05/17/2021

How to Handle “Invisible” Changes to Your Leadership Role

COVID-19 has thrust leaders into new uncharted roles and responsibilities

"Other duties as assigned" is a notorious phrase throughout the working world, associations included. Take a job at an association in one department and you’ll likely find you’ll be taking on tasks elsewhere. In the meetings department? You’ll wind up helping the marketing staff, or doing your bit for membership. (Little did I know that taking a job as an editor at ASAE would mean serving as a “human arrow” at conferences.)

The thing about “other duties” is that they’re generally considered a part of life on the lower or middle rungs of an organization. But during the pandemic, leaders may have found that their jobs have transformed in ways that don’t strictly adhere to the roles they signed up for. A trio of scholars at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) in Berlin dubbed this phenomenon "invisible transitions"—the job title remains the same, but the responsibilities haven't.

Writing in MIT Sloan Management Review, the scholars point out that leaders who’ve faced more responsibilities and a different environment—such as managing remote workers and reconstituted teams—have struggled with the transition. But support has generally been absent. “Leaders are expected to handle expansions of their jobs and shifts in their roles on their own,” they write. “Companies seem to simply assume that competent leaders have the capacity to adapt.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.