The Disguised Leader

There's someone on your team right now who isn't a manager but when something goes wrong, people go to them. When a decision needs to be made under pressure, they're the ones who make it and when someone is about to make a costly mistake, they're the ones who stop it.

You probably already know who I'm talking about, or maybe you don’t, and you should.

We've trained ourselves to acknowledge leadership that’s based on hierarchy. We love to speak to the person who’s officially in charge, who was given the senior position. We’re so focused on them that we end up missing the unnamed leaders, people who don’t necessarily want the title but lead effortlessly every single day.

Leadership under pressure is something that we can’t anticipate. Often, great leaders emerge when we least expect them to. It might start with a vacuum created by a less than capable manager, or maybe a series of challenges that increase the team’s pressure. Either way, suddenly we’ve got ourselves an unexpected leader on our team.

In every situation, whether it’s kids on the playground, a basketball team, a class of students or a business development team in a global firm, there will always be someone who naturally takes the reins and steers the ship in the right direction, even if it’s not in their formal job description.

And when we pay attention, it’s usually quite easy to see who the team leans toward, who they go to for answers and who they follow without hesitation. There is always someone who fixes things before they escalate to the manager. That’s your natural leader, and you’d better take notice.

In big or small organizations, often there are team members who don’t want to become managers, but do want to make an impact within their teams. Not everyone wants a title, but enjoys leading organically. These behaviors are often more reliable indicators of leadership capacity than anything you'd see in someone's formal role.

Most organizations make one of two mistakes. They either ignore informal leaders because they don't fit the succession plan, or they rush them into management and in doing so, eliminate the thing that made them effective.

Instead, give them real challenges that can take the team forward and see what happens. Investing in leadership training across all roles changes the game. Management isn’t the destination for everyone. Some of the most critical leadership in any organization comes from people who will never manage anyone and shouldn't. Your job isn't to convert them into managers. It's to give them the scope and the standing to lead from where they are.

Give them the standing to actually lead. If you're asking someone to take on leadership without the authority or the air cover to do it, you're setting them up to fail. Informal leadership needs to be legitimized, even if it's never formalized Before you look at your org chart, ask yourself: who is this team actually following? That person is your leverage point. If you're not paying attention to them, you're working against the system's real dynamics. Find and develop them.

For more information, contact info@bhz-group.com