Leading from the front or the back
Leadership styles - there is a lot of rubbish written about leadership styles - so let’s make this really simple to understand. There are really only 2 leadership styles - leading from the front and leading from the back..
What? No complicated methodology? No complicated formula that needs an army of consultants to set up and deliver?
No - a simple question instead.
When you lead, do you lead from the front or from the back?
Think of this
You are taking your children for a walk (if you don’t have children, imagine you do..) and you are strolling in the park. You let them run on ahead and play. You idle along behind them - maybe stop for a drink. You are leading from the back. You have everything under control and all is running smoothly. You have no need to get up and start shouting and telling children what to do.
But then you leave the park
And you leave to cross the road. You don’t want to be at the back now. Children will probably expect to be shouted at. You have to take control and now you are leading from the front.
This can easily be translated into the work place.
Relaxed
Imagine that you are at work and everything is going well. The team has hit their targets and it’s nearly holiday time and everyone is feeling good. Now is the time to lead from the back. No one will want to hear from you. No one will want to go over the work rotas for the next 6 shift. You can easily lead from the back
Now imagine that your offices have been hit by a power cut. Your offices are plunged into darkness and staff and need your leadership. Now is the time to lead from the front.
Going AWOL now would be a very good way to lose the respect of your staff. What they need is to see you in command.
Of course, you will change from front to back during the working week and a good boss will be able to effortless change from one to the other.
A simple way to learn how to do this is to just listen to staff talking with each other.
Are they worried? What are they worried about?
Are they working? Should they be hard at work?
Does their behaviour seem to be what you would expect given the conditions at the time? (For example, if they are strolling about and a big order is needed to go out, then you need to lead from the front and create a little more urgency into proceedings)
A bit of chatter is usual in most workplace but by tapping in to it, managers can decide where they need to position themselves to get the most out of staff.