Leadership sans power
by Miki SaxonThe final changes request came from Scott Allen, my favorite social media guru, over at Linked Intelligence who said, “I’d also like to see more discussion/advice on how to lead when you’re not in charge.”
OK, Scott, but before we start on the how let’s start at the beginning, as in “does it [the group involved] actually need a leader?” Oft times the answer is no, it’s doing just fine without one.
Sometimes “it” doesn’t even need a good manager. If a good manager, let alone a true leader, were always necessary for a group to accomplish its goal, the human race would be in bigger trouble than it already is.
Seriously, think about the times you felt that your team (in the broadest use of the word) was just barely muddling through, yet when you looked at the result through twenty-twenty hindsight you were amazed at what was accomplished. Sure, maybe it could have been done a bit better or faster, but the end product produced was exactly what was needed and all deadlines were met. So, what’s not to like?
Granted, there are many over-achievers out there who believe that everything should be done at the fastest speed and with the highest level of perfection, which I consider an enormous waste of both physical and psychic energy. Some things, yes, but, as the old saw goes, choose your battles wisely.
But let’s say that the project you’re involved with is drifting, if so, it may just need a nudge here and there to get back on track. Nudges are like rudders, a very slight rudder movement can translate to substantial course changes. Thinking rudder instead of leader is especially useful when you’re not in charge.
The easiest way to nudge is by doing—just take the initiative and do something. That’s often enough to get everyone moving. Offering help to teammates who are stuck, in a manner that doesn’t undercut or offend them, is another way to lead (if you insist on using that term).
The worst way to exert leadership is by announcing that the project is drifting, thereby making everyone look bad and feel worse—you accomplish nothing except to turn people against you.
You also need to be well aware of your own motivation. Are you doing it to get the project done so the team shines or are you looking for public recognition and personal glory? If the former then this will work, if the latter you might want to rethink your goals.
In short, Scott, the simplest way to lead when you’re not the boss (or when you are, for that matter) is from behind, or, as Lao Tzu says, “As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence….to lead the people, walk behind them.”
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September 21st, 2007 at 2:00 am
Does the group need a leader? Great question! I would answer it with another. Does the group exhibit leadership? Does the group as a whole collectively move (more or less) in a direction that most groups memebers would describe as better?
Or is it paralysed?
Locked in place by members trying to move it in different directions; by disparate leadership forces that cancel each other out. Think ‘Unions and Bosses’ or ‘Sales and Design’.
If this is the case you had better start nudging.
The easiest way to ‘nudge’ maybe to do something – just take the initiative.
But there are dangers here. If you take the initiative then others can’t. You create a passivity in the group as they wait for you to show them the way.
You soon start to perceive ‘them’ as lacking initiative, having no ‘get up and go’.
So instead try talking with them.
Regularly.
Find out what they care about; what makes them mad. Then coach them in how to make things better – how to act in a way that serves their own interests and that of the group.
They will start to take initiative and make things happen and the group will become un-stuck. And they will think they have done it all by themselves.
Not leadership – just great, inspiring, transformational management.
September 23rd, 2007 at 5:36 pm
That works if you’re the manager, Mike, but it’s pretty hard to ask those questions when you’re at the bottom of the pile.
When you’re trying to break the logjam from down there, I still believe that selected, subtle nudges are the way to go. Not hard pushes, but more of a word here, a question there and a bit of action when possible.
Of course, that’s assuming that your main purpose is to relieve your own frustration/annoyance, rather than to embarrass the boss or take down a co-worker.
BTW, it seems to me that “great, inspiring, transformational management” certainly qualifies as leadership.
September 24th, 2007 at 2:13 am
I think you can ask these questions whether you have formal power, a managerial position, or not. The analysis for all who care in the organisation is:
Am I achieving or aren’t I?;
Am I developing or aren’t I?;
Am I making a positive contribution or aren’t I?
Everyone has power in relation to these questions and the efforts that they choose to make.
My point is that managerialism (consistent, caring, competent, learning conversations about purpose, development and impact) – perhaps these are your little nudges – are just as likely to produce progress in an organisation as ‘leadership’ – grand visions, rolled out and executed.
September 24th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Great questions and ones that everyone should ask themselves, but I think that they’re very difficult to ask anyone else, even a peers. And if everyone was asking themselves there probably wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.
September 25th, 2007 at 9:59 am
[...] Leadership sans power – Leadership Turn “The easiest way to nudge is by doing—just take the initiative and do something. That’s often enough to get everyone moving. Offering help to teammates who are stuck, in a manner that doesn’t undercut or offend them, is another way to lead (if you insist on using that term).” [...]
September 26th, 2007 at 1:03 am
‘Hope is the power of the powerless’.
Great quote that has re-surfaced with the Burma uprisings.
But, ‘Hope is not a plan’.
The real quality of leadership, lies in its power to inspire hope and associate the inspiration with coherent, more or less aligned actions in the direction ‘where hope lies’.