Twenty-Two Ways to Develop Leadership in Staff Managers

Conclusion

In thinking about the difference in leadership competencies between the staff and line managers, we naturally considered whether there might be explanations other than the differences in their experiences. Maybe the difference in managers could be traced to differences in people when they enter the organization. Perhaps people self-select into staff or line careers based upon the precursors to leadership skills, with the more technically oriented going into staff and the leaders into line. We could find no meaningful evidence of that. We believe they start with the same foundation, or threshold of characteristics for leadership competencies, although they may differ in their beginning interests.

Maybe staff and line jobs are different ...