Skip to Main Content
HBS Online
  • Courses
    Open Courses Mega Menu
    • Business Essentials
      • Credential of Readiness (CORe)
      • Business Analytics
      • Economics for Managers
      • Financial Accounting
    • Leadership & Management
      • Leadership Principles
      • Management Essentials
      • Negotiation Mastery
      • Organizational Leadership
      • Strategy Execution
      • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
      • Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
    • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
      • Entrepreneurship Essentials
      • Disruptive Strategy
      • Negotiation Mastery
      • Design Thinking and Innovation
      • Launching Tech Ventures
    • Strategy
      • Strategy Execution
      • Business Strategy
      • Economics for Managers
      • Disruptive Strategy
      • Global Business
      • Sustainable Business Strategy
    • Finance & Accounting
      • Financial Accounting
      • Leading with Finance
      • Alternative Investments
      • Sustainable Investing
    • Business in Society
      • Sustainable Business Strategy
      • Global Business
      • Sustainable Investing
      • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
      • Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
    • All Courses
  • For Organizations
    Open For Organizations Mega Menu
    • Corporate Learning
      Help your employees master essential business concepts, improve effectiveness, and expand leadership capabilities.
    • Academic Solutions
      Integrate HBS Online courses into your curriculum to support programs and create unique educational opportunities.
    • Need Help?
      • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Contact Us
    • Black, Latinx, and underrepresented minority professionals
      Pathways to Business

      Stories designed to inspire future business leaders.

  • Insights
    Open Insights Mega Menu
    • Business Insights Blog
      • Career Development
      • Communication
      • Decision-Making
      • Earning Your MBA
      • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
      • Finance
      • Leadership
      • Management
      • Negotiation
      • Strategy
    • All Topics
    • Sample Business Lessons and E-Books

      Gain new insights and knowledge from leading faculty and industry experts.

    • Free Guide

      Learn how to formulate a successful business strategy.

  • More Info
    Open More Info Mega Menu
    • Learning Experience
      Master real-world business skills with our immersive platform and engaged community.
    • Certificates, Credentials, & Credits
      Learn how completing courses can boost your resume and move your career forward.
    • Learning Tracks
      Take your career to the next level with this specialization.
    • Financing & Policies
      • Employer Reimbursement
      • Payment & Financial Aid
      • Policies
    • Connect
      • Student Stories
      • Community
    • Need Help?
      • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Request Information
      • Support Portal
    • Apply Now
Login
My Courses
Access your courses and engage with your peers
My Account
Manage your account, applications, and payments.
HBS Home
  • About HBS
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
HBS Online
  • Courses
  • Business Essentials
  • Leadership & Management
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Strategy
  • Finance & Accounting
  • Business in Society
  • For Organizations
  • Insights
  • More Info
  • About
  • Support Portal
  • Media Coverage
  • Founding Donors
  • Leadership Team
  • Careers
  • My Courses
  • My Account
  • Apply Now
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • HBS Online→
  • Business Insights→

Business Insights

Harvard Business School Online's Business Insights Blog provides the career insights you need to achieve your goals and gain confidence in your business skills.

 
Filter Results Arrow Down Arrow Up

Topics

Topics

  • Accounting
  • Analytics
  • Business Essentials
  • Business in Society
  • Career Development
  • Communication
  • Community
  • ConneXt
  • Decision-Making
  • Earning Your MBA
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Negotiation
  • News & Events
  • Productivity
  • Staff Spotlight
  • Strategy
  • Student Profiles
  • Technology
  • Work-Life Balance

Courses

Courses

  • Alternative Investments
  • Business Analytics
  • Business Strategy
  • CORe
  • Design Thinking and Innovation
  • Disruptive Strategy
  • Economics for Managers
  • Entrepreneurship Essentials
  • Financial Accounting
  • Global Business
  • Launching Tech Ventures
  • Leadership Principles
  • Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
  • Leading with Finance
  • Management Essentials
  • Negotiation Mastery
  • Organizational Leadership
  • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
  • Strategy Execution
  • Sustainable Business Strategy
  • Sustainable Investing
Subscribe to the Blog
*
Please complete this required field.
Email must be formatted correctly.
Please complete all required fields.
RSS feed

Filters

Topics

Topics

  • Accounting
  • Analytics
  • Business Essentials
  • Business in Society
  • Career Development
  • Communication
  • Community
  • ConneXt
  • Decision-Making
  • Earning Your MBA
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Negotiation
  • News & Events
  • Productivity
  • Staff Spotlight
  • Strategy
  • Student Profiles
  • Technology
  • Work-Life Balance

