisions

The best preparation for the decisions involved in senior leadership is to begin to “own” decisions yourself at lower levels, including ones where you made the wrong call. Getting clarity from your existing senior leaders on what decisions are truly yours to make, and then being clear that you are making those decisions, and living with the results, trains your mind for that level of decision-making, and the consequences involved.

Time-management

Your only limited resource is time. This is why senior leaders almost always become obsessed with how they invest their time. It is not uncommon for senior leaders to spend some time every day not only making choices about what they are going to do in the future but even finding ways to eliminate or shorten the time for meetings and commitments already on their calendar. It's also why so many senior leaders you encounter are hesitant to say yes to almost any opportunity that comes their way, and sometimes it can seem off-putting. It's just part of the demand of their role. 

Preparing for Time-management

Some of the best preparation for this part of senior leadership is to get better at what you say no to along the way. It's not just the domain of senior leaders to get good at time management, that's something everyone can do. Getting more focused on what you're best at or upon the results you're working toward will also make you more effective, and more likely to become a senior leader in the first place.

Delegation

This final one is no surprise. Delegation is the life-blood of senior leadership. In fact, all leadership is about involving others in a team to get a shared goal done. Delegation is almost a synonym for leadership, not unlike the word influence. A leader who just does everything themselves isn't functioning as a true leader of people, they are just a hard worker, and more than likely a very exhausted and unhealthy people-pleaser nearing burnout. My father, Keith Drury has been quoted as saying, "You must learn to delegate by the age of 40 or you won't have to after." The key to effective senior-level leadership is delegating ownership of a whole project or area, not just tasks. High-quality leaders under you need more than just mindless marching orders, they need hills to climb that you've pointed to, and then the autonomy to decide how to take those hills. Delegation is not shirking your responsibility (the person asking this question of me said some push back on delegation with this objection) but instead, delegation is the empowerment of others. 

Preparing for Delegation

The best preparation for the delegation required by a senior leader is to develop and empower the team members around you as though they are vice-presidents or an executive leadership team, even if it seems beyond their experience or the scope of your project. Senior leaders are often chosen from those who have led a team beyond their station. The people around you make you, in more ways than one (and of course, once you're senior leader, you can take some or all of those people with you.)

Got another question to add to my list—just reply to this from your inbox or leave it as a comment here. I look forward to the dialog. -Dd