Blue Elevator Blog

Positional Leadership

If you are running an organization, you have positional leadership.

You could be the CEO, Founder, Principal, or Chairman.  You could even hold a title such as Vice President, Supervisor, or Manager.  Anyone can be a leader.

But, this article isn’t about your de facto or de jure leadership position.

It’s about HOW you are leading.  Or, rather, WHERE you are leading from.

Three Dimensional Leadership

Before continuing, we recommend you read our previous article titled Three Dimensional Leadership if you haven’t already.  This article is the basis for describing positional leadership.

In this article, we outlined three dimensions of leadership:

1. Building
2. Managing
3. Mentoring

And, we even equated these dimensions along the lines of Innovate, Accelerate, and Replicate™.  Building (to Innovate),  Managing (to Accelerate),  and Mentoring (to Replicate).

Hopefully, you already know it’s important to continually Innovate, Accelerate, and Replicate™.  Leadership must also follow these same functions.

Remember: Organizational performance reflects leadership!

Positional Leadership

Think of positional leadership as follows:

1. Building.  When you are building an organization, you are “out front.”  You are a trail blazer.  You are innovating.  You are charting the path that others will follow.  So, it stands to reason that you will be leading from the front of the pack.
2. Managing.  After you have innovated, you begin accelerating your organization.  You will be hiring, training, and managing people.  In this stage, your position may feel like you are leading alongside your team.  You are in the trenches with fellow soldiers.  You are battling it out.  And, you are teaching the why, what, and how of leadership.
3. Mentoring.  Finally, after building (innovating) and managing (accelerating), you will need to focus on replicating.  This is a very critical stage.  In fact, in my personal observation, some leaders and organizations never make it through this stage.  In this stage, you are really leading from behind your team.

Managing And Mentoring (The Critical Stage)

For most leaders, it comes naturally to lead from the front.  The title entrepreneur is almost synonymous with the terms trailblazer, pioneer, etc.  Building (leading from the front) tends to be the default role.

It’s managing and mentoring that are the challenges for most.

As a leader, if you want to create and live a legacy, it’s imperative that you learn to lead from alongside and [eventually] behind your organization.

Dimensional Assessments

After some time and a lot of seasoning in the business world, God willing, I have developed an innate ability to assess “positional” leadership.

Here are some scenarios.  Can you deduce the “positional” role of the leader in each situation?

• An organization has a strong leader.  This leader does just about everything.  The organization may have staff, but seemingly, the staff don’t know how to do much on their own.  Or, maybe the managers are capable, but the leader micromanages and must be involved in every decision – whether big or small.
• The organization runs well when the big boss is in the office.  But, what happens when the boss leaves?  Or, what happens when the leader is on vacation for two weeks?
• Let’s say there’s a strong organization that is doing well.  But then, all of a sudden, the CEO/Chairman/Big Boss leaves the company.  Let’s look at two scenarios:
  • Scenario 1.  Let’s say the organization begins to fall apart after the leader is gone.  In this scenario, what “dimension” or level was the leader at when he or she left?
  • Scenario 2.  Alternately, after the key leader leaves, let’s say the organization continues to scale and becomes stronger.  In this scenario, what does this suggest about the leader’s positional leadership?  What “dimension” or level was the leader at when he or she left?

Ideally, every team is comprised of capable managers who carry out the daily tasks.  The question becomes whether the team has been mentored and equipped to be able to Innovate, Accelerate, and Replicate™.

What Level Are You At?

When you read this article, what position are you leading from?  What area of positional leadership are you trying to obtain?

You can think of the three dimensions of leadership as progressive or incremental.  Meaning, each dimension is particularly harder and more challenging.  Are you building or spending more time managing?  What about mentoring?

Top Secret

I’ll tell you something top secret.

To some extent, positional leadership bears out with organizational stages.  For example:

• Startup (Building and Innovating)
• Growth (Managing and Accelerating)
• Maturity (Mentoring and Replicating)

However, the secret (and my recommendation) is to conduct all of these stages simultaneously.

Does this make sense?

Contact us!  We’d love to help you on your organizational journey and development.