Courses

Courses

  • Alternative Investments
  • Business Analytics
  • Business Strategy
  • CORe
  • Design Thinking and Innovation
  • Disruptive Strategy
  • Economics for Managers
  • Entrepreneurship Essentials
  • Financial Accounting
  • Global Business
  • Launching Tech Ventures
  • Leadership Principles
  • Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
  • Leading with Finance
  • Management Essentials
  • Negotiation Mastery
  • Organizational Leadership
  • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
  • Strategy Execution
  • Sustainable Business Strategy
  • Sustainable Investing
Subscribe to the Blog
*
Please complete this required field.
Email must be formatted correctly.
Please complete all required fields.
RSS feed

The Double Helix of Leadership: How to Lead Effectively

Business leader standing at a whiteboard during a team meeting
  • 09 Feb 2023
Kate Gibson Author Contributors
tag
  • Career Development
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Organizational Leadership

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.


Free E-Book: How to Become a More Effective Leader

Access your free e-book today.

DOWNLOAD NOW

What 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:

  1. Assuming you should have all the answers
  2. Failing to relinquish your authority
  3. Remaining deeply involved in specific areas
  4. Underestimating your opinion in discussions
  5. 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.

Take Your Organization to the Next Level | Learn More

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.

A graphic showing five tips to avoid micromanaging you team: practice delegating, set clear expectations, let go of perfectionism, hire the right people, and solicit feedback

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 Become a More Effective Leader | Access Your Free E-Book | Download Now

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? Enroll in our online certificate course Organizational Leadership—one of our leadership and management courses—and learn how to leverage the double helix of leadership to jump-start your personal and professional development journey. To learn more about what it takes to be an effective leader, download our free leadership e-book.

About the Author

Kate Gibson is a copywriter and contributing writer for Harvard Business School Online.
 
All FAQs

Top FAQs

How are HBS Online courses delivered?

+–

We offer self-paced programs (with weekly deadlines) on the HBS Online course platform.

Our platform features short, highly produced videos of HBS faculty and guest business experts, interactive graphs and exercises, cold calls to keep you engaged, and opportunities to contribute to a vibrant online community.

Are HBS Online programs available in languages other than English?

+–

We expect to offer our courses in additional languages in the future but, at this time, HBS Online can only be provided in English.

All course content is delivered in written English. Closed captioning in English is available for all videos. There are no live interactions during the course that requires the learner to speak English. Written English proficiency should suffice.

Do I need to come to campus to participate in HBS Online programs?

+–

No, all of our programs are 100 percent online, and available to participants regardless of their location.

How do I enroll in a course?

+–

All programs require the completion of a brief application. The applications vary slightly from program to program, but all ask for some personal background information. You can apply for and enroll in programs here. If you are new to HBS Online, you will be required to set up an account before starting an application for the program of your choice.

Our easy online application is free, and no special documentation is required. All applicants must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the program.

After submitting your application, you should receive an email confirmation from HBS Online. If you do not receive this email, please check your junk email folders and double-check your account to make sure the application was successfully submitted.

Updates to your application and enrollment status will be shown on your Dashboard. We confirm enrollment eligibility within one week of your application.

Does Harvard Business School Online offer an online MBA?

+–

No, Harvard Business School Online offers business certificate programs.

What are my payment options?

+–

We accept payments via credit card, wire transfer, Western Union, and (when available) bank loan. Some candidates may qualify for scholarships or financial aid, which will be credited against the Program Fee once eligibility is determined. Please refer to the Payment & Financial Aid page for further information.

We also allow you to split your payment across 2 separate credit card transactions or send a payment link email to another person on your behalf. If splitting your payment into 2 transactions, a minimum payment of $350 is required for the first transaction.

In all cases, net Program Fees must be paid in full (in US Dollars) to complete registration.

What are the policies for refunds and deferrals?

+–

After enrolling in a program, you may request a withdrawal with refund (minus a $100 nonrefundable enrollment fee) up until 24 hours after the start of your program. Please review the Program Policies page for more details on refunds and deferrals. If your employer has contracted with HBS Online for participation in a program, or if you elect to enroll in the undergraduate credit option of the Credential of Readiness (CORe) program, note that policies for these options may differ.

 

Sign up for News & Announcements


  • • Please complete this required field.
  • • Email must be formatted correctly.
  • • Please complete all required fields.

Subject Areas

  • Business Essentials
  • Leadership & Management
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Strategy
  • Finance & Accounting
  • Business & Society

Quick Links

  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Request Info
  • Apply Now
  • Support Portal

About

  • About Us
  • Media Coverage
  • Founding Donors
  • Leadership Team
  • Careers @ HBS Online

Legal

  • Legal
  • Policies
Harvard Business School
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College
  • Site Map
  • Trademark Notice
  • Digital Accessibility