Leadership is almost an overused term in the world of Human Resources. There are leadership development programs, future leader trainings, innate leadership discussions, etc.
But leadership concepts taught in academia are not always easy to apply in a globalized world and increasingly frequent matrix structures. The more senior the role you occupy in a company the more people you need to report to directly or indirectly. In plain English, as your leadership role increases so does the number of “bosses” you accumulate.
There are regional reports, practice reports, business unit reports, product-based reports, and many more.
In such contexts sometimes we lead and sometimes we are led. But we’re not led by only one boss but many leaders simultaneously. And in order to navigate through this new professional scenario one must know how to be led.
Knowing how to be led has nothing to do with being submissive or obeying orders. It’s about knowing how to meet guidelines and perform as an important link in the chain, not allowing it to break because you believe in the ideal designed by leadership.
This has nothing to do with submission, but loyalty. Knowing how to be led is about learning from your leader’s right decisions. But more importantly, it’s about showing solidarity and support when witnessing your leader’s mistakes (and this will invariably happen because leaders are human too). This is also a lesson for those being led.
Strong leadership is indeed a key factor in building high performance teams. However, it’s important to also highlight that good leaders prefer to work with professionals who can be their “right arm” and strong pillars to support their leadership vision.
In the new economy and business scenario we currently live in it’s essential for a professional to know how to become one of the pillars that support these diverse visions, which are simply parts of a comprehensive business plan.
Does this sound complicate? Actually, it really is! But knowing how to be led in this new context will determine a professional’s success in the new economy.
GOOD LUCK!!
