If you are the average leader, you lead from the middle.

(I know, you aren’t average. You are awesome!)

But let’s say your actual position is similar to most other leaders: You have people or projects that you directly oversee. But you probably report to someone else as well.

You are leading from the middle.

This creates a tension. It isn’t unique. Actually, for all of its commonness—it is rarely discussed.

You have to communicate up and down the organization. You have to manage the expectations and emotions of people above you and below you. From your “middle” vantage point, you often have a pretty decent perspective of the organization. You often feel the traction or slippage between the expectations of those you report to and the people you lead to make it happen.

Fortunately, what it takes to lead up and lead down are very similar skills. In fact, the similarity is what often confuses people. There are some meaningful differences. But the truth is that the more skillful you are leading in one direction, the more skillful you can be at leading in the other. It’s transferable.

Building a Bridge vs Selling a Bridge

Many leaders are engineers or architects at heart. We love to build bridges. Some might be attracted to the challenge of the design or the problems that are overcome. Others might be attracted to the beauty of the design or the statements that are made. We can talk forever about these details.

The problem is, nearly everyone else primarily just wants to know, “Why?” Questions like: What does this bridge make possible? Does it increase safety? Will it improve the economy? Does it improve quality of life?

In most cases, the answers to these questions are what will motivate people to pay for or use the bridge.

Most people don’t care much about how the bridge was built, how the design is unique or about the engineering challenges that were overcome. They just want to know, “Will it stay up, where does it go and do I want to go there.”

Excellent leading from the middle = being excellent at explaining “Why” the bridge is there as well as explaining “How” it will be built.

Core Principles for Leading Up and Down.

1. Connect & Communicate Multiple “Why’s”

The best leaders are excellent at understanding and being able to articulate more than one “Why.”

Corporate Whys: The best organizations and teams have a clearly defined, “Big Why.” Everyone knows why they are there, what they are trying to accomplish, and what all of their aggregate efforts are adding up to.

Different divisions, departments, functions and teams should all have their own “Small Why” that connects their specific responsibilities to the “Big Why.”

When leading down, you often (meaning all the time) need to remind people of how what they are doing connects to the larger mission or purpose being pursued.

It’s a bad plan to tell your spouse, “I love you,” once, at the beginning of a marriage and figure you don’t need to re-communicate and reinforce that statement regularly.

It’s a similarly poor plan to think that because a mission statement is on a wall or an orientation document that everyone understands, remembers and is motivated by it for the remainder of their career. Constantly refer to and reinforce, “Why.”

Leading up and down:  People forget. Even leaders forget. They lose track of understanding and connecting whatever it is you are reporting, recommending or directing to the “Why.” Sometimes they need to be reminded. Whether speaking up or down the chain of command, create a connection to the “Why.”

Personal Why’s: Regardless of the corporate “why ” each individual has a personal “why” that they are pursuing. This personal “why” is usually stronger and more motivating than the corporate “why.”

The best leaders learn what motivates their people on a personal level. They work to demonstrate how the individual “Why” is satisfied by the corporate “Why.” The more that someone believes their personal desires and motivations are met by pursuing the larger corporate goals, the stronger their motivation will be.

Leading Up and Down: Remember the bridge analogy? Front line staff must be reminded that the individual bricks they lay add up to building something beautiful which improves their community. Otherwise, they only focus on the bricks. To them, the bricks become the most important thing.

Senior leaders need to be reminded of the same thing. Otherwise, the bricks also become the “biggest thing” but usually in a negative way. “Why do we need all these bricks? Just build the bridge!”

Leading the middle means connecting what you are doing to “Why” both up and down the ladder.

2. Know The “How’s.”

There is a key mistake that many leaders make. Especially the kind of leaders who care. The kind of leaders who read leadership blogs or books. So maybe you.

That is to think that “Vision is Enough.” It’s not. You can’t “Why” your way to success.

A vision without a plan is only a dream.

A plan without a vision is only a burden.

A vision with a plan is where success is realized.

The most effective leaders can effortlessly switch back and forth from explaining the, “Why,” to explaining the, “How,” depending on the needs of the moment. They are able to recognize and differentiate when someone is asking a question that requires a, “Why” response or a “How” response.

Leading Up and Down: This topic is often described as leading down. However, when leading up, you still need to pay attention to the question, “Does this leader need to reconnect to the ‘Why?’ or the “How?’” Ask good questions or frame your statements.

Always be ready to explain, “How.” Always connect, “How” to “Why.”

When leading up, sometimes you need to pull a “How” or a “Why” from the senior leader. Sometimes it isn’t clear to you. It may not be clear to that leader either. A healthy leader or team will wrestle with this until it is clear.

Every time.

3. Speak to Hearts and Minds

Many years ago, I used to work with a critical incident response team. When a crisis, accident or disaster happened, we were often tapped to work with the victims or first responders.

Our role was to help mitigate the psychological impacts of trauma. It is an effective approach and service.

One of the early lessons I learned is that people tended to break down into two groups. One group was people who needed to be engaged emotionally. The second group needed to be engaged intellectually.

One group needed to feel heard, they needed space for their emotions, they needed help feeling validated. Once that happened, they usually did pretty well.

Another group needed information. They needed facts, they needed to know options, they needed to not feel left in the dark, they needed to process choices. Once that happened, they usually did pretty well.

Sometimes, the same person switched. They started out needing one approach. When that need was sufficiently met, the other need surfaced. We switched with them.

It didn’t help to bring too many facts to someone who needed to process emotionally. In fact, it created problems.

If we tried to connect emotionally to someone who needed to process intellectually, they would typically reject our efforts.

As a leader, a “Why” or a “How” can be either an emotional or intellectual answer. Being able to recognize which is needed can be very helpful.

Many intuitive, big-picture people need to know the “Why” to be able to feel motivated. In most professions, it is more likely that senior leaders will be bigger picture thinkers. (This isn’t always the case though.) In fact, they’ll often accept a “Why” without knowing or caring about “How.” Your job is to remind them that the “How” is what makes the “Why” possible.

Concrete thinkers will more likely accept the “Why” but it may feel too big or overwhelming to them. Statistically, nearly 80% of the population is more likely to be concrete thinkers. They’ll often need to quickly understand the “How” to be able to emotionally engage. Your job is to ensure that the “How” is developed quickly and that they don’t confuse the “How” for the “Why.” Because sometimes “How” needs to change.

Always Selling the Bridge

When leading from the middle, you both have to understand how to build the bridge and sell it. The better you become at doing both, the more effective you will be. The more you can discern:

• Does this person need to be reminded of “Why” or “How?”
• How do I sufficiently connect the two?
• Does this person have an emotional or intellectual need for that answer? How then should I best respond?

People forget. They get distracted. They lose perspective.

Leading from the middle means you become excellent at helping them regain perspective. Whether they lead you or you lead them.

Take good care,

Christian

P.S. Would you like to improve your personal leadership performance? How about that of your team? For a no-obligation conversation, please contact me at 907 522-7200 or christian@vantageconsulting.org