Your Biggest Leadership Opportunity Can Be Between the Boxes

They happen between departments.

That is where responsibility gets passed around, key project deadlines fall between the cracks, customers receive conflicting answers, decisions stall while everyone waits for someone else to act, and good work has to be redone because two groups were operating from different assumptions.

If you are a situationally minded leader, this “white space” between the boxes on the organization chart is often one of your best opportunities to make a meaningful difference.

Why?

Because many leaders still lead primarily by the org chart.

They concentrate on their own team, their own goals, their own resources, and their own authority.

Anything outside the silo can begin to look like competition—for resources, attention, recognition, or influence.

While you may even win some of those battles.

They are often hollow wins.

You can protect your department and still damage your impact. Eventually, missed deadlines, frustrated stakeholders, duplicated work, and poor handoffs comes back around.

A situational leader looks at the problem differently.

Instead of asking only, “What is my team responsible for?” you begin by asking, “What does this situation require for the whole process to work?”

One of my coaching clients—I’ll call him Fred—was dealing with a recurring problem involving another function.

Each group believed it was doing its part, yet work regularly slowed at the point where responsibility passed from one group to the other.

Fred’s first instinct was understandable: escalate the problem through his reporting structure.

Instead, we stepped back and took a closer look at the whole process.

The issue was not really about authority. It was about the interface between two groups.

That led to four actions you can use yourself.

1. Look horizontally before acting vertically.

Before taking a cross-functional problem up the chain of command, look across the organization. Who else touches the work? Where does your success depend upon someone you do not supervise?

Often a conversation across the aisle will accomplish more than an escalation up the ladder.

2. Watch for important leadership work that has no owner.

Some work is clearly assigned. Other work lives in the white space.

Who owns the handoff? Who makes sure two groups are working from the same assumptions? Who notices when an important decision is sitting between functions?

Often, nobody does.

That is an opportunity for leadership.

3. Map the handoff.

Draw three simple boxes:

What happens before us → What we do → What happens after us

Now identify one handoff where delays, confusion, rework, or frustration regularly occur.

You do not need a major process-improvement project. Start with one recurring point of friction.

4. Talk to the person on the other side.

Choose one relationship outside your reporting line that has an important impact on your results and ask:

• What do you need from me?

• What do I need from you?

• Where are we most likely to drop the ball?

Then ask one more useful question:

“What would make this handoff work better for you?”

Agree on one improvement and try it.

That is essentially what Fred did. Instead of fighting over which group was responsible, the two parties clarified what each needed from the other and changed the way work was handed off.

The immediate result was smoother execution.

The more important result was that Fred became recognized as someone who could solve problems across organizational boundaries, not merely manage the responsibilities inside his own box.

The ability to effectively read a stakeholder’s deeper needs effectively is an important capability. You can learn more about this here.

Final Thought

I find that this is a good place to begin if you want to become known as a problem-solving, situational leader.

The organization chart tells you where authority resides.

It does not always tell you where leadership is needed.

Some of your greatest opportunities for impact and recognition may be sitting in the white space between the boxes.

There is more to doing this well—including how to engage interface partners, overcome resistance, and work through the inevitable friction that accompanies cross-boundary leadership.

We will come back to those if these is a continuing interest. Let me know here”

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