Appointing the new Head Of a function can be a daunting task. Whether you appoint them by recruiting externally, or you look to appease the ambitions of your own staff by promoting from within, you must ensure that the successful candidate is ready for the increased responsibility and challenges that come with being the Head Of a business unit. But, what are the key skills required and how can you best prepare your own staff for the step-up, if you choose to go down this route? As senior recruitment specialists, me and my colleague, Steve Fraser, talk with hundreds of charities and non-profits every year, looking to appoint senior leaders across marketing, finance, IT, and more specialist department areas. Here, we take you through the 5 most common requirements in Head Of roles and the best ways that you can support your ambitious staff to be ready for the step-up when the time comes.
Leading on a project/work
One of the key components of taking that next step into a senior leadership role within an organisation or at a new one is the ability to lead within a workstream. This could be independently, taking charge of the devising, delivery and implementation of work, or it could be being the main stakeholder on a project of work. This will give them the ability to not only lead on work themselves, but having the confidence and exposure to this will ensure that future work they lead on is even better because of the experiences they’ve had. It may be difficult to see where a manager in your organisation can get this experience, but it could for example come through some external project work, or it could even be demonstrated through internal workshops.
Supporting those you manage to explore different options is a great way to see their ambitions and understand a little more about their concerns and hesitations. Not everyone is going to be able hit the ground running, especially on their first try. That is why support and guidance is key to ensuring that they feel supported and will help them with their confidence undertaking such tasks. You want them to feel challenged but under controls, knowing you have their back if they face things they’re unsure about. By leading and taking ownership of these areas, your manager will be able to further demonstrate their strong time management, organisational skills and independence.
Develop Management Experience
Prior experience of line management is something we almost always see required for a step up into a senior position. This is not just the ability to ensure that the people they will manage are performing their roles successfully, but also to be able to support, motivate and inspire them. Ensuring those that you manage are happy and engaged is a fundamental part of being a successful leader, but it can sometimes be hard for them to gain management experience if the organisation or team is small, or their current role has no options to line manage others.
Management is not just built around seniority – there are a lot of key soft skills that can be developed by more junior members of staff when managing others. Listening skills, empathy, trust and influencing abilities are all skills that can be developed through management. By having the opportunity to mentor a new member of staff, manage interns or volunteers, or even partake in a workplace buddy system, this allows them the opportunity to develop these soft skills that’ll help them develop their leadership style and confidence, making them ready for more formal line management responsibilities when the time comes.
Engage in Strategy Development/Business Cases
As someone takes a step into a more senior position, their role’s responsibilities change. They develop a deeper knowledge of their work area and sector, and therefore are able to contribute to higher level conversations with nuance, context and confidence.
As your staff build on this, they will also begin to see areas of work that they feel could be modified or improved. They might see a whole new area of work that the organisation could move towards to deliver better or more unique services to the sector. Not only is this essential in taking the next step in their career, it is also essential to be able to effectively communicate this to their peers and management team. All of these things need to be measured and communicated either through a business plan or strategy document.
Giving opportunities for your staff to practice putting together formal documentation to support proposals they are making professionally is always a good skill to develop and one that can help them move into their next role as a senior leader. Your organisation may even see short-term benefits in the ideas that they are presenting.
Building an Internal Brand
It’s needless to say that employees who perform their roles well tend to be high in consideration for promotions, but this is not the only factor that can have a significant effect on progression. How they are perceived internally by colleagues and managers is not only vital for consideration for more senior opportunities, but plays an important part in being trusted with any of the above areas too.
Most organisations have key values that they like to present internally. Going above and beyond to not only stand by these values, but also promote them across the organisation, is a good way the people you manage can demonstrate leadership and a sense of community with those they work with.
Giving opportunities to run internal events, workshops or fundraisers can help your staff to work across different teams they might not normally interact with, and also give them exciting projects to work on alongside their normal duties. There might also be internal committees at work that they can be part of to develop their leadership style and voice. Internal peer reviews, where used, will form a vital part of any promotion decision, but how a member of staff presents themselves with opportunities like these can show even more about the leadership capabilities of an individual among their colleagues, and how they can achieve objectives outside of their current remit.
Combining Passion and Drive
Finally, and most importantly, passion and drive with not only their work, but the objectives and mission of the organisation, is a vital next step in becoming a leader. Their motivation to deliver and promote the work of the organisation will be boosted by genuine passion and engagement with it.
As mentioned above, many of these skills can be learnt, but the right attitude, willingness to learn, and passion and knowledge of the work are of primary importance to employers.
Keeping your team up to date with the work of the organisation can really help boost interest and engagement with their work. A lot of a team’s work is not directly involved with service users so they can feel a little removed, but by engaging with them on a weekly basis about the successes of the organisation, it can add a vital sense of perspective and value to their work. This also leads to higher enjoyment within the role and can keep staff retention higher.
To discuss senior recruitment further or talk about how we might be able to support you, get in touch with me via Matt.Till@prospect-us.co.uk / 02074054999.
