Strong Business Leaders Empower From The Sideline
Updated: May 4, 2023
Written by: ublossomweblossom
Why as a Business Leader you should not lead from the central position or play on the hierarchal ranking. If you want to see your team grow, excel within the company and retained their skills, knowledge and value. Then let’s have a few minutes together now.
Let’s paint a picture of what a peak situation could look like in a thriving company. The pressure is building to deliver to multiple clients, the deadlines are creeping up all at once, team members begin to argue, whilst being stressed, no one is seeing eye to eye, and the atmosphere has just blown up to being utter chaos!
As a leader, we tend to give the answers, fix the problems, and resolve the situation as immediately as we can. We have been taught and have an expectation on ourselves that an unrest, chaotic environment will look bad on our leadership and management style.
We have heard all the following responses during our consultations and workshops with leadership teams.
‘It’s my role’, ‘I’m good at getting things back on track’, ‘It’s what I get paid to do’, ‘I can resolve any conflict in minutes’, ‘I am respected for my input’ and ‘My team need me’.
But here is why you should not be the go-to person in each situation that requires some decision tough making.
When you allow your team to build that dependency of your involvement in problem-solving, conflict resolution or simply giving regular direction. It defeats the point of growing and leaving an empowered team behind, one that is capable of learning from their own experience, your guidance, and their own self-belief of being limitless in accomplishing success with confidence.
Let us share the benefits of the sideline approach in leading;
Imagine a live football game, things are going wrong on the pitch and all the team coaches, managers are on the benches or on the sideline. The team will have to figure out the live play for themselves and communicate together effectively. They of course had the strategy to begin with, but their decision-making will be live and collective for the success of the team and deliver results.
Trusting your team to make the right decisions with their knowledge, interpretation and skill is an empowering characteristic to display as a leader. Trust and the lack of it within companies and organisations is a theme that often appears on employee surveys as an area of improvement. Not saying the team will get it right all the time, but you cannot beat lessons that are learnt in the process of evolving as an individual and team player.
Top 3 Benefits:
The sideline leadership style gives the team reflective space to discuss and have healthy debate in finding a collective solution together. This is a great way for all the ideas to be aired out and democratically discussed in a fair way.
Guiding as opposed to leading, is a fabulous way to instil ownership in your team. This is very much best practise of a coach, who would ensure the team themselves look within as, opposed to only seeking the answers from you directly.
Sharing value of your experiences and the outcomes of what may have been from your selected choices. This is a non-direct way of leading through a story. Your practical experience will be invaluable to the team, who would take solace in hearing your positive successes and learnings of growth.
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