Lead from behind

Many times when strong leaders leave an organisation or a sports team, the results suffer and the overall success track record is broken. This happens because the leader while outstanding has delivered the results through their personal leadership, execution and passion. They have not created a line of leaders who can take on the work and deliver consistently.

True legacy is when you create leaders who can do what you do and even surpass others and the organisation goes from one success to another. How can you do this – lead from behind is the magic mantra of creating more leaders, empowering them and enabling the organisation to succeed continuously.

Here are some methods to lead from behind

In meetings ask yourself W.A.I.T. = Why Am I Talking and keep quiet. This will automatically create the space for your teams to talk and present more. Try not speaking if you are normally are the one doing most of the talking.
Publicly share credit – Call out all those doing good work, share credit and send positive messages highlighting the credit of others.
Let teams present – At every important occasion allow your teams to present to stakeholders giving them a chance to shine. Be there to support in case there are queries.
Encourage Risk Taking – Ask your juniors to step up and lead and take the initiative in new areas and encourage them to be the face of the initiatives. As some of these succeed it will rub off onto their careers.
Skip level face time – Encourage more direct contact between your teams and your skip level managers to give them more confidence and more opportunity to share their ideas widely in the organisation.
Give Big responsibilities – Our muscles and capabilities grow when we are stretched. So give the meaty high impact and high visibility projects to your up and coming star candidates so that they can shine.

Lead from behind. Make others shine. That’s the true secret of ever lasting leadership.