Can great experts become great leaders? It’s a subject that Dr Deepa Desai and I have been reflecting on recently. We thought about the skill sets that great subject matter experts have, why it’s not enough for today’s Global leaders and how great leaders need to behave to be truly great.
Great subject matter experts:
- Are relied on for the quality of their solutions
- Come up with brilliant ideas
- Keep on top of projects as they have thought through many details
- Take personal accountability
- Bring clarity to the end goal and the path to get there
- Are speedy in turning an idea into an actionable plan
Why wouldn’t subject matter experts make great leaders with this skill set? Taking these strengths to their limit can mean:
- Others’ ideas can be killed off early
- Others start to disengage, don’t speak
- There can be lack of respect for others’ ideas who are seen to be less knowledgeable
- Accountability is not shared leading to less buy in
- Working only with other subject matter experts or people who are perceived to be higher in the hierarchy
- Organizations becoming overdependent on experts as knowledge is held
- Seeing themselves as the only ones who can do their job and do not see value in bringing others along
- Managing change by pushing through resistance rather than listening and integrating ideas.
- Solutions take longer to implement, as resistance can go underground
- If the environment changes a single expert may not recognise and if they do are less likely to adapt
Great leaders’ ability to navigate and lead through change does not depend on their technical skills. In fact, their subject matter expertise may be a hindrance if they have a mindset of knowing best as this may alienate colleagues by pushing through solutions without engagement.
Early in our careers we were both technical subject matter experts. We had to compete with our knowledge and make our voices heard to get recognised. Working in cultures where expertise, clarity and logic was valued reinforced our belief that this would lead to success and we would just need to get even better in our technical expertise to succeed.
Since then, there has been a shift in our thinking as we have learnt to lead teams. Great leaders:
- Rely on others for their technical skills.
- Use a range of skills to engage others around them in achieving a common goal
- Share accountability and delegate effectively
- Celebrate success as team success
- Spend time listening to all their stakeholders and actioning their insights appropriately
- Keep an eye on the environment by involving all their team and respond as needed
- Build and mentor team members constantly thinking how team leadership capability can be increased
- Be open to feedback
Today we notice that some people believe, as we did, that great technical skills and a mindset of being right entitle leadership to be conferred. Can this mindset and the skillsets needed be changed?
We believe it can if potentially great leaders:
- Understand what is needed for great leadership (see our thoughts in the article) and actively decide whether they want to change
- Build on their strengths
- Understand the risks and challenges that not adopting leadership (Blue4) behaviours bring
- Get feedback on how they are exhibiting leadership behaviours