The leadership pipeline describes 6 major career passages in a leadership career. It describes the different leadership levels in a corporation and the main responsibilities of a leader at any level in the pipeline.

This article is my personal notes from reading the book. I'll give an overview of all parts of the book, but my main takeaways are from the part about the career passages, namely the first 3 passages, so that'll be the main focus point here.

The book is split into two major parts:

1. Understanding the leadership pipeline
2. Putting the leadership pipeline into action

Part one is the heart of the book. Here, the authors define the 6 main transitions in a leadership career. They describe what's important to focus on in each of the different leadership levels, and what you need to learn and unlearn as you step into each level.

Part two builds directly upon the leadership pipeline framework, detailing how organizations can leverage it for performance management, leadership training, coaching and succession planning.

Part 1 - The career passages

The leadership pipeline operates with 7 career levels:

1. Managing self
2. Managing others
3. Managing managers
4. Functional manager
5. Business manager
6. Group manager
7. Enterprise manager

Moving between each layer denotes a leadership passage, adding up to the 6 passages we'll focus on.

Each level introduces new requirements for you to apply your time. The authors focus on 3 areas:

• Skill requirements - The capabilities required to execute on the job responsibilities.
• Work values - The underlying beliefs that guide priorities and definition of success.
• Time applications - The appropriate allocation of time and focus.

Critically, success in a passage demands both learning new skills, values and time applications, but it also requires unlearning old behaviours and mindsets that led to success earlier in the career.

Passage 1: From managing self to managing others

The first passage is the one from managing yourself to managing others. This is the start of the leadership pipeline.

The key change here is that you're no longer measured on your own performance, but on the performance of your team. This means you're no longer only responsible for managing your own time and successes, but you need to be actively engaged in the growth and successes of other people in your team.

Skills

Learn

• Delegating - Doing all of the work yourself is no longer the most efficient way to get things done.
• Coaching & motivating team members - Your team is your most valuable asset and it's your responsibility to keep them engaged and help them grow.
• Hiring and training to fill current and upcoming skill needs.

Unlearn

• Relying on yourself and your own skills and time to get everything done

Core work values

• Value success from team performance and team member growth

Time application focus

• Leading your team
• Planning
• Defining and assigning tasks and projects
• Coaching team members

Passage 2: From managing others to managing managers

In this passage you get further removed from the day-to-day work in any team and need to find joy in seeing the success of projects you're not directly involved in.

Managing managers is also quite different from managing ICs. Day-to-day issues will be people-related rather than functional. Many managers started out as ICs in a function; after this transition you will no longer be guiding people in your functional area of expertise, rather you'll be coaching on management topics, which is the second career lane for both you and your team member.

Congratulations; you've now stepped completely away from the area of expertise that started your career, and into a management career.

Skills

Learn

• Selecting, training and coaching managers
• Setting longer-term priorities
• Organizational structure

Unlearn

• Hands-on supervision of ICs
• Direct intervention in projects

Core work values

• Managing for growth
• Holding managers accountable for management work, rather than individual contributions

Time application focus

• Coaching and developing managers
• Cross-team coordination
• Identifying talent

Passage 3: From managing managers to functional manager

The main transition here is that you can no longer focus solely on your own function, instead you need to spend more time working with other functional leaders and need to consider the business' cross-functional needs.

At this point you'll start managing people working in areas outside your own expertise. In the same way you'll be reporting to a multi-functional general manager rather than a manager from your own field of expertise which requires a different way of communicating upwards and outwards.

Skills

Learn

• Strategic, long-term planning (3-5 years)
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Functional resource allocation

Unlearn

• Focusing on own function and goals

Core work values

• Value the success of the entire function
• Trade-offs with other functions

Time application focus

• Long-term strategy for the function
• Engaging with leaders from other functions

Passage 4: From functional manager to business manager

Now you're moving away from being a manager in your own function of expertise to being a general manager. At this level you're no longer allowed to play favorites for specific functions over others.

At this level it's also critical to base strategy and decisions on finances and profitability rather than on optimal functional processes.

Skills

Learn

• Business acumen
• Financial decision-making
• Objective assessment of all functions

Unlearn

• Purely advocating for your own functional area
• Focusing on process over profit

Core work values

• Business profitability and market success
• Viewing all functions equally

Time application focus

• Strategy development
• Competitive analysis
• Coordinating multiple functions

Passage 5: From business manager to group manager

In this passage you'll go from managing a single business to managing multiple businesses or business units. In earlier passages you had to value other peoples', teams' or functions' performance; this time it's about valuing other peoples' business' performance.

A key change here is that in earlier passages you would spend your time working with your immediate team but business managers expect a high degree of autonomy making such an approach be considered micromanagement.

Skills

Learn

• Portfolio strategy: investing/divesting
• Capital allocation
• Evaluating businesses and business managers

Unlearn

• Focus on the success of a business unit
• Hands-on involvement in a business' P&L

Core work values

• Valuing the success of the total group
• Strategic capital deployment

Time application focus

• Strategic planning across units
• M&A evaluation
• Coaching business managers

Passage 6: From group manager to enterprise manager

This is the passage into the CEO position. At this point decisions and impact becomes very long term and day-to-day involvement in any specific part of the business is non-existent.

