Michael Lissack
Intermediate milestone: Leadership responsibilities are explicitly distributed across different organizational levels, with clear frameworks for how leadership functions at each level. Advanced milestone: The organization has developed sophisticated systems for identifying and developing emergent leadership throughout the structure, with leadership influence flowing based on context and capability rather than position alone. Professional services firm BCG demonstrates this progression through its evolution from traditional partnership hierarchy to its "dis- tributed leadership network." The firm maintains clear accountability through formal roles while deliberately developing leadership capabilities at all levels, creating what they call "influence beyond authority"—the ability to lead through expertise and relationship rather than position.
Measurement indicators:
• Leadership density (percentage of employees demonstrating leadership behaviors regardless of formal position) • Decision distribution (extent to which consequential decisions are made at appropriate levels rather than defaulting upward) • Leadership development velocity (how quickly leadership capa- bilities are built throughout the organization) • Collective intelligence activation (how effectively the organiza- tion leverages distributed expertise in complex situations) These milestones provide concrete indicators for tracking progress to- ward the coherent organization model. While each organization's journey will be unique, these markers offer tangible reference points for assessing advancement and identifying priority areas for continued development.
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