I've often written about leadership out in front. After all, you can't be leading if no one is following-right? Anyone that knows me is also keenly aware that I love being in that trailblazing position and enjoy leading by example. However, recent events have caused me to reflect on this notion and explore the potential traps.

Presumably, if you are leading from the front then you are delegating the tasks of tactical execution to those following in your wake. Great leaders always surround themselves with great people, so on the surface this may be acceptable. However, if you don't stay engaged in the execution phases, how are you to know that the direction you are leading is still the correct one? Perhaps implementation details turned out to be more challenging than you thought and costs need to be reconsidered. Maybe things went really well and now you should tweak your risk acceptance and be more aggressive. The worst case is that without proper follow-through you may end up letting customers down in delivering less than excellent results, hurting your reputation in ways that are immeasurable.

Another problem with leading from the front is that often you tend to fixate on the direction you're headed and develop a sort of tunnel vision. You spend so much of your energy generating enthusiasm amongst your followers that you lose sight of the bigger picture. Visionary leaders are especially susceptible to this. Even though generating enthusiasm takes little or no effort for them, the harness of their own ego keeps their "eyes on the prize".

Leadership out in front can be very glamorous, but it also takes a lot of work. If you, as a leader always take this position and never let anyone else "drive the bus", what you may find is that your best employees leave (they want the glamour) and your worst employees stay (after all, you are doing most of the work). In the mean time you put yourself on the path of burn-out.

So, if leading from the front can cause execution problems, tunnel vision, and staff degradation, what is the alternative? Well, I'm going to call it "leadership from behind." In this model you place your rotating "kingpins" out in the front and manage their overall direction from behind. In this position you can also see the bigger picture, make course corrections and insure proper follow-through for the delivery of excellence. You give your best people the opportunities to shine and don't end up burning yourself out in the process. I firmly believe that any good leader must be able to lead from the front, but I'm now convinced that every great leader must master leading from behind.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the story of the Canadian Geese and how it relates to teamwork and leadership (if not see this blog), however I'd like to try and add a bit of a conspiratorial twist to it. The next time you look up and see the "Power-V" formation flying overhead and a lone goose flying somewhat out of formation behind the V, maybe- just maybe- that goose isn't being lazy. Perhaps he's actually leading from behind, purposely flying in a zone that takes more work (no drafting) so that he can ensure execution, see the bigger picture, and share the glamorous point position with other valued leaders.