The Four Levels of Leadership

The Four Levels of Leadership

Leadership is not one-size-fits-all. This post explores four levels of leadership from managing people to supervising strategy and why each requires a distinct skill set, mindset, and awareness.

The Four Levels of Leadership 

Boardroom Briefs with Frans Versteeg

Let me say something about different types of leadership. There is not just one type of leadership. Maybe contrary to what most people feel or think, there are at least four types of leadership.

The first level is direct leadership, guiding individuals who carry out operational tasks. Think of the sales manager leading a team of sales reps. This is direct people management. It’s very specific, mostly operational, sometimes slightly tactical, but primarily focused on execution. This kind of leadership requires a distinct set of skills that need to be practised, learned, and refined. It’s a professional craft.

The next step is when you start leading managers, people who lead others themselves. At that point, leadership becomes less operational because you can’t simply insert yourself into every situation. You have to let people manage people. And that changes everything. It becomes more tactical and increasingly strategic. It requires another set of skills once again. And once again, while it helps to have a natural talent for this, most of these skills are learnable once you recognise you need them and dedicate yourself to developing them.

That’s the second level of leadership.

The third level is general management. Here, you’re leading people who are responsible for entire functions, logistics, production, sales, and HR   departments made up of multiple teams and layers of leadership. Your job now is not just to lead individuals or even managers, but to build a team of functions. This is an entirely different approach to working. You’re integrating perspectives, resolving tension between priorities, and helping people connect their work to the organisation's larger goals.

I’m not saying we should always build strict hierarchies, not at all, but we need to be aware that different leadership roles are fundamentally different. Leading a department is not the same as leading a manager. Leading a manager is not the same as leading a frontline team.

Then there’s the fourth level supervisory leadership. Think of a supervisory board. Here, you’re not managing day-to-day. You’re guiding. You’re checking. You’re holding space for strategic direction, alongside the executive board. Again, this bears almost no resemblance to what the sales manager does with their team or what the general manager does with their functions.

It’s a different posture. A different rhythm. A different kind of listening.

So being aware of your role and what it requires is one of the most essential things in leadership. Before accepting a role, you must ask: Do I actually understand what this role demands?

It’s a bit like juggling hats. You need to know which hat you’re wearing: meeting chair, functional leader, or executive sponsor. It’s not that you only have one hat. And understanding when to switch and how to switch is part of what makes leadership effective.

And again, as I’ve said before, it’s nice if you’re talented. But leadership is not a mysterious gift. It’s a set of skills. You can choose to dedicate yourself to learning them.

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction to Leadership Types

00:15 Direct Leadership Explained

00:53 Managing Managers: The Next Step

01:54 General Management Roles

02:49 Supervisory Roles and Strategic Guidance

03:29 The Importance of Role Awareness

04:34 Conclusion: Leadership as a Learnable Skill

Links:

Website: https://www.fransversteeg.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fransaversteeg

Transcript:

Let me say something about different types of leadership. There is not just one type of leadership. Uh, maybe contrary to what most people feel or think, there are at least four types of leadership. Firstly, there is direct leadership of people that perform tasks, people that work so. The sales manager managing, leading the sales reps, direct people management, and there is this very specific, mostly operational, somewhat tactical, but mostly operational, uh, set of skills that need to be learned and need to be practiced and need to be, be, uh, thought of and, and executed.

Then the next step is basically when you start managing managers, when you start to lead managers, and then of course it becomes a little less operational because you can't. Move yourself in their position. You, you have to let people manage people. Yeah. So basically now it becomes more tactical. It becomes more, more strategic, and it requires another set of skills.

Skills that, once again, nice if you are so cold, born with them, but normally. Are simple skills that you can learn at the moment, you know that they need to be learned, that you need to, uh, acquire them. That would be the second level of, uh, leading of managing people. The third level would be in a general management role that you're basically managing.

Uh, people that are uh, have a responsibility for a certain function. Be that logistics, production, sales, whatever the, that manage a whole function with a lot of people, with a lot of managers and other, and middle managers. Um, and there once again, uh, combining, building a team. Of different functions is yet another skill, yet another way of leading, another way of managing.

And it's not that I, uh, am proposing that we should always build all sorts of hierarchical, uh, organisations. Not at all. But it's basically being aware that certain roles are, are fundamentally different from other roles. The last and fourth level of uh, leadership would be. Supervisory roles. So a supervisory board, not leading, but guiding or checking or, or, or, uh, co uh, the strategic, uh, direction of the company together with the executive boards.

Once again, almost no comparison with what the sales managers does, with the sales reps or what the, even what the general manager is doing with his management team. So to be aware of your role is one of the essentials for good leadership, and so also before accepting a role. It is really essential to grasp what are the ins and outs, what's ba, what's basically needed for this specific role. And it is as if, as if you are sort of juggling hats that you would say, oh, wait a minute, this I am, I'm now chairing a meeting. Meeting chairman meeting, uh, ahead. And oh, but now we are, we're basically, uh, trying to work with one or two management teams. And so to being aware of what sort of hats you can or should be wearing.

Uh, and that is not always, well, I only have one hat. It may be different hats, uh, is essential to basically become a successful leader. And once again, uh, what I just said. Nice if you're talented, but it's basically a set. It's not a mysterious gift. Leadership is a set of skills that you can dedicate yourself to learn.