The Three Roles of a Leader

Throughout my career, first as an executive and now as an executive coach, I have pondered the concept of leadership. There is certainly no shortage of available information and theories regarding what leadership is and is not. After years of working as, for and with leaders, I have developed my own construct of leadership that makes it readily understandable and actionable. I call it the three roles of a leader.

If you are someone who needs a buzzword-heavy moniker for concepts related to leadership, I am sorry to disappoint. But despite what the gurus would have you think, it really is very straight-forward.

There are three roles that all leaders must fulfill in order to be successful. They are all important, in most situations equally so, though this can sometimes vary based on the specifics of an organization. The three roles are:


Manager of a functional or geographic area
Leader of your function or area
Member of your boss's leadership team

If you are in a leadership role you certainly are responsible for a function or a geographic area. In your role as Manager, you are responsible to ensure excellence of service, cost-effectiveness, relevance, efficiency and the like. You will use dashboards, budgets and reports to showcase such excellence. You are able to connect the actions of your area of responsibility to the operating results of the business.

As the Leader of your function or geographic area you are responsible to select, retain, develop and motivate high talent employees at all levels in your area of responsibility, starting first and foremost with your direct reports. You set standards for performance, motivate your people to achieve them and hold them accountable to do so. You communicate regularly to ensure alignment to the goals of the company.

As a Member of your boss's leadership team, you must understand the business and its success drivers, participate in the development of strategic and operating plans, live into the values of the company and participate as a fully functioning team member. You are a difference maker on the team who can think broadly, strategically and creatively.

Too many leaders make the mistake of focusing exclusively in one or two of these areas. Especially new leaders, who tend to focus almost exclusively on their management role because that had been their formula for success before they were promoted. Bad idea.

Unless you can function effectively in each of these roles, your tenure as leader will probably be rocky and short-lived.