The research

Some months ago a was interviewed in a research by Talogy about the progression of leaders in their career, as I already published:

How to succeed as a leader in different levels of hierarchy – Interview to Luis González (ReviTalent) by Emily Goldsack (Talogy)

Now they’ve shared their research: «The leadership journey: insights into effective leadership progression. An international research report.»

It explores the perspectives
of employees, leaders, organizations, and scientific literature about:

• The direct impact of leaders on their people at each level
• What leadership behaviors and attributes are important at each level
• The leadership challenges leaders face as they transition to the next level and their degree of preparedness
• How organizations can best prepare leaders to transition successfully and be effective in their future leadership role
• These findings offer practical and actionable insights to help build effective leaders for strong leadership pipelines.

Summary

Here are some key ideas:

• Only 38% of leaders feel extremely or very prepared to move to the next level of leadership.
• Enabling and supporting leaders as they progress through your organization is critical when facing tight labor markets and increased reliance on leaders to deliver results. However, only 36% of leaders surveyed received formal leadership training or development when they moved to their current leadership level.
• Leaders of all levels feel that mentoring programs and individual coaching were in the top three most useful development opportunities
• Leaders who made employees feel more positive emotions were also rated as more effective leaders by employees. Yet one in five employees are still experiencing stress and frustration on a very frequent basis. Employees whose leaders display negative behaviors reported a decrease in their own work performance, engagement, and overall wellbeing.
• This reinforces the need for leadership development to focus on a human-centered approach and places emphasis on emotional intelligence
• Employees identified being supportive, providing constructive feedback, giving autonomy, and
  communicating well as leadership behaviors that most enhance their work performance.
• 80% of leaders felt they had to change their behavior to a moderate, large, or very large extent when they transitioned to their current leadership level.
• First-level: Leading self vs leading others: An initial mindset change is required as individual contributors move into leadership – focusing on delegation and empowering others, appreciating individuals and communicating task expectations. First-level leaders also face complexity in managing their relationships with former peers and new colleagues.
• Mid-level: Leading others vs leading leaders. Moving to mid-level leadership requires a further shift in mindset. There is a need to demonstrate and balance both strategic and operational capabilities and leaders at this level have many audiences to communicate with. They must recognize the need to move out of the detail and have a broader strategic focus.
• Senior level: Leading the organization. At a senior leader level a final mindset shift is required, often recognized as the most difficult by organizations. Building and maintaining trust and providing clarity in communication are essential at this level. Leading the organization involves a step away from day-to-day management and a move towards big-picture strategic thinking, managing a greater breadth of relationships and empowering managers and teams.

However, there’s much more to learn. I encourage you to read the full report here.