When One Leader Holds Two Roles: How to Do It Well

As organizations navigate shifting priorities, budget constraints, and evolving demands, many are turning to a creative solution that feels both practical and efficient: consolidating two leadership roles and departments into one. This approach is becoming increasingly common to expand capacity without compromising mission and impact. We’ve seen positions that merge operations with human resources, development with communications, or strategy with people performance.

On paper, this approach makes sense. It can reduce costs, streamline reporting structures, and strengthen alignment across functions. But in practice, a dual-role position can create hidden challenges if expectations, resources, and timelines are not realistic. What begins as a creative solution can quickly lead to burnout, stalled progress, and unmet goals; outcomes no organization intends. Our goal is not to discourage dual-role leadership. It’s to ensure that when organizations choose this path, they design the role to support the leader, the team, the mission, and impact.

A critical detail to consider is capacity: Is the role designed for real people (skill, structure, and bandwidth) or ideal scenarios? One of the biggest risks of dual-role positions is assuming that one leader can seamlessly absorb the responsibilities of two jobs without adjustments to scope, support, and goals. Gartner’s research shows that 75% of human resource leaders report that managers are already overwhelmed by the expanding scope of their responsibilities, even before roles are combined ('Top 5 Priorities of HR Leaders in 2025', Gartner). When two leadership functions merge, complexity doubles not only in workload but also in decision-making, team culture, planning and execution of timelines, and the emotional labor required to lead well.

A common pattern we see is leaders spending most of their time responding to urgent needs from both sides of the role. Which compresses strategic thinking, operations and execution become reactive rather than intentional, reflection for improvement is rushed, and team development is unintentionally deprioritized.

So, what does a realistic practice look like when planning for capacity challenges in a dual role? Organizations benefit from mapping the full first-year arc of the role. This helps clarify expectations, timing, and support, allowing leaders and the organization to pace the work. Effective practice includes:

• Develop a 1-year role expectations overview that identifies priority focus areas aligned with organizational goals. This highlights what truly matters and prevents “everything is urgent” dynamics.

• Assess the current team structure, roles, and capacity to identify existing support and potential gaps that could cause friction. This also involves reviewing where responsibilities should be shifted to empower leaders.

• Review overlaps in priorities and peak-season timelines so planning and execution can be sequenced rather than stacked. This helps teams avoid conflicting deadlines and reduces decision fatigue.

• Identify what is achievable at key milestones (90 days, 180+ days, and the 1-year mark). These checkpoints inform transparent performance conversations, help monitor workload and progress, and mitigate team fatigue.

• Clarify the available resources (people, time, budget, consultants) to fully support that leader’s workload and strategic priorities throughout the year. This isn’t meant to suggest our services at MK Consulting Group 😊, but rather, as roles and departments consolidate, adding a third party will increase leaders’ and teams’ capacity to meet expectations for deliverables, especially during peak seasons or transitions, helping to prevent backlog and burnout.

When organizations adopt this intentional approach, dual-role leaders gain early clarity and continuous alignment. Expectations become grounded, capacity becomes visible, clarity builds trust and commitment, and the risk of burnout is significantly reduced. It's work done upfront, but it pays off considerably in the long run. That’s strategic talent leadership.

As we close out this year and prepare for 2026, many organizations will finalize hires, restructure teams, or rethink their leadership capacity. The organizations that win in the next chapter will be those that design roles with clarity, intention, and realism, positioning their leaders for success.

Reflection Questions for Employers: As you think about designing or hiring for a dual-role position, take a moment to reflect on these points. These questions shift the focus from “Can one person do this?” to “How do we design this so success is achievable?”

• What skills and responsibilities should the leader hold, and which ones can be shared with the team?

• How can we measure success without creating competing or unrealistic priorities?

• What structures or external supports will we put in place to ensure this leader’s success?