Last time I wrote about how C-level leaders and executives can create environments and take actions that support their employees’ efforts to manage up – actions that open up the upward flow of valuable organizational information.

In reviewing my bookmarks, I was reminded of an article by James Kelly and Scott Nadler, writing for the Wall Street Journal, that was superb and thought it made a nice follow up to my last entry.

In their article, “Leading From Below,” the authors recommend several strategies that managers have used to successfully lead from below.

Here, I paraphrase only the first three of the twelve:

1. Make the Decision to Be a Leader
In every case of successful leadership from below that we have studied, the manager made a conscious decision to move beyond the service and governance roles, without waiting to be told to do so.

2. Focus on Influence, not Control
Getting people to act on their own to achieve the goals you have in mind is far more effective than having them only react to your direction.

3. Make your mental organizational chart horizontal rather than vertical.
In a horizontal world, your peers’ concerns are no longer objections to overcome. Instead, they are important feedback to hear and heed.

What I liked about this article, and about these strategies, is that even though the focus is on behaviors for managing up, they require the manager or team member to develop the same critical leadership success skills that the CEO, CFO, COO or any executive in the organization needs in order to ‘manage down.’

There are many ways in which these leadership skills and strategies have been phrased and categorized over the years, but seldom do you hear about them in a way that underscores their viral quality and ability to be an organizational equalizer. In other words, truly complete models of business leadership do not focus on the C-suite alone. There must be some acknowledgement that true true leaders are ‘viral’ - that the act of leadership creates leaders throughout the organization and is, in a way, self-replicating.

True leadership, from above or below, goes beyond control and command and actually teaches and instills leadership qualities and leadership behaviors in others, who in turn spread these skills and mindsets to others.

This characteristic of great leadership, this self-replication, lies at the core of the leadership model I developed with Dr. Lee Smith. It inspired the name of the subsequent book, Legacy Leadership, in which we wrote about the model. Note the following excerpt from the preface of Legacy Leadership:

Great leaders intentionally influence and develop other leaders…In other words, they become Legacy Leaders building a multi-generational thumbprint for others who will use these same principles…”

This mulit-generational effect all begins with a decision to lead on the part of individuals within your organization. Much of what you do to encourage this decision may be passive activities like modeling behaviors, holding up an inspiring vision, or creating an environment that allows for leading up. You may not be able to deliver an invitation to lead to each person in your organization, but you can intentionally examine how your behavior and organizational systems encourage leadership from below.

Executive Coaching Question:
Do you recall when you made the decision to be a leader?
Do you remember what inspired and motivated you to make that decision?
Given the wide variety of personalities and motivations within your organization, what simple steps can you take to nurture this desire to lead in the people around you?

You can find more information about our book online here: www.legacyleadershipbook.com

Read the full article - “Leadership from Below” - with nine additional strategies for leading up, here:
http://tinyurl.com/leadbelow