Leaders are trying to rally people to a place where even they don’t know they’re going sometimes. It’s easy to feel alone and isolated in those moments. Who do you talk to in those times of uncertainty? Who can truly understand what it is you’re going through and the particular set of circumstances that you’re facing? Who can lead the leaders?

Believe it or not, leadership can be ambiguous. The action of leading a group of people or an organization can be done well or poorly. Effective leadership requires good leaders. And if we’re asking ourselves to distinguish between good and bad leaders than we should begin to think hard about the characteristics that make up those in either case.

There are certain sights in life that you never forget once you see them — Grand Canyon, Fenway Park, Eiffel Tower, to name a few. Here’s another one: bad leadership. Nothing stains a work experience like having an incompetent or untrustworthy boss. Even now, you can probably conjure an image of the leader you were under or you hired that exhibits those negative characteristics of poor leadership - failure to accept accountability, unable to take feedback or recognizing strengths in others, etc. Regardless of your situation, the question remains: What do you do with a bad leader?

In high school, I worked at the athletic store at the local mall. Among the various merchandise carried - apparel, accessories, fan gear - the bulk of our selection was undoubtedly athletic footwear. I’ll never forget the time we were redesigning the store layout on an off day and my manager asked for me to grab the pair of “special” Reeboks from the back for the front display. Short on details, I thought to ask for further instructions but wanted to show that I didn’t need to be micromanaged. Furthermore, it had been a long work day already so I got the sense that everyone on the team was looking forward to finishing. So I headed back to the stockroom in search of the requested shoes. But on my way, I kept thinking, How am i supposed to know which Reeboks he means? What makes these shoes special? What if I grab the wrong pair and he fires me on the spot for incompetence!? These were all very legitimate questions in my adolescent brain being that I had the extensive work history up to the point of 2 whole weeks.

Well, 2020 is, among so many things already, an election year. Who are you voting for? Are you Republican? Democrat? Independent? Are you a single-issue voter? What do you look for in a candidate? Around this time, we find ourselves bombarded with robocalls, spam emails, targeted ads and direct mailers, all trying to vie for our attention and votes. That’s just the nature of life during an election cycle. But, do you know what exists no matter the year? What is ever-present regardless of whose term is soon to be up? Workplace politics.

Our vision tends to resemble an alpha personality that strikes out at the forefront with bold initiative and calls the shots for the overall team. But what if our leadership style looks different? Leading from behind is active leadership. It’s leadership that encourages leadership. It’s the leader’s ability to set clear goals, enable innovation, and step forward in key moments to unlock everyone's potential. Here are some key steps in leading from behind:

Currently, our nation is experiencing protests (and even worldwide demonstrations) sparked by the tragedies of the unarmed killing of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement. Due to these tumultuous times in our nation, we thought it would be a ripe time to revisit our insightful conversation with Bethaney Bree Wilkinson from last fall.

As business leaders, one of the most common lies we hear on a consistent basis is the statement, “I want a mentor”. It sounds well enough, but there aren’t that many people that follow through on the assertion. Most people like the *idea* of mentorship, but that’s where it ends. Why do most people say they want to be mentored, but in fact, never take the additional steps to make that statement a reality?

How to resume business and not business as usual

Your leadership skills are developed daily, not in a day.