zenika-career-paths-framework
Leadership path
Path breakdown
The Leadership path focuses on teams dynamics.
Leadership is not to be confused with management. One is about “conducting, guiding, being the first”, the other one is about “handling, touching, maneuvering”. However, we do have a “Management Lead” step in this path because working on the maneuvers underlying principles (≠ maneuvering) is an advanced milestone.
Leaders use different techniques to bring a team to a certain targeted state.
However, they always require the same strong foundation to steer teams:
- Ability to listen and empathize
- Ability to inspire and clarify
- Ability to empower and contribute
- Ability to set up feedback loops and other communication channels
- Ability to display confidence and comforting authority
From an operational standpoint, leaders will usually:
- Determine and clarify current team goals
- Assess and provide the necessary resources to reach these
- Get continuous feedback to adjust the resources and/or the goals
Overview
Steps overview
Personified Moving Motivator
Leaders implement sustainable collaboration models regulating the necessary resources availability towards clearly stated goals.
They can grow in this path by:
- Orchestrating teams
- Looking after and inspire teammates
- Clarifying goals and paths
Steps Details
TaskForce Lead
TaskForce Leads are small groups frontrunners. They mostly lead by example to complete a predefined task in a fairly limited time and scope.
TaskForce Leads usually have 1 to 2 years of experience. They also showcase the following:
- Ability to lead by example and inspire in a clearly defined context (time + resources)
- Ability to lead at least 3 team members
- Ability to set up good communication patterns within a team
- Ability to develop the sense of team ownership
Team Lead
Team Leads are complex goals achievers. They usually have to work with a relatively homogenous team, focusing mainly on alignment of resources and people towards objectives.
Team Leads usually have 5+ years of experience. They also showcase the following:
- Set up clear communication patterns between the objective’s stakeholders and the team
- Ability to lead at least 5 team members for more than a few months
- Ability to inspire and focus the team’s energy on a goal
- Ability to identify and highlight the contribution of each member
Cross-Team Lead
Cross-Team Leads are workers of complex relationships. They implement the collaboration of relatively heterogenous teams with different agendas and domains of expertise.
Team Leads usually have 8+ years of experience. They also showcase the following:
- Set up good communication patterns across different teams
- Ability to adapt the common objective depending on the teams
- Ability to identify and highlight strengths of a diverse team
- Ability to formalize knowledge management & knowledge transfer needs across teams
Management Lead
Management Leads are workers of the underlying principles of teams dynamics. They seek to design collaborative setups supporting the organization’s culture and goals.
Management Leads usually have 12+ years of experience. They also showcase the following:
- Excellent communication throughout their organization
- Ability to formalize collaboration patterns in line with the organization values
- Ability to advise and positively influence strategic decision-making at all levels of the organization
- Ability to implement the collaborative principles of the organization strategies
Executive
Executives are the heads of organizations. They design the organization’s culture and goals and facilitate their implementation.
Executives usually have 15+ years of experience. They also showcase the following:
- Ability to set the ambition and the vision of the organization
- Ability to set clear and measurable objectives across the organization
- Ability to define the global strategies to reach the organization goals
- Ability to supervise and facilitate the execution of strategies