Leadership styles - there is a lot of junk written about leadership styles - so let’s make this really easy. There are really only 2 leadership styles - leading from the front and leading from the back..
What? No complicated methodology? Nothing complicated that needs an army of consultants to set up and deliver?
No - just a simple question.
Do you lead from the front or lead from the back?
Just imagine
You are out taking your children for a stroll (if you don’t have any children, just imagine you do..) and you are strolling in the park. You let them run on ahead and play. You idle along at the back - maybe have a drink or an ice cream. You are leading from the back. You have the situation under control and all is well. You have no need to get up and start shouting and telling children what to do.
But then you go out of the park
And you leave to cross the road. It’s not wise 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 rosters for the next 6 months. You can safely lead from the back
Now imagine that your offices have been hit by a power cut. The offices are in complete darkness and staff and need direction and leadership. Now is the time to 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 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 anxious about?
Are they working? Should they be hard at work?
Is their behaviour what you would expect at the current 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.