SBM #114 Do you lead from the front or the back?

Regardless of whether you have two or twenty employees, leadership matters and for what it’s worth, there are few natural born leaders. That’s why leadership skills need to be learned and relearned all the time. So here’s a question I bet most entrepreneurs don’t ever consider. Do you lead from the front or the back? Some entrepreneurs know instinctively when to lead from the front or to lead from the back. Others though need to consciously work at trying to balance between the two. But sadly too many haven’t got a clue and nor do they care. To say that leadership is a large and fragmented topic, would be an understatement. A recent search of Google on the word “Leadership” returned an astronomical 4.7 billion results. That’s “B” as in billions. Therefore it’s safe to assume that there is lots of interest in the topic. To be sure that with this many results there is bound be a fair amount of repetitiveness in the advice given. Fortunately, there are always those tried and true nuggets of wisdom that have stood the test of time. One of those truths is that good leaders tend to be good leaders regardless of the environment. Having said that, one of the biggest challenge facing leaders today is that they may have to up their empathy quotient. This is so that they can accommodate the current crop of employees, as many appear to need more hand holding than previous generations. Why step back? Although every situation is different, the good leaders know when to assert themselves and take charge or when to back off and let someone else lead. They’re confident enough to know they don’t always have to be out front. By relinquishing control, they give their staff the opportunity to grow their leadership skills. Ultimately, the more you lead from the back, the more freedom you’ll have, allowing you to tackle more strategic issues, or to simply cut back on your workload. The trick is to know when to take charge and when to let others do so. Finding the right balance is tough and should always be determined by the situation. So when do you lead from the front? So how often do you lead from the front? Unless you have a very green team, it’s a lot less often than you think. There are a number of situations that require you, the owner, to step up and lead the charge. These tend to fall into two buckets, crisis or opportunity. A crisis can best be defined as a showstopper. It’s any situation that can negatively affect the company’s reputation or performance and has a high degree of urgency. Many times in crisis situations you don’t have the luxury of sitting back and letting things unfold in a natural way. It often requires immediacy of action. This is where experience and knowledge comes into play, whereby the leader can react far more quickly to the situation. Opportunities on the other hand may require someone to lead from the front for political or strategic reasons. Here are some situations that may require you to be out in front and leading the charge: Let’s first look at some crises situations: Having a large client threaten to stop dealing with you after all attempts by your team have failed, would rank high. Needing to defend the actions of your team with a client would be another situation. Many times the “customer isn’t always right!” A massive competitive threat that comes out of nowhere might also qualify. A product or service failure. You need to own it! And now opportunity situations Depending on your industry, you may need to lead the charge on launching a new product. This gives you the chance to get direct feedback, good or bad directly from your customers. Equally as important, it can show your customers and team that it is important. Setting the vision or direction of the company requires you to lead from front. It’s not something you can delegate. Your actions speaks louder than words. Matching is another situation where it’s important to be visible. Matching means exactly that. It’s where you match client title with your own. For example, a new clients wants a presentation on your services. In attendance from their side will be mid-level person along with their company president or vice-president. In those case you should be visible and lead the conversation. It also shows the client that they are important. The switch Regardless of whether it’s a crises or an opportunity, the goal here is to ultimately relinquish the relationship to a team member. This is done by stating something to the effect “Going forward Mary will be your key contact”, or “John will follow up with next week to discuss next steps”. By making that statement, you go from leading from the front to leading from the back. Additionally, whether you lead from the front or the back, these situations must be used as teaching moments. These teaching moments include taking the time to explain to your team the rationale for the given course of action and ...