The Art and Science of Leading Leaders

There’s a moment in every leadership journey when things get more complex. It’s the moment you stop leading a team directly and start leading the people who lead other people. Managing other managers is a different job entirely, and most people don’t get a playbook for it.

Here’s the truth: what made you a great team leader won’t carry you at this level. When you’re leading leaders, your role shifts from driving results to developing people who drive results. It’s less about getting things done and more about building the people who build the business.

So what does that actually look like?

You’re Not Managing Tasks Anymore. You’re Building Leaders.

Let go of the urge to stay in the weeds. This can be anxiety-producing, but there are tools to help you. You’re not here to troubleshoot projects or make tactical decisions. Your job now is to develop decision-makers. You’re creating clarity, casting vision, and helping your managers grow into their own leadership. Something like the Situational Leadership grid can help you determine what level of involvement to have in various scenarios.

Be a Coach, Not a Fixer

If your first move is to solve the problem for them, pause. Leading leaders means helping them learn to solve problems on their own. Ask better questions. Create space for reflection. Support their growth by being a coach, not a safety net.  You can’t help someone who doesn’t have a problem. When you take on the problem one of your direct reports is trying to solve, you can no longer help them because they have nothing to solve for.  Only you do.

Give Clarity, Not Control

Managers don’t need micromanagement and in fact, it’s one of the bigger killers of engagement and will destroy your working relationship. Leaders need to understand the bigger picture. What are we trying to achieve? What does success look like? How do their teams fit into the larger plan? When they have that clarity, they can lead with confidence.

Model What You Want to See

How you lead is how they’ll lead. If you create psychological safety, show humility, and stay grounded in purpose, those values will ripple out to the layers below you. It’s not just about what you say. It’s what you do that teaches them what leadership really looks like.  Managers who are too closely controlled will pass this along to their teams from a place of fear and worry.  Nobody can effectively lead with those motives steering the ship.

Your Impact Is Only as Strong as Your Bench

This is one of the biggest mindset shifts. Your effectiveness now depends on your ability to grow others. If your managers are thriving, clear-headed, and leading well, your reach expands. If they’re struggling, disconnected, or hesitant, so is your influence. Invest in their development. It’s not a luxury. It’s your job. Many insecure leaders have ego blocks that prevent them from doing this and it shows up in their own performance and that of their team.  If you read that and thought “oh my god, that’s me” don’t panic. It’s normal and common and we can work through it.  Reach out, I’d be glad to help.

Talk About the How, Not Just the What

Too many leaders focus on performance metrics and miss the human side. How are your managers leading? Are they building trust, communicating clearly, and holding accountability with empathy? Are they empowering their teams or holding the reins too tightly? If you don’t know, then you haven’t built the right information pipelines. These are the conversations that shape long-term culture and impact.

Think Beyond This Week

When you lead leaders, you have to think bigger and longer. You're not just chasing today’s numbers. You’re developing the leadership pipeline. You’re setting the tone for how the organization will feel and function in the years to come. That takes a broader lens. Your leaders are now executing a strategy that you developed, ideally cascaded from a thoughtful, clear strategy coming from above you.  If you don’t have a vision beyond next month, that’s not “urgency.”  That’s just a problem.

Don’t Let Managers Stall Out

Some managers plateau. They stop growing because they’ve mastered the mechanics of their role but never learned to scale their leadership. Your job is to notice when they need a challenge, a nudge, or a reminder that they haven’t hit their ceiling. And sometimes, you’ll need to decide if they can grow or if it’s time for a different conversation.

The Bottom Line

Leading leaders is about influence, not control. It’s about being a mirror, a coach, and a force multiplier. It’s less about being the hero and more about building others who can lead with strength, clarity, and purpose. That’s where real leadership begins to scale.

There’s something magical in, years later, reflecting on all the leaders you helped grow and seeing in some small way that your effort created a ripple effect that brought “better” to teams that you have never personally touched.  That’s a legacy.  Get to creating one you can be proud of, and keep shining.