And perhaps the roles most crucial for our long-term success aren\u2019t the ones listed on job descriptions, but those needed to make leadership happen<\/a> in our organizations.<\/p>\n The key comes in our ability to play<\/em> each role and to choose<\/em> the right leadership role for any given situation.<\/p>\n At CCL, we believe there are 4 leadership roles that every professional must navigate and draw upon to be successful. These 4 leadership roles are:<\/p>\n Players are individual contributors who are vital to achieving the goals of an organization.<\/strong> They are the \u201cdoers\u201d who create value by making the product or providing the service.<\/p>\n Regardless of our formal role, all of us keep the Player in the mix of leadership roles we need to play to contribute to our organizations. Any time we\u2019re focused on our own performance and getting things done ourselves, we\u2019re in the Player role. Even in the C-suite, there are times where it\u2019s important to \u201cjust do it.\u201d<\/p>\n When you manage people or projects, you need to learn to step back from doing all of the work yourself. A Manager is the one responsible for organizing the work, driving efficiency, holding people accountable, and helping get problems solved.<\/strong><\/p>\n Like the Player, the Manager role is focused on performance, but they need to get things done through others<\/em>. This is all about the mindset shift that we like to call going \u201cfrom Me to We.\u201d And it\u2019s one of the hardest ones a professional has to make<\/a> throughout their leadership career.<\/p>\n While we all know what an individual contributor is, and many of us carry a title with the word Manager, the Coach role is just as critical when we want to enable leadership across individuals and teams. While the Player and Manager roles are focused on performance, the Coach is focused on development.<\/p>\n The Coach role is not about solving the problems, it\u2019s about helping people get out of their own way so they can become better problem solvers.<\/strong> Coaches are trying to bring the best out in people, trying to get people to activate their strengths. They listen, ask powerful questions, and help grow capabilities over time. Make sure you understand what it takes to coach your people<\/a>.<\/p>\n Management is about doing things right, but leadership is about doing the right thing. Regardless of job title, when you act in the Leader role, you see the big picture and connect the dots \u2014 for yourself and others. Like the Coach, the Leader is about development. But Leaders are not just developing individual capabilities, they\u2019re looking at the whole system.<\/strong><\/p>\n They\u2019re influencing others and taking actions to develop the collective capacity for direction, alignment, and commitment (DAC)<\/a>, because when there\u2019s shared DAC, leadership is happening. That\u2019s how leadership works.<\/p>\n You may want to pause for a moment to consider your own current professional responsibilities and reflect on the leadership roles you\u2019ve played in your own career journey.<\/p>\n At every stage of your career, you\u2019ll be required to play each of these leadership roles, but what we tend to see is that the ideal ratio among the roles changes, as you move through different levels of leadership. As we\u2019ve worked with leaders around the globe, we\u2019ve found that there are some predictable shifts in the amount of time you\u2019ll need to spend in each role in order to be most successful.<\/p>\n While the ideal ratio of time spent in each leadership role varies a little from one industry to another, and from more matrixed organizations to more traditional ones, what we tend to see looks like this:<\/p>\n Our work with leaders at all levels globally has also shown us that the hardest transition to make is often from individual contributor into the leadership role of manager<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0who is leading people or projects.<\/p>\n The graph above is a great way to see why that jump into management tends to be so hard. Individual contributors are typically in the role of player<\/em><\/strong> about 90% of the time. When they\u2019re asked to become responsible for the work of others, they must make a significant shift in their mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets in order to play the other leadership roles far more often and more skillfully. But many struggle to show trust in their teams with delegation<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is especially common among new frontline managers, because as many as 50% of new managers are rated as ineffective in their roles, and 40% fail within the first 18 months. When this large population of leaders struggle, this carries a huge cost for organizations.<\/p>\n But luckily, there are ways to support new managers of people and projects and set your first-time leaders up for success<\/a> so they\u2019re ready for their new leadership roles, and providing them with support such as coaching and mentoring programs for new leaders<\/a>.<\/p>\n Learning new mindsets and skillsets are like any other pursuit. You wouldn\u2019t want to teach yourself to skydive without expert instruction; it\u2019s the same with leadership skills.<\/p>\n We can support you and your organization\u2019s leaders to help with the development of competencies needed to succeed in all the leadership roles played throughout their career journeys.<\/p>\nThe 4 Leadership Roles a Successful Professional Must Play<\/h2>\n
Essential Roles of Every Career Journey<\/h3>\n
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![\"Infographic:](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/4-leadership-roles-infographic-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPlayer<\/h4>\n
Manager<\/h4>\n
Coach<\/h4>\n
Leader<\/h4>\n
Consider the Leadership Roles You\u2019ve Played in Your Own Career Journey<\/h2>\n
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When Is Each Leadership Role Typically Played?<\/h2>\n
How Leadership Roles Vary by Leader Level & Career Stage<\/h3>\n
![\"Leadership](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/leadership-roles-time-split-center-for-creative-leadership.png\")
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Shifting Into New Leadership Roles Can Be Challenging<\/h2>\n
Ready to Take the Next Step?<\/h2>\n