The Four Levels of Scalable Leadership
Individual, Interpersonal, Team, System
TL;DR
40% of CEOs fail within 18 months.
Not because they’re bad leaders, but because they’re leading from the wrong level.
Leadership isn’t one skill; to scale yourself and your company, you need range across these four levels:
Intrapersonal: Understand and manage yourself.
Interpersonal: Work cleanly one-on-one.
Team: Set the conditions for others to lead, work and learn together.
System: See beyond your organization and work with the whole ecosystem.
Most execs default to the level they’re most comfortable in, but success lives in the levels you’ve underdeveloped.
Keep reading to find out more about the skills you need at each level.
40% of new CEOs fail within 18 months.
Not because they lack drive, or because they’re inexperienced; they fail because no one tells them what “leadership” means, much less how to grow into it.
We confuse leadership with knowing more, doing more, or being the smartest in the room: an old-school “hero leader” mindset that only leads to burnout and sub-par team performance.
In reality, leadership is actually about creating the conditions for others to lead, and doing that across multiple levels at once (which is why it’s so challenging!)
Here’s a quick overview of the skills you need at each level:
Level 1. Individual: The Self
You have to manage yourself first. Leadership roles are stressful, and it’s easy to slip into old patterns: reacting instead of choosing your response.
Some core skills here:
Emotional granularity: Noticing your emotional state with nuance: stress, anger, irritation, impatience all merit different responses.
Shifting identity away from doing: If you’re still proving your value by doing, you’re likely blocking others from stepping up. You need enough domain knowledge to ask sharp questions, but your edge isn’t in being the expert anymore.
(This one’s particularly tough. I’ve coached multiple new leaders who still light up at solving a gnarly problem, or who have difficulty delegating, while their teams quietly wish they’d stop jumping in.)
Self-regulation: In the moment, especially when you’re in fight, flight, or freeze.
Staying resourced: Sleep, movement, food, connection. Balance. You can’t pour from an empty cup.
Showing up with intention. Your presence, your demeanor under pressure, sets the tone and behavior for everyone else’s behavior. You are the model, whether you mean to be or not.
Level 2. Interpersonal: One-to-One
You have to work with other humans on a one-to-one basis. And this is where many leaders focus, because it feels personal, immediate, and familiar.
Some key skills here:
Understanding others’ motivations: You need to see the other person’s needs and feelings, then decide when to meet them, when to hold the line.
Give feedback with care: In ways that build, not break, relationship.
Receive feedback without defensiveness: Easier said than done
Navigate conflict: Again, in constructive ways that build relationship.
Build trust: With every member of your team.
Note: Interpersonal skill is a necessary but not sufficient condition for team effectiveness, because one-on-one dynamics don’t scale in organizations with thousands of employees.
Watch out for a leadership trap: Many leaders think all problems live at this level, but they don’t. Team problems do show up at this level, yes: think conflict, miscommunication etc. But the root cause often lives in another level: usually Teams or Systems.
A financial institution once came to me for help resolving conflict between two executive team members. They wanted one of the members to moderate their frustration, but the CEO was unwilling to look at the broader team dynamic and roles/structures. They wanted to coach the emotions at the Interpersonal Level without addressing the Team and System Level issues. I turned down the engagement, because this would have been fixing the symptoms while ignoring the root causes.
Level 3. Team: Many-to-Many
Leaders need to shift from managing a group of individuals to setting the conditions that shape a living system. Your job is to craft the ecosystem so the team can thrive without you in the room. That means:
Clarifying purpose and direction: And holding the team to it.
Defining team boundaries and roles: Who’s on the team, what roles are needed to fulfill the team’s purpose.
Choosing who fills roles: Putting the right people in place based o
n skills, motivation and ability to play well with others.
Building culture and shared norms: Being clear on what behavior looks like based on your values. Define how you make decisions, give feedback, run meetings, celeberate, learn.
Securing resources: Time, money, data, permission.
Creative brave spaces: Making it not just okay, but expected, to speak the truth.
Shifting from hub-and-spoke to many-to-many: So you're not the bottleneck.
Building a learning system: So the team gets better and better at its job over time.
Wageman found that only 25% of executive teams meet the basic conditions in this level to be effective. Ineffective teams that are underdeveloped in this level tend to pull in different directions or slow each other down.
Level 4. System: Team with Stakeholders & Ecosystem
Leadership doesn’t stop at the team’s edge: your team lives within and likely serves a complex system of stakeholders. Instead of input leading directly to output, you now have an ecosystem where change in one area can result in unintended shifts far away: a butterfly flapping its wings.
Key skills here:
Discern what the broader system needs: Stakeholders include customers, board, other teams, the market, the world. Can the team keep all of their needs at the forefront?
Create clear and compelling purpose: Can the team shape a purpose that serves stakeholder needs and moves the system in that direction?
Think across time frames: Can you hold emphasis on long-term system health and short-term results?
Team interacts with external system: Can every member of your team interact with external stakeholders, represent the team well, and bring perspective and learnings back?
The Meta Skill: Range and Flexiblity
Most leaders spend their time at the Level they’re most comfortable in: putting out fires, solving problems, doing work they’re already good at.
But leadership is about knowing which Level the issue actually lives in - individual, interpersonal, team, or system - and having the range to meet it there.
Reflection
Where do you tend to spend most of your time? And what level is undeveloped for you; what is your leadership growth edge?
Challenge:
In your next meeting, notice what level you’re living in.
Then ask yourself: What level does this issue actually live in? Try acting from there.
This will increase range!
Let me know:
What level do you need to work on in your leadership?
References & Further Reading
Ending the CEO Succession Crisis – Ram Charan, Harvard Business Review
Chief Executive Acceleration – Heidrick & Struggles
Senior Leadership Teams: What It Takes to Make Them Great – Ruth Wageman, Debra Nunes, James Burruss, Richard Hackman
The Evolving Self and Immunity to Change – Robert Kegan (Adult Development Theory)
Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman
Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships – Carole Robin & David Bradford
Social Ecological Model – Developed from Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory; widely used in public health and organizational systems thinking
Leadership Team Coaching: Developing Collective Transformational Leadership – Peter Hawkins (Systemic Team Coaching)
Hi, I’m Celine. I coach the CEOs and executive teams of scaling companies to demystify leadership and make it practical. Always happy to talk with inspirational leaders making the best future happen. Reach me at celine@celineteoh.com