Moving up the corporate ladder can be challenging personally and professionally. Whether transitioning from an individual contributor to a specialist, a specialist to a manager, or a manager to an organizational leader, each step requires changing your mindset. In the online course Organizational Leadership, Harvard Business School Professor Anthony Mayo refers to this as “the leadership shift.”
According to a McKinsey and Company report, only 10 percent of CEOs believe their companies’ leadership development initiatives have clear business impacts. In addition, research by the Human Resources Professionals Association shows that nearly 63 percent of millennials feel their skills aren’t developed enough to take on higher-level leadership roles.
Here’s an overview of the double helix of leadership and how it can help you acclimate to and succeed in a new role.
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DOWNLOAD NOWWhat Is the Double Helix of Leadership?
According to Organizational Leadership, the double helix of leadership is the intertwined, coevolutionary process of executing organizational leadership's responsibilities and requirements while developing enhanced capabilities to perform them.
The double helix of leadership has two strands: the work of leadership and the journey of personal development.
- Work of leadership: What does your new role require you to do differently to ensure those you lead are as effective as possible?
- Journey of personal development: What do you need to work on as a leader to meet your role’s demands?
These questions are essential to effective leadership because they help you understand how your work creates value for your organization. They also force you to evaluate your leadership tactics and reveal what you need to adjust. Going through the motions of your previous role isn’t likely to get you far in your new position.
For example, if you were recently promoted from overseeing three departments to nine, your new role will likely force you to shift your focus from granular details (like individual project status) to more high-level tracking (like quarterly budgeting).
The double helix of leadership is essential because it not only helps you identify the personal and professional shifts required for success but also prevents challenges you’re likely to face when transitioning to your new role.
According to Organizational Leadership, those challenges include:
- Assuming you should have all the answers
- Failing to relinquish your authority
- Remaining deeply involved in specific areas
- Underestimating your opinion in discussions
- Fearing you’ll be wrong or overstep
To ensure such problems don’t arise, it’s crucial to embark on what HBS Professor Joshua Margolis calls the “learning journey” in Organizational Leadership. Here’s an overview of five ways the double helix of leadership can help you avoid common missteps as you transition to a new leadership role.
5 Ways the Double Helix of Leadership Can Make You Effective
1. Removes Expectations of Expertise
A common misconception about effective leadership is that you must always be an expert. While knowledge of your field may have contributed to your promotion, you can’t know everything about your organization.
You must be willing to ask questions, seek ideas, and learn from your employees. Consider the work of leadership strand. What does your new role require you to do differently to ensure your team is effective? It may mean forgetting what made you successful in your previous role and learning a new mindset from scratch—without bias.
“Learning to lead differently often involves unlearning how you've led in the past before you can be successful in a new role,” Mayo says in Organizational Leadership.
2. Makes Delegating Easier
Relinquishing authority—especially in your field of expertise—can be challenging but necessary for effective leadership.
“There’s an inherent tension that all leaders experience,” Mayo says in Organizational Leadership. “While your leadership approach to date earned you your new role, it won’t guarantee your success in the next leadership role.”
Consider the work of leadership and recognize that you’re no longer the authority figure you were previously. It’s now your job to identify who will assume your former role, delegate responsibilities to them, and accept that they may have different perspectives or opinions than you. This requires tapping into the other side of the double helix of leadership—the journey of personal development—and correcting old habits that can cloud your judgment when leading a larger team.
3. Discourages Micromanaging
Micromanaging can be detrimental to a company. In a survey by staffing agency Accountemps, nearly 68 percent of employees who dealt with micromanagement reported a decrease in morale, and 55 percent claimed it hurt productivity. These negative effects can greatly impact your ability to lead in a new role.
While you may try to remain deeply involved in the small details of a specific department or project, it’s best to trust your team members to get their work done without excessive oversight. The double helix of leadership can help ensure you take the time to learn new behaviors and habits that make lasting impacts on organizational culture and productivity.
4. Fosters Team Collaboration
A large component of company culture is the collaborative efforts spearheaded by high-level leadership. According to job search site Zippia, more than 50 percent of U.S. workers say their jobs rely on collaborating. Many times, leaders don’t understand what’s needed for effective team collaboration.
An article in the Harvard Business Review advocates for avoiding collaboration overload. According to the authors’ research, the average employee spends almost 80 percent of their day in meetings, on the phone, and responding to emails. This is primarily because leaders don’t understand what type of collaboration provides the most organizational value.
Many leaders try to control collaboration by:
- Posing daily team-wide discussion questions
- Encouraging weekly standup meetings
- Forcing brainstorming sessions with little direction
Employees can sometimes interpret these efforts as “marching orders.” Return to the work of leadership strand. Consider the dynamics you’ve experienced in previous roles to develop a leadership style more conducive to collaboration and your team’s daily responsibilities.
5. Eliminates the Fear of Mistakes
Making mistakes is a common fear you may face as an organizational leader. Whether committed by you or your team members, you feel the pressure from errors made across your business.
In the double helix of leadership’s personal development journey, you’re encouraged to learn an essential attribute of effective leadership: humility. Humility is critical to asking the right questions about company missteps and letting others on your team apply their expertise. When your employees no longer fear serious repercussions for making mistakes, it can allow for a culture of innovation.
How to Effectively Transition as an Organizational Leader
Transitioning to a new leadership role isn’t easy.
“To advance in the journey of leadership, you must be willing to get worse before you can get better,” Margolis says in Organizational Leadership.
By using the double helix of leadership, you can understand the changes needed to succeed in your new role.
If you want to elevate your leadership skills and receive guidance on approaching professional development, consider enrolling in an online certificate program, such as Organizational Leadership. Doing so can provide the tools to avoid ineffective leadership’s common pitfalls and help you achieve long-term organizational success.
Are you preparing to transition to a new leadership role? Explore our online certificate course Organizational Leadership—part of the Experienced Leaders curriculum in our yearlong Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB) program. It comprises seven courses to help you build the skills and knowledge to grow as a leader in the modern business world. Download our CLIMB brochure to learn more.
