Leading Where It Matters: Seven Lessons in Leading from the Centre
This is the second of a four-part series focusing on ‘leading where it matters’. The first iteration explored ‘seven lessons in leading from the front’, the third addresses ‘seven lessons in leading from the side’ and the final offering delves into ‘seven lessons in leading from the back’.
Leading from the centre is distinguished by the fact that it is a facilitative approach. But where exactly is the centre? The centre is a situational construct not a spatial one. It is where a leader is needed to support and empower their subordinates. Of the various approaches profiled in this four-part series, leading from the centre is the one that offers the greatest strategic flexibility, enabling leaders to be most dynamic and best suited for adoption in a business-as-usual context.
Presented below is: ‘leading where it matters: six lessons in leadership from the centre’.
1. The pivot
Leadership from the centre is often the most effective way to strengthen alignment and increase collaboration, especially in systems where there is complexity or ambiguity. This sort of arrangement is most likely to occur when activity is being undertaken across diverse areas of organisational activity and where multiple lines of accountability are involved or blurred boundaries exist. By functioning as the ‘pivot’, within this structure, the leader will have a clearer line of sight and more effective leverage across relevant areas of responsibility and spans of control.
2. Panoramic prism
There are times when a leader needs to have a 360-degree perspective of a given situation. Here, leadership from the centre is most likely to be a vantage point that is above the situation, but with a clear view of the business landscape. A panoramic view empowers the leader to better understand the roles and responsibilities of different players as well as their relative strengths and weaknesses. It also enables the leader to see key points of intersection and latent risk. This is essential information from the perspective of medium and long terms scenario planning.
3. The power of impartiality
One of the most important capabilities of leadership is the capacity for discretion and good judgement. Leaders must always be close enough to balance competing interests, sufficiently informed to apply deductive reasoning and trusted to reach measured conclusions. In this context, leading from the centre helps to ensure that those in positions of responsibility are not unduly influenced or pressured by advocates of specific interests. Here, the centre is about ensuring that leadership decisions are based on facts, not biases or a desire for self-preservation.
4. Maximum utility
An effective leader must be adept at identifying similarities and differences in performance levels. In addition, they must be able to understand the conditions that produce them. This information is crucial as it enables leaders to determine where development effort should be focused, how best practice can be mainstreamed as well as identify remediation required to address underperformance. In this lesson, leading from the centre is demonstrated by the ability to apply core standards evenly and corporately as a central point of reference.
5. The immersive principle
There are occasions when leaders cannot afford to have a second or even third hand understanding of an issue. When leaders are unsighted that can often create risk and harm. Therefore, as necessary, those in leadership positions need to grasp details at the appropriate level of depth and be acquainted with relevant complexities and vagaries. This kind of immersive approach is characteristic of leading from the centre. Immersion increases levels of familiarity and with greater familiarity, leaders are better able to advise and counsel those around them. This in turn increases confidence in leadership competence.
6. The diversity dilemma
Quite understandably leaders see the world through the prism of their own lens and it is through this lens that they navigate the world. The danger is when they become enamoured with those whose predisposition is to agree with everything they say. Unfettered biases produce leaders with lopsided skills sets, which whilst reflecting the personality of their superior, offer little of crosscutting value. In the context of leading from the centre, diversity is a balancing item that prevents leaders from retreating into their preferred hinterland and forces them to take a more considered view.
7. The pressure test
Leaders must know where they are needed as well as where they are not. The most effective and successful leaders apply reasonable tolerances to understand this. The idea of a tolerance ensures that leaders do not become burdened with issues that should be resolved lower down the hierarchy. If expectations of the leader fall outside of that range, it is a likely indicator of an emerging problem. By operating from a central vantage point, leaders can ensure that they do not place unrealistic expectations on themselves, nor allow others to place needless burdens on them.
To effectively lead from the centre, you need to challenge pre-conceived ideas, baked in prejudices and conventional wisdom. You also need to develop a mature and sophisticated understanding of ‘the centre’ as a concept and construct. Far from a situational no-mans-land it is the vantage point offering the clearest contextual view and the means to optimise leadership effectiveness. More than any other approach, explored in this series, it is the centre that tests how leaders think.
