Just published on FT.com: “Moving up”, a video lecture on how to graduate from middle management to a leadership position, delivered by Herminia Ibarra of Insead. Professor Ibarra heads the business school’s executive education course on “The Leadership Transition”.

In “Moving up”, she takes viewers through some of the pitfalls experienced by people grappling with a promotion to a leadership role, using the case study of a Dutch manager as a way of illustrating how managers often overestimate their ability to lead. The case study can be downloaded for free.

There are also sections on the ways in which skills, networking and leadership style all need to change. “Moving out”, her second video lecture for FT.com, explains how established professionals can switch careers. It will be published next Monday (July 14).

I like Herminia’s work. She has an excellent grasp of how people’s identities get caught up in their jobs, something that can be a major source of tension when they are asked to move up to a leadership role in which their direct input into the team’s performance is less obvious than before (read Lionel Ritchie on this very topic).

Those leaders who find it difficult to stop meddling in the day-to-day operational stuff are displaying a normal reaction to being asked to leave behind an old identity that has served them well, and for which they have received many pats on the head. Their ability to forge a new identity will determine whether or not they are a success as a boss.

If you have any tips on how to make the transition to a leadership role, please share them below.

July 7, 2008 11:42am in B-schools, Leadership | Comment