How managers become leaders 1

How managers become leaders

Helena Negru

When a leader switches from managing a branch to managing an enterprise, they must

switch from being a specialist to being a generalist, who can understand, solve and mediate a

wide range of problems. There are seven main swifts a leader must make when they turn from

managing a function to managing an enterprise, during which they will change their mindset and

develop new skills, fine-tuning their former skills.

The key concepts of becoming an efficient enterprise leader are:

turning from micromanagement to macromanagement, learning to focus less on details

and more on the large picture;

focus more on strategies and their long-term effects, as well as being able to shift from

different levels of the enterprise, as enterprise leaders have to switch between focusing on

small details to bigger details and then combine the two, in order to understand how the

entire system works;

acquire a global understanding of the internal processes that take place in the company;

act as a representative for the enterprise in front of the outside world, participate in press

conferences and meetings, representing the company on a high level.

Probably the most challenging things about becoming an enterprise leader is being able to
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switch from someone who executes to someone who plans what to be executed. Being able to

understand how a company works and how different departments interact with each other is also

an interesting part of this new position. The new enterprise leader is now a role model for a lot

more people, so every word they say and every thing they do will have a big impact upon the

middle management and even the employees. At the same time, an enterprise leader must have a

strong knowledge of performance meters, in order to be able to asses employee performance and

identify new talents, which can be promoted to new positions, in order to help the company

grow.

To be able to effectively switch from the leader of a department to the leader of an entire

business you have to be very open to new experiences and learn a lot from the people you have

to manage. Before you make a decision, you have to take into account all the changes that will

take place in the company, as well as their consequences. When you make this switch you have

to understand that your current skills are not anymore essential for your performance, but more

of a base, something that brought you into a new position, where you have to learn a new set of

skills.