A Blueprint for Leading Leaders

If you’ve been managing individual contributors and are now in a position where you’re starting to lead leaders, you will quickly realize that you’ll need to switch up your leadership style. I’ve been leading leaders for several years, and in my 15 years of experience, have worked with leaders at different levels. Leaders – they’re a different breed! And in order to engage and motivate them, and ultimately maximize their potential, you’ll need to expand your set of skills and adapt to new perspectives.

A great first step to transition into leading leaders is to understand the difference between leaders and ICs.

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With ICs, you would typically be more hands-on. You want to provide them with guidance and support as they complete the tasks or projects assigned to them. Having clarity on business value (why), expectations (what) and deadlines (when) are critical for every role, but the way to make it happen (how) would be a conversation you’d tend to have more often with ICs rather than with leaders. That is, you start off with trust, but with ICs you should verify whether things are on track, as they build confidence, you will need to do this less frequently.

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On the other hand, leaders have high expectations in general, which is simply due to the fact that they are highly successful individuals. Leaders tend to be deeply engaged in what they do, and as they are in a leadership position, they can come with a bit of ego with regards to how they appreciate things to be done. You might perceive intentions such as “There are a lot of ways to get things done, but here it’s mostly my way,” or “I am in the driver’s seat. Of course I will listen to and discuss with my passengers, but ultimately, I am driving.”

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Regardless of your background managing ICs, one thing’s crucial for transitioning into leading leaders - there is a need to pivot from being hands-on and directive (i.e. “Would you please walk me through how you’ll deliver this task by this deadline? Or “Could you manage this additional process to deliver this task by this deadline?”) to being hands off and much more empowering (i.e. "You’ve got this, right? Good, let me know if you need any support,” or “Please remember to inform me when you can of the risks you find and their mitigation plans.”)

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How do you maximize your chances for success? Let’s explore this in 3 parts:

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1. Start With Trust, and Build It Continuously

Trust is the foundation of every successful collaboration. You must constantly build trust with your leaders to empower them to lead, to succeed and to fail. To do this, I recommend thinking about the trust equation. These are four pillars: credibility with your leaders (lead by example), reliability (follow through with actions to back up your words), intimacy (small talk does have value), and transparency (don’t blindside, as much as you wouldn’t like to be blindsided).

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On top of building trust, foster a safe environment for your leaders to grow. Make sure there is open communication both ways, a two-way street for feedback, a safe place to strategize and brainstorm crazy ideas before you decide together what is the best approach for the business. Do your research on the traits of toxic leaders, and avoid embodying those.

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The significance of proactively building trust became particularly clear to me just after I transitioned to leading leaders. A critical situation required me to ask a leader to cut the engineering verification process lead time by half. We needed to balance high speed of resolution and quality, which we never compromise on, to save a customer who was facing an unplanned stop. I thought I had built enough trust through my credibility on these topics to have my leader understand rapidly and lead their teams with the highest urgency. I was wrong. Convincing my leader took way more time than I wanted and expected. It was painful: we lost speed, and the stress of it took a toll on our relationship.

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The solution? Build trust in advance, if I had built enough credibility on this topic, I would have heard something like “Okay, it is risky, but I trust your experience so I’ll lead the team to make it happen”. What do you think? Do you remember a situation you think could have gone differently if you had intentionally built trust?

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Do:

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• Be Credible. Lead by example, show that you’ve been in the same situation as your leaders and how your actions have contributed to your success.

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• Be Reliable. Your actions should be always aligned to your words. Always follow through. No matter how busy you are, reach expectations your leaders have of you as much as you would like that they reach yours.

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• Build Intimacy. Keep your communication humble. Speak as if you were talking to a colleague, as this will help you collaborate with the leader you’re leading and maximize their output. You don’t want to be seen as trying to be their boss.

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• Be Transparent. Be authentic and transparent with all your messages, whether they’re your own or a cascaded message from your higher ups. Leaders will be able to process the truth.

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Don’t:

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• Be overconfident and take for granted that your leaders perceive you as a Subject Matter Expert. Evaluate your credibility!

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• Minimize the impact of not following through on small expectations your leaders have of you. Evaluate your reliability!

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• Be perceived as a cold leader, someone only turned towards higher ups. Always make time for the leaders you’re leading.

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• Evaluate your intimacy!

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• Blindside your leaders, either on purpose or by accident. Evaluate your transparency!

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2. Define a Shared ‘Why’, Communicate Vision, and Align on Strategy

As a leader, to enable more ownership and accountability from the leaders in your team, you’ll need to take a step back and focus thoroughly on the overarching business goals you all have for the company. Get their buy-in. You’ll get this when they see very clearly what is in it for them. Align business goals to the leader’s goal, to their team’s goal is what you want to achieve. Then, the leaders you’re leading will need to utilize this vision to drive day-to-day operations with their teams. This vision needs to be purposeful, it should answer the question of ‘Why’. Having a purpose will serve as energy to propel your leaders and their teams to achieve the goals they’ve set together, as a team.

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Do not take this lightly. I cannot stress how important alignment with your leaders is. There have been too many times when I’ve shared a vision with a leader that I thought was crystal clear but was not. When the deadline neared it turned out that the outcome was falling short of expectations. It’s important to build clarity right from the start, and continuously ensure alignment over time, to avoid wasting time and energy later to play catch-up when plans have deviated, and you’re at risk of falling short of expectations.

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Your leaders’ success depends on your ability to have clarity on your vision. Take the necessary time and effort to get this through with clear communication. Again, you need your leaders’ buy-in, they should not only align with your vision, but it should also become their own.

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Following this, be curious about their strategy. What are their plans? How will they make things happen? How will they measure success? How will they adapt and overcome problems along the way? My advice is to do this by creating the perception that you come from a place of humility, and not that you know it all. Use the right language. You must never create the perception that your leaders are being told what to do, as this will disempower them instantly.

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3. Offer 1:1 Guidance, Mentoring, and Coaching

Speaking of feedback and guidance, earlier, I talked about the importance of coming from a place of humility. When speaking with leaders, it’s important to use the right words. And, words are never more significant than during 1:1 conversations with your experienced leaders. You don’t want to be viewed as a micromanager, someone who is a know-it-all who tells them how to do things. Dive deep into understanding what micromanaging can look like, and make sure you’re not embodying those mindsets and behaviors. While you must have oversight of your team, go about it in a subtle manner. If you go overboard, you will not only diminish not only your team’s trust in you, but also their creativity and motivation. It’s difficult to earn back trust once it is lost! So make sure you give your leaders the room to breathe and flex their talent in their own ways.

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Offer to provide guidance through mentorship and coaching. During these sessions, instead of starting with “you”, it’s better to start with “I”. Share your experience via a story, anecdotes, or how you operated in a similar situation. Provide an option for them to follow suit, but ensure that you empower them to make the decision to go ahead in their own way to lead their teams, to succeed, but also to fail and learn on their own, knowing you are always there for them.

1. Understand That Leaders Are a Different Breed

They have different expectations from an IC. You must constantly put in the effort to build and maintain the trust between you and them. Especially because leaders can be engaged or disengaged very quickly.

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2. Build Trust on an Ongoing Basis

Trust is the foundation of every successful collaboration. Be mindful of the trust equation. Make sure you’re building the four pillars of credibility, reliability, intimacy, and transparency with your leaders.

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3. Never Micromanage

Micromanaging only disempowers your leaders. In the short term, you may have a quick win, but in the long term, you will definitely lose out. The number one reason people leave their jobs is because of their direct leaders, and this is even more true for leaders.