Functional vs Organizational Leadership
Important distinctions
As I said in a previous edition…
“The word leadership gets used…a lot. Google “leadership” and you’ll get 6.9 billion results. As my husband pointed out, that’s one result for most of the world’s population. What’s more, the wiki entry notes that it’s a “contested” word. We use the word loosely.”
When we talk about leadership in generic terms we miss important distinctions and don’t understand the skills needed to be effective. We fail to set expectations about what’s required of organizational leaders and new organizational leaders fail to recognize the new skills required.
To ensure leaders understand the contours of the role and what’s expected, we need more precise definitions. In that edition I articulated what I mean by organizational leadership. Today I want to distinguish it from functional leadership. While they often go hand in hand, they’re distinct areas of leadership.
Some leaders work only in the functional leadership layer while others must work at both the functional and organizational layers. Just as there are skills to functional leadership, there are skills required for organizational leadership.
Functional Leadership
Activities to run a business function: product, engineering, people, marketing
Often starts at the managerial level
First team is in the functional unit
Focused on area level goals and OKRs
Has and uses knowledge about a specific discipline
Uses function specific norms and tools to accomplish work
Focuses on function specific strategy
Organizational Leadership
Generally starts at the head of/director level (though may vary by size of org)
First team may be the exec team rather than inside a functional unit
Understands how to make decisions and take action in the face of complexity
Strong focus on communicating decision or direction to multiple audiences
Thinks about the needs of a variety of stakeholders outside of functional area
Need partnerships with people from other disciplines to be effective
Recognizes the implications of a decision across the organization
Aligns people across org lines toward a larger objective
The distinction between these two areas of leadership helps…
Set better expectations
Articulate the distinct skills required for each
Orgs create appropriate leadership development programs
New organizational leaders understand the new landscape
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My work focuses on organizational leadership. Want to learn more about how Constellary can help? Book time on my calendar.
Interested in having a facilitated session at your leadership offsite? Learn more about my Leadership Archetypes Experience. I’m happy to talk with you about what it would look like for your team.