If you're in a senior leadership position, chances are you're holding two roles in tension at any one point: your role as a head of department or function and your role as a member of the senior leadership team. Plus, there may be some side roles on top, such as sponsoring an employee group, acting as a mentor or coach, or leading a strategic project.
Managing multiple roles can be fulfilling and can increase performance by expanding your skill sets and social support networks.
However, balancing these roles often leads to conflicts and time pressures. Most people prefer one over the other, leading to an imbalance of focus, which can impact team dynamics. Studies reveal that role conflict and spillover can cause stress, exhaustion, burnout, and decreased life satisfaction, affecting both us and those around us.
Some of the most common role conflicts and confusions at work can be between our “professional” and “organisational” roles. Professional roles are focused on our core expertise and professional identity. This identity may evolve through time but is likely to endure through several roles. Examples are “accountant”, “lawyer”, and “manager”. In contrast, our organisational role is the formal position of responsibility we hold, such as “director”, “trustee”, or “member of the leadership team”. These roles are often more temporary, so we may not always identify with them as readily.
So, how do you succeed in multiple roles?
List your roles. For each one, write down your understanding of your objectives and responsibilities. If you don’t know, then find out! As you look at the details behind the roles, you may notice that some of the objectives conflict or have the potential to conflict. Also, some roles will appeal to you more than others.
Determine how much time you are spending on each role. Visually create this through a pie chart or allocate some rough percentages. Take a step back. Does this feel right? Each role doesn’t require an equal amount of time, but note any areas where the proportion seems out of sync - perhaps by comparing the time spent to the list of objectives and responsibilities it relates to.
If you feel you’re not spending the right amount of time in an area, ask yourself why. It may be because work in another role always seems urgent or you dislike part of another role. Maybe your role as department head involves having difficult conversations that you shy away from. Perhaps you feel like the “new kid” on the SLT, and you’re unsure whether you belong at the “top table.” Try to articulate this as clearly as you can.
List any possible conflicts you can see from your roles. This may be a conflict between what’s best for your team and what’s best for the organisation. What you do in response to that will vary between situations, but recognising that a conflict could arise is the first step!
Rewrite or redraw your pie chart from step 2 with where you want to spend the time (balanced with your organisation's needs) and which objectives and responsibilities you want to prioritise. What do you need to do to achieve that? What activities must you be doing, and what behaviours do you need to display? Doing this will enable you to embody each role successfully.
Finally, be more conscious of which “hat” you wear in any situation. This will help clarify your thinking and how to act and behave to succeed.
Working through these steps, you may get stuck or need help understanding why you are out of balance in your roles. Speaking to an executive coach can help you find clarity and see a way forward. Get in touch to find out how I work and how a coaching programme with me can help you succeed in your multiple roles.