By Tom Desch, consultant –
I was coaching a director who was tagged as a high performer – a rock star. The VP above her and the senior VP above him both recognized her potential, but knew she needed additional training.
This young lady had been selected for a series of promotions because she was so good at solving problems. Any problem, she could figure out how to solve it.
However, this emerging leader had run into a problem: after her current promotion to a director-level position, she was still solving manager-level problems.
Doing the appropriate level work at the appropriate level is a key to leadership success.
When her boss asked me to do a coaching engagement with her, the three of us sat down to clarify his expectations.
The boss opened the conversation with: “You know, you’re excellent at solving problems. That’s a great skill to have. But we have to get you out of the weeds, to stop solving problems that are really not yours to solve. Those should be coming from the people that report to you.”
We used The Leadership Nexus as a way for her to recognize when she was diving down into something that wasn’t at her appropriate level.
She immediately saw what she was doing and took it to heart. Within a year she was performing at the level that she was hired for, solving the right problems and leaving the lower-level problems to her direct reports.
Promotions followed up to VP level. And within four years, she moved from a director-level leader to the Senior VP in charge of the entire market.
In her new role, the “rock star” became a strong proponent for The Leadership Nexus, using it frequently to help others meet their potential. She recognized that the key to leadership success was doing the appropriate work at the appropriate level.