The Three Levels of Work

There is, of course, much to be learned, and many skills to be mastered as a worker moves along this path. Many resources exist for those on it. Universities and colleges offer degrees and executive education. Publishers offer books. Seminar companies and trade associations offer seminars, training, and certification calls. Companies conduct their own courses, or hire consultants or executive coaches to help build skills. This industry has two objectives. One is teaching the myriad skills necessary to move from level to level, and all the roles to be played at each level. The other is conceptualizing and formalizing both the skills themselves and the methods of acquiring them. If we are going to teach leadership we must first figure out what it consists of, next figure out how to teach that, and then actually arrange for the teaching itself.

This work and the approach to it focuses largely on intellectual development. In my experience this industry pays less attention to the emotional challenges associated with professional transitions, let alone day-to-day work. Stress and burnout are a feature of almost any discussion about work, but I'm not sure much effort has been spent identifying the specific sources of this stress as one's managerial responsibilities increase, or considering the remedies in any systematic way. What follows is an attempt on my part to at least catalogue some of the sources of negative emotional consequences associated with moving from level one to level three, and offer some thoughts on how to deal with them.

The first two I'll mention and say little about. Not because they are not important, but because I'm writing here largely from experience, and these concerns are not part of my direct experience. The first is that there are social adjustments to be made as one's responsibilities, ambitions, power, and abilities increase. Friends and even spouses who remain lower in the social hierarchy might be lost or thrown away. (Kennedy comments that this is a common phenomenon among law students.)

The second is that issues of self-confidence and self-identity might arise. People often, it seems to me, identify themselves as the tasks they complete or the function they perform. I'm a machinist. Becoming a manager of machinists might entail some loss of identity. In addition, if being a machinist is consistent with the expectations of your family, your teachers, your neighbors, and ultimately yourself at some level, finding yourself the manager of machinists might raise the question of whether you've gotten "out of your league."

Having been spared these sources of stress through birth and arrogance, I've got a long list of my own. First on mine is that, by definition, you must learn to delegate tasks in order to change levels, and also by definition, you must delegate to those who may not be as skilled as you. After all, you've been selected or allowed to move on because you were among the best. You will see a lot of work, a constant flow of work, that is not up to your standards. You must decide, somehow, what is good enough, and what isn't, and what to do about the later. You must decide, somehow, what shows potential for future leadership, and what to do about that. You must learn to teach, and learn what it means to be a teacher. This work is difficult to master, ethically challenging, and, taken seriously, emotionally demanding.

Second, because the double-loop issues at levels two and three are complex and filled with uncertainty, true successes are difficult to define. The clarity of short-term, well-defined tasks is replaced with ill-defined clusters of projects in which the most important successes are ambiguous, contingent, and long-term. On this time scale, apparent victories turn out to be defeats, and vice versa You still enjoy success, satisfaction, and reward for a job well-done but less often, and with less pride -- because you see these brief victories for what they are -- insignificant in the great scheme of things. To return to football for a moment, a great tackle is not the same as winning a game, and winninng the game is not the same as winning the Superbowl, and winning the Superbowl is not the same as sustaining a profitable franchise over decades.

Third, the work never ends, and the volume of work is truly limitless. I recall listening to my sister discuss her business with a consultant. She listed five or six serious issues she faced, and explained that once she got those worked everything would become more manageable. He wisely pointed out that this certainly wasn't the case -- they'd be replaced by five or six more, unless she went out of business. He might have added that if she were successful and her business grew, there would be 10 or 12 more, dozens more, thousands more. The only limit to the supply of issues is your own ability to see opportunities and imagine options and alternatives. In a successful business, one staffed with talented and creative people, the pressure of the imagination is limitless and relentless.

Fourth. It seems obvious that priority setting becomes difficult in the level three world. But on top of the limitless scope and complexity of the work itself, other projects demand attention. One must manage the mix of level one, two and three work that one performs. And manage the growth of the one's own abilities, and the development and mix of ones' subordinates. Not to mention manage the attendant stress. More on that later.

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