The Challenge for Specialists as Leaders Wanda T. Wallace, Ph.D.

Why Focus on Specialists? Knowledge is highly valued Greater and greater expertise is valued Individuals spend long portions of careers developing expertise Senior leaders increasingly come from specialist areas Roffey Park research states “the popularity of of recruiting professional managers has … waned over the years in favour of more concerted attempts to support the development of technical experts into leaders.” Organisations are flatter There are fewer opportunities to develop leadership skills Specialists are often asked to lead without experience There are few role models and few positive experiences with leadership in the career

Who Are These Specialists? Engineers Researchers Lawyers Accountants Risk assessors Financial specialists Definition Individuals who have either: Deep technical knowledge or training Professional qualification or belong to a professional society Taken years to develop expertise Attained seniority as an individual contributor

How have we approached leadership transitions in general? Content © 2012. All rights reserved. Leadership Forum Inc.

A Quick Historical Tour of the Literature The discussion has historically centered around three levels Task Responsibilities Skills Time Span of Impact Supervisor Apply existing structure Performance of a small group Technical Short (2 weeks to 2 years) Middle Management Interpret structure Performance of multiple functional units or division Interpersonal Medium (2 to 5 years) Executive Create structure Performance of a corporation or group of businesses Conceptual Long (5 to 20 years) See Kaiser, Craig, Overfield and Yarborough, “Differences in Managerial Jobs at the Bottom, Middle, Top: A Review of Empirical Research,” The Psychologist-Manager Journal (2011), 14: pages 76-91 for a review and evidence to support the three levels. Table above is taken from page 84 of this article.

Charan, Drotter and Noel (2001) Page 19 of the Report

Do Behaviours Really Change by Level? Research confirms some of our hunches: What works at one level is not effective at another level, however… Impact on Effectiveness Supervisors Middle Management Executive Positive Learning Agility Work-Life Balance Directive Style Empowering Style Negative Supportive Style Abrasiveness No Follow-Through Learning Agility Work-life balance Directive leadership – show initiative, assign tasks, display a sense of urgency about getting things done, use independent judgment Empowering style – delegating, encouraging initiative, using participative decision making, developing people, Supportive leadership – showing empathy and concern, caring about others, putting people at ease, getting along Lack of follow-through Overall effectiveness Instrument had 148 items in managerial skills, derailment factors and effectiveness Archival database N= 2,175 managers – 225 supervisors, 1457 middle mgrs, 493 executives Kaiser and Craig, “Do the Behaviors Related to Managerial Effectiveness Really Change With Organizational Level? An Empirical Test,” The Psychologist Manager, 14, pages 92-119, 2011.

What is the nature of the transition for specialist? Content © 2012. All rights reserved. Leadership Forum Inc.

Specialists Thrown Into Leadership Can go from managing virtually no one to managing a large group Often their prior experience in leading is typically training a young employee Sometimes do not and should not give up technical responsibilities Cannot lead without some knowledge of the technical area Impact on the organisation is long term

Challenges and Mindset Shifts Specialists Leaders Be in control, know the answer When to let go Certainty Ambiguity Being right Making a good call Doing it yourself Rely on others to do Deep focus and concentration Ability to shift focus often Detail orientation Commercial and strategic orientation Rely on logic and analysis Emphasize relationships Influence through rational persuasion Influence through network People follow because of expertise People follow because of inspiration Deal with like-minded people Deal with all types of people Control of time Others control time Quirky personality is accepted Executive presence matters Affiliates with profession Affiliates with company Values professional networks Needs internal networks

The Specialist – Leader Shift for PSF Page 22 of the report

Two Different Transitions for Specialists From specialist to leading while maintaining some specialist responsibilities From specialist to leading full time

The Questions for Debate Content © 2012. All rights reserved. Leadership Forum Inc.

Three Challenges How do we develop specialists into leaders? We have been focused on training general managers for the last 40 years. Do we need a different paradigm for specialists? Can you lead a specialist area without specialist knowledge? When and how? Can all specialists learn to lead? Should they? How should we best select specialists for leadership roles?