A framework for ensuring clarity when “everyone is a leader”
Is “everyone” a leader?
Yes, I think so. But if we don’t clarify further, we create confusion for our teams. It’s important to be clear that different leadership roles should be played by different people depending on the situation. Here’s a simple framework to clarify leadership roles on your team.
For each of your team’s major priorities, team members lead in one of three ways:
· From the front
· From beside
· From behind
Clearly defining who plays which role when for each priority creates the right conditions for effective teamwork.
Leading from the front
This is the role of the primary leader responsible for success or failure in any situation. They provide vision and direction, lead the decision-making process, and have final decision-making authority. They’re responsible for strategy and culture. They allow themselves to be influenced by others, but understand the ultimate decisions and accountability are theirs.
Leaders “at the top” spend most of their time leading from the front. Finding the right opportunities to delegate this responsibility and play one of the following two roles can be extraordinarily empowering and developmental for a leader’s team.
Leading from beside
This is leading through partnership and teamwork. It’s co-owning and collaborating with others to fulfill a purpose or achieve something important. It’s debating and landing on the right course of action together. It’s bringing resources together to achieve goals that one leader can’t achieve alone.
Leading from behind
This is engaged followership. It’s making an active decision to fully support a purpose or vision with talent and energy. It’s ceding authority to others and using one’s experience, knowledge, and skills to support them. It’s influencing direction, but understanding that one’s role is not to lead from the front.
How can you use this framework?
1. Define your team’s critical priorities.
2. Name leaders from the front, beside, and behind for each priority.
3. Clarify how these roles play out in each situation.
(For a different and expanded view that inspired some of the language in this post, check out the book, Co-Active Leadership by Karen and Henry Kimsey-House.)