Why Corporate Professionals Need Leadership Skills Earlier Than They Think

Research & Sources / Corporate Professional Growth

The best time to learn to swim is not the moment you fall off a boat. It is long before, in a calm pool, with time to practise. Yet many corporate professionals learn leadership exactly the wrong way: they are promoted into a team leader role and then have to figure out how to swim while already in deep water.

Promoted for one skill, judged on another

Most people are promoted because they are excellent at their current job. The best engineer becomes the engineering lead. The best salesperson becomes the sales manager. Suddenly they are judged on something completely different: how well other people do their jobs.

Alan Benson, Danielle Li and Kelly Shue found that top salespeople were more likely to be promoted to manager, and that their teams then often performed worse.¹ Being good at the work and being good at leading the work are different skills.

The first year is hard

Linda Hill followed new managers through their first year and found that most were surprised by how much their role and identity had to change. They had to move from doing the work themselves to getting results through others, and few were prepared for it.²

Leadership starts before the title

Leadership is not a job title. It is a set of behaviours you can practise in any role:

• Taking ownership of a result, not just a task.
• Helping colleagues grow, by sharing knowledge or giving useful feedback.
• Communicating clearly, especially upwards and across teams.
• Making decisions within your area, and standing by them.
• Influencing without authority: getting support from people who don’t report to you.

Google’s research on great managers found that coaching, communicating well and supporting others’ development were among the most important behaviours.³ Every one of them can be practised before you have a team.

How to practise now

Mentor someone. Take a new colleague under your wing.

Lead a project. Volunteer to coordinate a cross-team initiative.

Ask for feedback on how you work with others, not only on your output.

Find a mentor yourself. Research shows mentoring improves career satisfaction and commitment.⁴

What this means for you this week

• Pick one leadership behaviour from the list and practise it deliberately.
• Offer to help a newer colleague with something you know well.
• Ask one person how you could support the team better.
• Talk to a manager you admire about what they wish they had learned earlier.

Learn to swim in the pool. The boat trip will come.

Sources

1. Benson, A., Li, D. & Shue, K. (2019). Promotions and the Peter Principle. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134(4), 2085-2134. doi.orgTop salespeople were more likely to be promoted to manager, and their teams then performed worse: being good at the job is not the same as being good at leading it.
2. Hill, L. A. (2007). Becoming the Boss. Harvard Business Review. hbr.orgNew managers underestimate how much their identity has to change: from doing the work to getting work done through others.
3. Google re:Work. Following the data: The research behind great managers (Project Oxygen). rework.withgoogle.comBehaviours of Google’s most effective managers: coaching, empowering, communicating, a clear vision; technical skill is only one of them.
4. Allen, T. D., Eby, L. T., Poteet, M. L., Lentz, E. & Lima, L. (2004). Career benefits associated with mentoring for protégés: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(1), 127-136. doi.orgMentored people report more career satisfaction and commitment; effects on pay and promotion are positive but small.