What is a Senior Leadership Role?

Everyone aspires to be in a senior position someday. That’s the expected trajectory of anyone’s career. Many also aspire to be a leader. And a senior leader, even more so. But the term ‘senior leader is, in fact, a broad term that isn’t specific to a particular skill, expertise, industry, or role. A senior leader could be from any area and any background.

What is a Senior Leadership Role?

A senior leader could be a CEO, a president, a Vice President, a General Manager, a CTO, a CFO, a department head, anyone who is in upper management and has a team that reports to them. The roles and responsibilities of a senior leader will vary depending on their fundamental skills and area of expertise, but there are some that are common.

Senior leadership roles and responsibilities

Mentor

A senior leader’s team will look up to them to guide and coach them to succeed and in-turn ensure the company succeeds. They will look to their leader as a role model professionally, and sometimes even personally. Maintaining an image and a personality that people want to follow is important too. That also means being a really good listener and getting insights from the team and not just delegating and giving instructions. Being a mentor is an extremely important role.

Guide

As the person with the most experience, senior leaders need to help their team through things they might find difficult. They need to break down and simplify things for the team, motivate them, and boost their productivity so they can succeed.

Inspire

Senior leaders must inspire their teams to do better and be better. And inspire not just by preaching but by practicing too. They need to be a visionary in the planning of their work and projects as well as how to get work done. Team members will follow their lead.

Uphold culture

It’s really important for those in senior leadership roles to uphold organizational culture. Everyone else will follow suit. More than HR, culture is better absorbed and followed when senior leaders set the pace, whether it’s old culture or a new culture that needs to be incorporated. Teams need a senior leader to help them through change.

Make decisions

Being a decision-maker is probably the most important and most challenging part about being a senior leader. To be responsible for taking the final call on big decisions or making an unpopular choice is not an easy thing. A big part of this role is making informed and difficult decisions other people in the company can not be entrusted with because of the lack of experience, responsibility, and understanding.

Plan

People in senior leadership roles are entrusted with having vision and planning with the long term as well as the short term in mind. And planning and making sure that at every step of the way the team is working towards the company’s goal.

Read: 10 Leadership Traits for Senior Management

A senior leadership role is a complex one that combines skill, expertise, humility, people skills, soft skills, maturity, patience, and confidence. While a leadership quality could come naturally, much of being a senior leader takes time to practice, understand, and imbibe.

FAQs

Q. How can a senior leader inspire their team?

A. Senior leaders must inspire their teams by practicing what they preach. Team members will follow their lead.

Q. Why is decision-making an important part of being a senior leader?

A. It is a challenging and demanding role to be responsible for taking the final call on big decisions. But it is required by a senior leader because that’s something others might not be able to do because of the lack of experience, responsibility, or understanding.