Skills

Learn

• Visionary leadership
• Managing external constituencies (board, shareholders)
• Setting culture and values

Unlearn

• Day-to-day involvement in any individual business or business unit
• Managing individual businesses

Core work values

• Setting the organization's direction and defining it's legacy
• Stakeholder trust and reputation management

Time application focus

• Setting enterprise direction
• Shaping culture
• Engaging with board, media and investors

The functional career path

The leadership pipeline describes the journey from IC through general manager to CEO. But many professionals prefer staying in their field rather than going in the more general management direction. The book discusses this as the functional career path.

Similarly to the general manager career path, advancement through the functional career path entails a wider scope and a bigger focus on cooperating with other functions to ensure overall company success but the methods and common pitfalls depend on the path.

Skills

Learn

Where the general manager focuses on integrating various functions, the functional specialist focuses on technical strategy and following trends to understand which of them can positively influence your company and how.

Unlearn

Similarly to the general manager track, as you advance through the career ladder your focus becomes wider and it's important to give up on trying to own every small piece of the puzzle. It's important to rely on your peers and acknowledge that company building is a team sport.

Core work values

While general managers work through hierarchies and direct authority the functional career path focuses on influence across the organization. Rather than deciding and ordering you focus on being a thought leader and convincing your peers that your suggested direction is worthwhile.

Time application focus

While the general manager focuses on optimizing the operational flows and health of the company the functional path expects you to focus on innovating within your function. You spend time on optimizing business critical systems and workflows that are usually neglected and solving complex business problems across the organization. The timelines are still very long, but the focus is on the technical baseline rather than the operational processes.

Part 2 - Utilizing the leadership pipeline

The second part of the book discusses how to utilize the leadership pipeline for performance management, leadership training, coaching and succession planning. I'll skip on the succession planning part in these notes.

Identifying pipeline problems

The main issue keeping organizations from performing is leaders working at the wrong leadership level;

• First-line managers spending most of their time doing IC work.
• Business managers focusing on their old function.
• Group executives focusing on a single business, etc.

These cause a range of issues;

• Important work isn't getting done.
• The cost of business transaction is increased.
• People don't develop properly.

To prevent these issues it's important to ensure that leaders have the right skills, work values and time application focus.

A common issue is leaders who have skipped important leadership passages. They might have received the relevant training and obtained the required skills, but if they haven't internalized the correct work values and time application focus of their leadership level they haven't fully understood the job. This will cause people to work at the wrong leadership level making them unable to properly coach and train their team, maybe even doing the work of their team rather than their own job.

Here I'll try to list some common issue happening at various leadership passages:

Passage 1: The super IC

When a team is missing a manager it's a common fallacy to promote the best technical person in the team, rather than the person with the biggest leadership potential.

The clog

The manager spends their time doing IC work rather than managing.

The result

• The team feels micromanaged.
• The team has no clear leadership.
• The manager is constantly busy, but no management happens.

Passage 2: The skipper

The manager reverts to their old job of getting things done through ICs rather than by guiding and empowering their teams.

The clog

The manager skips their team leads and gives orders directly to the ICs.

The result

• The first-line manager is undermined and never learns how to lead.
• The number of ICs directly dependent on one person grows slowing down the entire organization and causes stress to the manager.

Passage 3: The functional silo

Because of their background as a functional expert the manager doesn't accept or realize the value of cross-functional work.

The clog

The functional manager only focuses on their own function, neglecting cross-functional work and relationships.

The result

Cross-functional friction; the departments start fighting and competing against each other rather than working together causing the entire organization to suffer.

Passage 4: The favorite function

The clog

The business manager still acting as a functional head rather than including all functions.

The result

• One part of the business flourishes while others languish.
• The entire business suffers because some functions are lacking.
• Imbalanced business decisions and bad P&L.

Passage 5: The operationalist

The clog

The group manager who gets into the daily operations for one or more specific business units.

The result

• The business managers lose their autonomy and accountability, causing them to suffer and ultimately leave.
• Nobody focuses on the group-wide strategy and issues (M&A, capital allocation...).

Passage 6: The internal operator

The clog

The CEO who spends all their time on internal company operations and politics rather than focusing on the market and the board.

The result

• Lack of company vision.
• The market shifts and the company fails to follow.

Performance improvement

The last part of the book focuses on coaching as a tool to develop leaders and help them realize their potential at each of the leadership levels. A major goal for the coach is to help the manager realize the work values they are holding on to from their previous level and the importance of the values required at their new leadership level.

• Passage 1: New managers - The focus should be on helping them find satisfaction in the team's success and in seeing other people grow and succeed.
• Passage 2: Managers of managers - The coach must help them fight the urge to "get into the weeds" and help them to hold other people accountable for decisions and outcomes.
• Passage 3: Functional leaders - The coaching should focus on strategic thinking and communicating with, and influencing, people in other functions.
• Passage 4: Business managers - The coaching should focus on moving away from being a functional advocate to being an objective general manager. The leader must learn to value profitability over functional excellence and evaluate functions they don't understand well.
• Passage 5: Group managers - Here coaching should focus on portfolio management. The manager should get away from the thought of "my business" and learn to value others' businesses. Most importantly, though, the manager should understand how to coach the coaches without interfering in the daily work.
• Passage 6: Enterprise managers - The coaching at this level should focus on balancing internal management with the external environment. The coaching often focuses on visionary leadership.

Final thoughts

The Leadership Pipeline provides a good framework for how to consider management responsibility at different levels. It's a good resource for:

• People considering moving into a management career.
• Current managers looking for a different PoV on their current job.
• Managers recently promoted to a new management level.
• HR and executives working with succession planning for their organization.

While the model can seem very tailored to very large organizations, the authors provide suggestions throughout the book for how to adapt the model to organizations of various sizes.