Leading from the front or the back
Leadership styles - there is a lot of Rubbish and drivel written about Varying leadership styles - so let's make this very down-to-earth
There are really only 2 varying leadership styles - leading from the front and leading from the back..
What? No Complex System? No complicated System that needs an army of Boffins to Sort it out?
No - just a Question to ask yourself
Do you lead from the front or lead from the back?
Consider this
You are Out in the park with your children (if you don't have children, Just imagine you do!) and you are walking in a Park of somekind.. You let them Play their own games. You idle along at the back - Relaxing and maybe even having an an ice cream.
You are leading from the back. You have Everything under control and There is no need to do anything much..
There is no point start shouting and telling children what to do.
But it follows that you leave the park and you walk to cross the road.
You Shouldn't to be Leading from the back now.. Children will probably expect to be shouted at. You Must to take control and now you are leading from the front.
This Is the same in the workplace.
Pretend that you are at work and everything is Going along nicely. Your team has hit their targets and it�s nearly Christmas time and everyone is feeling Please. 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 Job rotas for the next 6 weeks
Now imagine that your offices have been hit by a power cut. The offices are in complete Blackout and staff and need direction and leadership.
Now is the time to Switch and lead from the front.
Going missing at this point 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 Move from front to back over the course of Days and weeks and a good manager will be able to Naturally change from one to the other
A clever way to learn how to do this is to listen to staff talking amongst themselves.
Do they seem Uptight or worried? What are they worried about?
Are they working? Should they be working?
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.
