What if We Say Leadership Includes Wise Following?

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Dave Todaro, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

Recently, some of you have led me to talk about leadership differently. My perspective has been inclusive, and now I have better words to say what I mean by that. Some background on my own journey may help set the stage for the ideas I’ll try to express here.

Early on, I realized that I was best suited to function as what the military calls the “XO” or “Executive Officer.” XOs are not commanders but are instead the commander’s right-hand person. XOs ensure the commander’s decisions are carried out with appropriate urgency, efficiency, and effectiveness. XOs act as eyes and ears to inform the boss about how well or poorly things are going. A great XO is a trusted, informed, and wise advisor. I’ve seen the best XOs fulfill a dual loyalty: one to the mission and goals set by the commanding officer, and a second and equal one, to whatever relevant truths are impacting the organization’s ability to succeed.

Over the years, trying to continuously improve as the “right-hand person” of whomever I was reporting to, offered plenty of opportunities for me to learn leadership behaviors.

Because I often had one or two layers of management above me, I referred to my style as “leading from behind.” Back in 2008 I told this to a mentor I had chosen for myself, the Chief Financial Officer of a well-known university. “That’s how I describe what I do!” he laughed. “I can show the numbers, tell the story behind them, and make recommendations,” he continued. “But the president and the board are in charge; I can’t decide for them.”

For a time, I thought we had invented this magnificent term, “leading from behind.” I was crushed to discover that many had beat me to it: there’s even a “Leading From Behind” MasterClass! And a LinkedIn Learning course on Leading from the Middle.

A few weeks ago, a client of mine shared the first of two things that got me re-thinking the term “leading from behind.” She realized that every person in her company, by virtue of their unique responsibilities, faced significant issues that no one else would see exactly the same way. She saw that her own leadership and management effectiveness depends on the information and ideas she hears from others. She began thinking out loud about how to encourage even more, and more honest, sharing with her.

She helped me to re-live an important step in my own maturation process. Years ago I realized that in order to function like a good XO, I needed to cultivate my own “right-hand people.” My slogan was: “Everyone can be a leader, whatever your title.” I encouraged the people on my team, and those I worked most closely with on other teams, to manage me! In other words, “manage up.” Own what we’re trying to accomplish along with me. Share your thoughts and observations about what we can improve. Think things through; make proposals; tell me what you need. Support your ideas by tying them back to how they support our team’s vision, mission, goals. You’ll build your relevance – and organizational cohesion.

Shouldn’t an organization welcome these “XO” behaviors from any team member? Anyone can educate, guide, and inspire their team to strive to fulfill their organization’s purpose. In this sense, a healthy leadership culture is inclusive.

Recently a coach and author I call my friend, questioned the term “leadership” because of baggage that may accompany the word. His concern, if I’m rendering it faithfully, may be two-fold. First, defining “leadership” roles can imply that the contributions of people in these roles are more valuable than those of others solely because of their title; and titles can be used to marginalize people. Second, and related: it can imply that “non-leaders” are merely “followers,” perhaps forfeiting some of their own potential to initiate positive change.

I share my friend’s desire to use language that marginalizes no one. I began wrestling with this concern by working through the ways in which hierarchical vs. flat organizational structures may engage or disengage people from behaving as good XOs. That is an interesting study! Yet I ultimately found myself thinking deeply about “following.”

“Following” can mean rote imitation of manual tasks; or performing one’s responsibilities as taught by a teacher or mentor; or exercising various degrees of decision-making freedom within parameters entrusted to us by our manager.

I concluded that it’s often important for people to “follow,” including founders, CEOs, and board members. For example, when a junior corporate legal team member uncovers a legitimate issue that greatly imperils the company until corrected, every executive within the organization should follow the young lawyer’s lead – or disaster may ensue. When I hire someone fresh from school to handle my division’s ledger accounts, I need them, at least in the beginning, to perform their duties exactly as they’re shown so they can learn our system (and at a later point, I’d love their ideas for streamlining our accounting process).

It occurred to me that the essential qualities of good leadership include knowing when and how to be a good “follower.” Yet something about the word “follower” bothered me. I finally realized that I (and possibly many of us) associate being a “follower” with being “passive.” Do I want “passive” followers?

Trusting the Oxford Languages Dictionary and Mirriam-Webster’s definitions of “passive” gives the sense that “passive” followers would be people who don’t put energy into making things better. They simply accept the status quo, as though their best efforts wouldn’t matter. The opposite of “engaged” employees.

“EUREKA!” I thought. Here is the common ground I can claim with my friend as he pokes at the term “leadership.” Perhaps we share an underlying concern that when “leadership” fails to encourage others from actively contributing their energy and ideas to the organization’s success, leadership is failing their organization and their people.

Talented people who lack the psychological safety to express their most insightful or creative thoughts, or whose attempts to innovate are stifled because “that’s not how we do things here,” will either become passive, or they will take their best ideas somewhere else, possibly to a competitor.

I don’t want to diminish my use of the terms “leader” or “leadership.” They connote several behaviors that enable people and organizations to succeed. We should celebrate and learn from effective leaders. They have mastered the art of encouraging the people around them to focus on shared achievements which represent more than the sum of what individuals acting on their own could achieve.

And my friend’s questioning of the term “leadership” helped me to adopt some new words when speaking of what an ideal leadership culture might look like:

- Leadership is not defined by a formal role, position title, or scope of responsibility. Leadership is a set of behaviors that are available to every person.
- The best leaders cultivate leadership behaviors in other people, regardless of their title.
- Followers are no less valuable to an organization than leaders. Followers provide the “muscle” that gets big things done.
- Leadership behaviors and engaged follower behaviors are highly interchangeable and are not mutually exclusive.
- Skillful leaders, including the CEO and Board of Directors, know when and how to serve their organization as “engaged followers;” such as when someone else is best able to lead a specific effort.
- “Managing up,” the practice of maintaining healthy, honest, proactive, and constructive communication with one’s reporting official, is a foundational leadership behavior that is available to all and that organizations should encourage.

Every Position – Including Yours – is Important!

I’m training myself to no longer speak of “leading from behind.” I first changed it to “leading from the place you’re in,” because if you’re part of an organization, you have a place in it. I evolved to "Lead from position you’re playing” to emphasize that leadership is something we do, not something that comes to us because of the seat or place we’ve been assigned.

As a person in love with team sports, I know that once the game is on, there are no unimportant positions on the field, pitch, rink, or court. So too in business and industry. Sometimes, great leadership includes wise following.

As I continue to work with people at various stages of their careers who want to improve their leadership skills, I’ll look for opportunities to help them discover how they can become catalysts for transforming their organizations into structures that encourage everyone to behave both as a leader and as an engaged and involved follower. These interchangeable and complimentary sets of behaviors are necessary to anyone who wants to provide great value to their organization.