Leadership Pipeline, 3rd Edition

11How the Leadership Pipeline Model Is Applied to Unique Roles

Over the last ten years or so there has been a noticeable increase in the use of matrices, agile teams, flatter structures, rapidly evolving roles, and increased delegation of authority to enable knowledge workers to adapt quickly to changing requirements. Removing bureaucracy, increasing decision‐making authority, shortening communication lines, improving resource utilization, and using multifunctional teams have all become common objectives.

All these structures affect leadership roles. That means a person can be a team leader on one day and a team member on the next. Moving from leading a team of people from the same function one day to leading a multifunctional team the next is an accepted practice. Sharing authority and accountability with other leaders from other organizations requires compromise and flexibility that's never been required before.

In the slipstream of these reorganizations, businesses have realized they need to formalize new types of leadership roles. The clarity and development needs related to the work values, time application, and skills encapsulated in the Leadership Pipeline model are just as critical in these alternative organizational structures—but some companies have struggled in transferring the Leadership Pipeline concepts from the traditional organizational structures into the new structures.

If this scenario captures your current situation, we have two points of good news for you. ...