Interim Manager for Leadership & Role Clarity
From “That’s not my job” to shared accountability for results. A sustainable leadership culture in 3–6 months.
The result of your collaboration with gbcc
Challenges
- “That’s not my job” (passing the buck)
- Conflicting demands (supervisor vs. process)
- Employees waiting for instructions
- Frustration due to unclear expectations
Your results with gbcc
- Clear accountability for results for everyone
- Consistent goals, fewer contradictions
- Initiative and proactive action
- High motivation through appreciation & purpose
Your benefits:
- Eliminate friction: Clear roles minimize conflicts and immediately improve work quality.
- Team synergy: Better collaboration through defined interfaces and shared performance goals.
- Increased Motivation: Employees understand their role, feel valued, and work more productively.
- Sustainable Efficiency: An optimized leadership culture leads to more stable business processes in the long term.
- Financial Awareness: Employees understand their contribution to economic success—personal responsibility becomes part of the culture.
The problem: a lack of role clarity paralyses your team
Inefficient processes and a lack of motivation often stem from a single root cause: a lack of clarity regarding roles. If one’s own position is not clearly defined and one does not know exactly what is expected of them, responsibility is either actively shifted onto others or not taken on at all. Employees then focus on their isolated tasks, ignore the wider context and passively wait for instructions, rather than taking the initiative.
This is because real requirements arise less from the line of reporting to a superior than from the work processes themselves. Every specialist acts as an ‘internal supplier’ to other departments. If these process requirements are not established as a fixed role, conflicting demands arise: what the boss demands may not align with the expectations of the ‘internal customers’. This leads to misunderstandings and a loss of productivity.
The solution: rethinking leadership culture with E.A.G.L.E.
Effective leadership must operate like process management. Here too, the E.A.G.L.E. logic applies:
- Evaluation & Ascertainment: Identifying existing role conflicts and clarifying that requirements stem primarily from work processes – not from the reporting line.
- Goal setting & Linking up: Defining clear roles aligned with the actual requirements of work processes, with the active involvement of the teams.
- Execution: Establishing a leadership culture in which everyone knows what results they deliver and how they contribute to the company’s success.
Role clarity starts with the executives
The role of ‘executives’ is also unclear in many companies. In practice, I distinguish between three fundamental roles:
- Entrepreneur: Strategic Questions
(Where do we want to go?) - Manager: Organising collaboration
(How do we work together?) - Leader: Personal development
(Who needs what kind of support?)
Hardly anyone can fulfil all these role expectations in a single person. The result: burnout, neglect of important tasks and frustration at all levels.
My approach: I help you to separate these roles, assign them clearly and place the relevant competencies where they can be effective.
Why traditional job descriptions often fail
Most companies work with output-oriented job descriptions: lists of tasks that must be completed. The problem:
- Employees focus on completing the task, not on the result.
- In the event of conflicts, the task list takes precedence – not the company’s purpose.
- Innovation and initiative are stifled: “That’s not in my job description.”
My approach: Outcome-oriented role descriptions
I support you in replacing rigid to-do lists with clear accountability for results.
To illustrate the difference, it helps to look at a football team:
- Activities: Passing, running, shooting, defending
- Roles: Goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, striker
The goalkeeper example: A goalkeeper is not defined by the fact that he “catches the ball” (that is just one possible activity). He is defined by the fact that he prevents a goal from being scored (that is the outcome).
- How he does this may vary: catching the ball or knocking it away.
- What he is responsible for, however, always remains the same: No goals conceded.
This is exactly how effective leadership works: outcome-focused job descriptions give your employees the freedom to find the best way to achieve their goals, whilst ensuring that the company’s objectives are met.
Frequently asked questions about leadership (FAQ)
Can leadership be ‘learned’? Yes, through clear structures and methods such as E.A.G.L.E., leadership becomes learnable and reproducible. However, it is important to differentiate the roles: The entrepreneur is responsible for strategy, the manager for organization, and the leader for individual development. Hardly anyone can handle all of this alone. My task is to separate these roles and fill them.
How do I deal with resistance? By actively involving employees in step L (Lead & Align), resistance is broken down from the very beginning. We use the teams’ knowledge to find the solution.
Is this only relevant for large companies? No, role conflicts often occur even more frequently in SMEs, as the structures are less formalized and the “top management” often combines all three roles (entrepreneur, manager, leader) in one person.
What is the difference between a job description and a role description? Job descriptions list tasks (output). Role descriptions define outcomes. The latter promote personal responsibility and reduce conflicts, as the company’s purpose takes centre stage.