What if the greatest potential for leadership exists outside leadership roles? 42 percent of people do not want to advance to leadership positions and are actually turning down promotions when they are offered.
Many people in mid-level positions don’t look forward to the responsibility that comes from taking on a leadership title in today’s relentless work culture. Instead of pushing them to get to the next level or title change, we need to cultivate team members who can work and lead in new ways and make an impact at all levels.
To make our teams successful, we need people to step up and lead regardless of title or position. We have to think about leadership differently – up, down and across.
True leadership requires leading up to influence the people above you, leading across as you gain trust and buy-in from peers, and leading down as you support and empower the people on your teams. It’s only those that do all three well that go on to succeed and earn loyalty in the most senior level positions.
Leading Up
Leading up involves effectively working with and influencing those who are above you in the organizational hierarchy.
Leading up often involves advocating for your team’s needs and priorities while aligning them with the broader organizational goals. It’s a skillful balance as you prove your acumen and position yourself as a person of authority and influence.
The ability to lead up is something you must earn through the ways you present yourself and your skills daily.
If you’re wearing yourself down with constant task management and without recovery, you won’t have the capacity available to be proactive and thoughtful when your leadership team needs you to speak up and advocate. In this case, recovery isn’t just about sleeping and eating well. It’s about purposefully disconnecting to gain new perspectives.
Manage your energy and resources so you have time for strategic analysis and for forward-thinking. Use discipline to learn about your company and industry consistently and with vigor, so you are able to challenge convention, be informed, share relevance and perspective.
When you are at the ready with knowledge, information, and proactive plans, your leadership team will seek you out as a person of influence when decisions need to be made.
You’ll make yourself invaluable by gaining their trust and respect, which will increase your ability to lead them toward the decisions that are needed to ensure sustainable high performance for your team.
Leading Across: Leading into Shared Responsibility
Leading across involves collaborating and working effectively with colleagues at the same level within the organization.
Leading across can be one of the most difficult forms of influence to manage because you can’t force anyone to do what you want. You’re not in an authority position. Instead, you need to cultivate a shared mindset of “What’s important now?” and “What is top of mind – for you, for us, for our teams?” By doing this, you create high levels of trust and alignment, so everyone’s efforts coalesce.
I worked with a brilliant man in the IT field who had no desire to manage people or teams. He wanted to do his best work in his role as an individual contributor and didn’t desire to climb the corporate ladder.
However, between his expertise and his high emotional intelligence, he was respected and requested as a collaborator throughout the organization. His leadership had nothing to do with a title, and everything to do with earning influence through his choices. Mike Robbins talks about this as the difference in job and role – that we all have a role to play within our organizations but, bigger than that, we have a job. That job is to help the team win – regardless of titles or positions.
Leaders, regardless of title, collaborate to work more efficiently. They create systems where they can leverage everyone’s talents most effectively, creating shared and abundant value rather than individualized agendas that provoke scarcity. They understand that is what unlocks, positive energy generating productive teamwork and genuine value creation.
To achieve success, alignment and collaboration are essential. Team coaching is the most effective tool I’ve found for fostering cross-functional teamwork.. In team coaching, people leverage each other’s strengths instead of being territorial or working at cross-purposes.
Leading Down
Managing down involves leading and guiding those who report to you within the organizational hierarchy. It’s the type of leadership we are all most familiar with.
That doesn’t mean most leaders are doing it correctly.
Too many leaders seek to lead down by being authoritative, by pushing dictates on
people and relentlessly driving forward toward arbitrary goals and deadlines. However, this approach can lead to resentment, exhaustion, attrition and burnout.
To effectively manage down, leaders should:
- Provide clear expectations, goals, and objectives with high standards
- Offer support, guidance, and mentorship tfor ongoing development
- Provide constructive feedback and coaching for performance improvement
- Empower team members to make decisions and take ownership
- Create a positive, inclusive work environment that fosters engagement
- Recognize and reward achievements to reinforce desired behaviors
A leader can have an impact regardless of their role. An individual contributor can play an outsized role in developing and displaying leadership skills that make a difference for the people around them, while managers and directors who navigate these resources create their own career success, experience greater career satisfaction and grow their sphere of influence throughout the organization and their professional networks.
Leadership happens everywhere. Modern companies facing modern demands need leaders at all levels to carry through the initiative that will make their organizations successful. Individuals without formal leadership titles but with the ability to influence and inspire will move the workforce forward and give their organizations a greater chance to win in the workplace to then win in the marketplace.