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

2. 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

3. 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

4. How have we approached leadership transitions in general?
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5. 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 for a review and evidence to support the three levels. Table above is taken from page 84 of this article.

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

7. 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 , 2011.

8. What is the nature of the transition for specialist?
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9. 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

10. 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

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

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

13. The Questions for Debate
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14. 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?