Your argument here sounds like you can put any Joe into a leadership position, provided he’s a good leader. You CANNOT be an effective leader if you don’t know what job your subordinates are doing. How will they be able to rely on you if you cannot assist them in their role?
When I call for the ETL-GE of my store for a front end issue, I shouldn’t have to then call a GSA because the ETL doesn’t know the answer. That’s not an effective leader, that’s a paper pusher. How is that ETL going to effectively lead when he only knows the basics.
How is an ETL AP going to effectively lead when he’s afraid of making apps? How is an ETL-SF going to lead when they don’t understand planos? How is a police Sgt. going lead his shift if he doesn’t know police work?
My argument is that most TMs aren't qualified for leadership positions, and that there are outside candidates who are better fits for the job. I've seen tons of TMs who think they should be TLs, but they shouldn't. They could do the TM job, but they wouldn't be able to handle the stress of actually having a team
and they wouldn't be good at leading that team because they would either be too nice (people would walk all over them) or too mean (turnover would be insane). I guess that's my main point in this whole thing, and I'll admit I'm probably taking an extreme position to try to prove a point, whereas what I really think is more of a middle-ground.
ETL-GE, that's a great example. For the most part, GSAs/GSTLs/service desk TMs will know the policies. If the guest is arguing about something, a good leader will pretty much just need to say "what this team member said is true, we can't do that". The ETL doesn't have to know shit.
But lets take another example - a TM doesn't know something about a process and asks for help. If the ETL just tells the TM what to do, that's not leading. It helps, sure, but the TM gains almost nothing out of it. What would help would be to ask that TM "What do you think we should do?" and try to have them come up with a solution, which teaches that TM how to think critically. The ETL could also go look up the answer, and/or teach the TM how to go look up the answer. Neither of these two possible answers require ANY knowledge about the job, but BOTH of them help develop a TM. That's being a leader.
Keeping with the ETL-GE, lets look at REDcards because they are such a huge focus. An ETL-GE doesn't have to be great at getting RCs to make their store great at it, but sure it does help. They aren't going to spend much (any?) time on the register. They need to teach the GSTLs/GSAs how to hold the cashiers accountable for it. The ETL can ask what has worked in the past, what hasn't worked, which cashiers are good at it and what they do to be good at it... all kinds of questions without knowing shit about it. Then they can get the GSTLs to follow up with the cashiers who aren't good at it. Again, the ETL knows jack shit about this, and the GSTLs might not even be good at getting RCs, but they can still get better results just by being good leaders.
I work in Starbucks. If a TM asks me a question, I'm going to know the answer. I've been doing it too long. But telling them the helps them with this one question and that's it. If I teach them how to find the answer, they'll become a better TM. Almost everything I know about Starbucks was taught to me by the many different resources we have right in front of us (tons of manuals, charts, recipe cards, etc). Knowing the answer is nice, but knowing where to find the answer is more important because it'll teach me how to find the answer for the next question I have.
With your ETL-AP example, I have to concede. Making apprehensions is an important part of that position. But that seems unlike most ETL positions for several reasons. It is them putting themselves in danger (other team members are literally told to move out of the way if someone is stealing something lol). And ETL-AP is a glorified TPS - they don't really have a team under them other than a person or 2 in most stores. They are the one doing the work. It's hardly a leadership position, except for when they are LOD.
An ETL-SF can quickly learn about planos... I feel like part of your argument seems to be that these leaders won't be good at their job in their first week. I've seen TLs who have been in their exact position for years and still don't know how to lead - they were great TMs and got promoted, but are terrible leaders and their workcenters suffer because of it. An ETL-SF can learn SF/LOG stuff. I was a Sr Starbucks TL and knew jack shit about anything regarding logistics when I first got promoted, but pretty much everyone thought I was a better leader than them. All I did was ask them what they needed from me and followed through. When they had a question, I asked them what they or their TL/ETL would do. I knew
nothing, but the problems got solved and the work got done. And if they got behind, I asked them how I could help - they gave me a simple task so they could work on the harder ones that require more training.
), I was empowering them. I respected them. I encouraged them. I recognized them verbally and thru YouCards. I got in the "trenches" w/ them. They were proud. I was honored that they connected w/ me and trusted me. Even though I was "green" to Target; the Team quickly treated me as their Leader. And, while I don't technically "lead" the Team now...... we still have a great unity of trust and collaboration to make things better. 
