When organizations select a leader, they are making a multiyear investment in development. As leaders prepare to move to higher managerial levels, they need to develop skills to equip them for success in their changing role. The skills of leadership aren’t technical skills such as Scrum, SEO or SQL. Rather, they are socioemotional skills such as setting vision, building relationships, driving change and making decisions. These skills evolve with leadership advancement. Experienced talent professionals recognize the importance of leadership development strategies at every managerial level.
Leadership development does not equate solely to executive development. At Hogan Assessments, we don’t define leadership by job title but as the ability to build and maintain a high-performing team. Thus, people at every managerial level can benefit from leadership development. As the demands of leadership shift across managerial levels, development objectives should change too.
What Are the Managerial Levels?
Broadly, managers are employees with authority over organizational resources. They perform a variety of these tasks: organizing, planning, prioritizing, assigning and directing work across the organization. The three managerial levels are entry-level supervisors, middle managers and executives.
Functional differences across managerial levels can be considerable. For instance, a digital marketing manager, a marketing director and a chief marketing officer all differ in the skills needed to be successful in their day-to-day tasks of leadership.
Managers at any level succeed or fail based on the accomplishments of the people they lead. The impact of a leader’s actions increases in breadth and scope as they gain organizational responsibility.
Distinctions Between Entry-Level Supervisors, Middle Managers and Executives
To explore the similarities and distinctions in competencies across managerial levels, Hogan conducted a job analysis. Hundreds of subject-matter experts rated key skills for entry-level supervisors, middle managers and executives. Then, Hogan data scientists used the results to average, rank and compare how important each skill is for each job level. The results show that some skills are shared among all managerial levels, some skills overlap and some are unique.
Shared Skills - Integrity, accountability, decision-making and teamwork are all examples of shared competencies. When skills are shared across job levels, however, they tend to differ in scope. Teamwork for entry-level supervisors involves active participation in day-to-day tasks. On the other hand, teamwork for an executive is more remote, requiring the executive to rely on the team's expertise to accomplish tasks.
Overlapping Skills - Both middle managers and executives need skills related to widening their network and sphere of influence. Building relationships, building teams and inspiring others all concern how a leader behaves with other people. At higher organizational ranks, cooperation and collaboration become even more integral to performance success.
Unique Skills - Subject-matter experts ranked some skills as key only at certain managerial levels. Generally, competencies progress from operational to strategic across managerial levels. Entry-level supervisors need the skills of dependability, problem-solving, stress management and time efficiency. Collectively, these skills focus on accomplishing immediate tasks and fulfilling short-term responsibilities. At the executive level, leaders need the skills of driving change and listening to others. These skills emphasize long-term organizational success rather than success at the level of teams.
Leadership Development Strategies Across Managerial Levels
Too often, leadership development strategies are focused mainly or exclusively on executives. Instead, implementing leadership development at an earlier managerial level helps leaders navigate the widening scope of relationships and influence along the path from supervisor to executive.
Identifying high-potential candidates for leadership development opportunities at initial positions of management could lower recruitment costs, improve retention and increase leader effectiveness. Early leadership development also allows leaders to build, refine, transform or expand essential skills in preparation for advancement.
Personality assessment data are key to executing these developmental goals successfully. Leadership development strategies backed by scientifically validated personality assessment produce measurable outcomes. With 72 quadrillion possible score combinations, the Hogan assessments provide leaders with awareness of their strengths, limitations and core values. Data-driven talent insights from Hogan enable talent professionals to adapt leadership development strategies across managerial levels.
