The Five Positions of Leadership
Leadership is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It's a spectrum of styles, specifically five distinct positions, that leaders of all types must learn how to navigate in order to build influence. The key to effective leadership is understanding when and how to adapt to each position, ensuring that you're leading in the most impactful way for the situation at hand.
1. Leading Out Front: The Trailblazer
Blazing the trail and setting the direction is crucial during times of change or criticism. It's about taking charge, absorbing the friction, and providing a clear path forward. Out front in pursuit with actions to accomplish that Vision!
2. Leading Alongside: The Coach
Once the path is set, it's time to walk alongside your team, coaching and mentoring them. This hands-on approach ensures that the team is equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. This is a major step in implementation and delegation.
3. Leading From Behind: The Empowerer
Empowerment is about trusting your team to take the lead. It's about recognizing their strengths and giving them the space to shine, while still providing guidance and support from the sidelines. Pushing them to challenge themselves, accomplish and grow in their roles.
4. Leading From the Bottom: The Servant Leader
True leadership is about serving others. By taking on the role of a supporter, leaders can build trust, understand challenges, and ensure that the team feels valued and supported. Putting your time and resources in to make sure the team is supported.
5. Leading From On Top: The Overseer
With a bird's-eye view, leaders can ensure alignment, track progress, and address any issues or conflicts. It's about providing oversight without becoming disconnected. Generally your team puts you in this position when the appreciate and trust, but sometimes you must put yourself there too because of the accountability it takes to lead.
Master Adaptive Leadership
Truly influential leaders can fluidly switch positions as circumstances require. This versatility comes from emotional intelligence that allows them to accurately discern the needs of their team.
One of the best examples of this can be found in classroom teachers. In the face of 20 or more students, great teacher leaders are able to quickly distinguish between the struggling student who needs a moment alone, those who need a quick pep talk, and the ones that need an extra lesson to learn the concept.
Learning to recognize triggers for change and having courage to respond flexibly uncovers each position’s strength. But beware, frequent shifts in leadership style can whiplash teams. Smooth transitions come with practice. Adaptive leadership is challenging yet highly effective.
Develop Key Capabilities
The good news is that you can develop the skills that enable smooth transitions between leadership styles:
Emotional intelligence - self and social awareness
Building trust through transparency and reliability
Balancing strength with compassion
Implementing systems that lean on various positions strategically
Understanding and practicing the shift between the five positions of leadership becomes much easier when you let go of past roles, find a mentor or two, and learn what your blind spots are. Know that your behaviors and values define your organization’s culture through modeling, and remember that consistency between messaging and actions is key.
Mastery of the five leadership positions not only builds influence, but also creates resilience for teams to flourish in diverse situations. With the courage to welcome and embrace discomfort, you’ll begin to naturally and automatically align your position with your team’s needs.
Ready to learn more about Mastering the Five Positions of Leadership?
We have an eBook coming soon that is a deep dive into the Five Positions of Leadership as well as triggers and real life examples for learning how to expertly shift between them and build your influence.
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