Executive Onboarding

Executive Onboarding
3.4 Career Step 4: From Functional Manager to Business
3.4 Manager
When transitioning from functional manager to business
manager, the leader will head up the integration of functions while
having the full business area P&L responsibility. Accountability
spans from developing a product to actually commercializing it.
The decisive moment in this role often hits when it becomes clear
how visible and exposed the leader must become. In our
experience, introverted leaders often struggle in this position. As
complexity rises exponentially, this is the role that is often
perceived to be the most enjoyable, and alternatively, where the
leader feels truly alone for the first time. In our experience, four
things, in particular, characterize this career step:
1. The leader will need to balance multiple functional
platforms and value all functions appropriately. The key is
to make the necessary connections between the
capabilities (people), structures (functions), systems and
processes. Often, the business manager will originate from
a functional area that is often rooted in his/her original
expertise going back to the first career level. Here, for the
first time, the leader’s functional expertise becomes a
potential liability. Why? Because it represents a significant
personal vulnerability. When judging business problems,
the leader will still have a natural – and often unconscious
– preference for viewing a problem through the eyes of
his/her functional and educational roots and capabilities.
In turn, this will create blind spots for the leader, who will
need to build a team of loyal contributors, who can
compensate for those blind spots.
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