There was a time when organizations had essentially one leader that the rest were expected to follow; and for many, this still holds true today.
In large companies, however, the prevailing strategy is to have a board of policymakers who are separate from those who implement their decisions. This approach was created by Alfred P Sloan when he reorganized General Motors nearly 100 years ago.
In recent years, however, the effectiveness of this model has declined. Rather than having just one leader, or even one policymaking authority, these responsibilities have been devolved down to the team or even the level of the individual employee.
Position and Identity
While it’s true that leaders are usually assigned to a position of authority, it’s also true that in so doing, their identity is reinforced, This is evident not only by their behavior, but especially by what those around them do. And that’s because there will always be people who lead, and when they do, there will always be others who follow.
From the standpoint of the employee, however, leadership isn’t so much of a calling, as it is a responsibility. People are expected to lead themselves just as much as they do others. As always, the context determines, to a large extent, which is of prevailing importance.
The requirement to lead oneself, however, can be a problem for teams. Traditionally, the leader and the team members were always the same.
More recently, the various roles that members play in those teams make each one of them a leader simultaneously, depending on the project.
For example, an engineer could be the leader for that part of the project that required his or her mechanical skills.
Or a marketer could be responsible for creating the sales material. Both people would be on the same team and be fully responsible for leading their colleagues in the fulfillment of those tasks.
How would they do that?
By asking other team members, who represented various departments, to obtain information that they needed.
The engineer, for example might need data from operations, and get it from a third team member; or the marketer might need information from finance, whose department was represented by a fourth member.
And that’s why the role of team leader can be held simultaneously by each member of the team. It just depends on the expertise that is required at the time.
Star Teams
The dynamics of the position of team leaders can create problems for what could be called the “star team.” Such groups often struggle, because each member is trying to stand above the others.
All-star baseball teams, for example, seldom play as well as the teams that they came from.
And in such cases, it’s because people who became successful by being better than anyone else are now expected to set aside the inclinations that got them there in the first place.
That means that the best teams normally do not consist of stars, but instead are made up of people who work together extremely well and want to do so.
As a result, the sum of them is greater than the parts.
How to Lead From Any Position
The key to success, therefore, is to identify those individuals who collectively provide excellence in execution, rather than those who want to stand out.
If you want to drive and sustain corporate growth and performance, then you must build business strategies that reinforce those objectives. That is, by creating teams that will support those results.
You can’t encourage and reward people for being stars, and then expect them to disregard all that in order to create a dream team where they must subordinate their egos.
Instead you have to assemble your team members on the basis of how, by working together, they will achieve the company’s mission.
Whether it’s team leadership or membership, each must lead from whatever position they hold, and the organization must not only give them the freedom to do so, but the authority to carry it out.
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