James Kelly, Scott Nadler, Leading from Below

These are some excerpts from a WSJ article by James Kelly and Scott Nadler.

The are making a case for leadership at every level and how it is essential in all endeavours.

Here is a summary of the guidelines 

1. Make the decission to be a leader
2. Focus on influence and not control
3. Empower horizontal organizations
4. work on your trusted advisor skills
5. Dont wait for a perfect time, but just a good time
6. Create vaccums or questions and not imposing solutions
7. Ask questions with out answers
8. wonder "what if"

Please note, I have paraphrased things a little bit here and there. If you are stickler read the article from WSJ.

hamstrung by demands from investors and analysts for immediate results, they have little time left for leadership.

Can the leadership come from the ranks below?

The central tenet of the role of a manager: it is all about risk

Grow beyond "Service"and "Governance"

risk promotes growth

Failure to lead, failure to take risks is a more likely recipe for failure in the long run

Every role in an organization is a leadership role

risk is pervasive

From CEO to the programmer, risk leads to growth

Going beyong inherently implies risk

In every case of successful leadership from below that we have studied, the manager made a conscious decision to move beyond the service and governance roles, with out waiting to be told to do so.

A good manager who doesn't make waves is increasingly risky. Those who take risks are more likely to keep their jobs and to be promoted.

If you are doing what you know how exactly to do, then you are not doing your job. That job needs to be passed on to someone else. You need to take a new path, a path that needs time to plan and envision.

You need to be thinking "what if", "why not", "let me see if this works", or "if this works better"

The managers did their job with their colleagues - not to them or for them.

Getting people to act on their own to achieve the goals you have in mind is far more effective than having them only react to your direction

Expose others to your information, don't hoard it. If your customers are the source of insight into market pressures, don't keep that private as a secret source of insight and power , instead create situations where your internal partners can hear from the customers directly, Your customers will be far more credible with your internal partners than you can ever possibly be.

Keep things clear and simple. You know you can make any issue so compledx that only experts can manage it.

we are trying to drink the ocean with a tea spoon.

view your colleagues as a focus group, not a barrier. Their concerns are not objections but feedback to test your theories. test your risks.

You have to earn the right to influence people. People have to want to talk with you, and value what they hear from you. This requires more than being seen as a technical expert. It requires being seen as a trusted adviser.

Listen more than you talk

Ask questions

A new vp was told bluntly that at his level, the top managers should be looking to him for guidance, not the other way around.

Listen for these if you support and create these if you lead such a 'what keeps me up at night is'...

Encourage questions without answers...