Bricklayer to architect: Seven transitions for leaders

1. Specialist to generalist

Managers transitioning to enterprise leadership roles must work hard to achieve “cross-functional fluency”, so you need to become comfortable with the terms, tools, and ideas of the various functions whose work you must integrate. You must also be able to evaluate and recruit the right people to lead the areas in which you are not expert.

2. Analyst to integrator

You now must manage cross-functional teams in order to integrate collective knowledge and solve organizational problems, so you need to manage integrative decision-making and problem-solving. You must also learn how to make appropriate trade-offs and how to manage in the “white spaces”; accepting responsibility for important issues that don’t fall neatly into any one function.

3. Tactician to strategist

Enterprise leaders establish and communicate strategic direction for the organization, so you must be able to define and clearly communicate the mission and goals (what), the core capabilities (who), the strategy (how), and the vision (why) for the business. And you must be able to shift seamlessly between tactics and strategy. Critically, you must learn to think strategically, which means honing your ability to (1) perceive important patterns in complex environments, (2) communicate those patterns to others in powerful ways, and (3) use the insights to anticipate and shape the reactions of other key players, including customers and competitors.

4. Bricklayer to architect

As managers move up in the hierarchy, they become increasingly responsible for creating the organizational context that enables business breakthroughs. This means understanding how strategy, structure, systems, processes, and skill bases interact, and becoming expert in the principles of organizational design, business-process improvement, and human-capital management.

5. Problem-solver to agenda-setter

Enterprise leadership means focusing less on fixing problems and more on setting organizational priorities; including identifying and prioritizing emerging threats and communicating them in ways that the organization can respond to. Ultimately, you need to create a learning organization that responds effectively to shifts in the environment and that can generate surprises for its competitors.

6. Warrior to diplomat

Effective enterprise leaders actively shape the external environment and manage critical relationships with powerful outside constituencies, including governments, NGOs, the media, and investors. And they identify opportunities for cross-company collaboration, reaching out to rivals to help shape the rules of the game.

7. Supporting cast to lead role

People in the business now take their cue from you in terms of behaviors and attitudes. This means you are constantly center stage and held to a higher standard – that of exemplary role model.