One of the most common complaints from decision makers is that there’s too much information available and not enough time to derive meaning from it. That being the case, it’s even more critical that direction setters know how to pose the right questions at the right time to the right people.

Our assumption that leadership is positional, and therefore consigned to the highest levels, is flawed. Another assertion is that to lead you must be visible up front. Not so—it might have been true at one time, but not anymore. In fact, sometimes it’s better to lead from behind so you can see that the “followers” are headed in the right direction.

We tend to assume that a leader is someone who makes things happen. Leaders also stop things from happening—which is the basis for most customer complaints. In today’s consumer focused marketplace, initiating corrections, making adjustments, authorizing refunds, calming people down, and restoring buyer confidence are all leadership activities.

President Harry Truman made history with that famous line, “The buck stops here.” He wasn’t referring to money, but to his responsibility as the man at the top.

What worked in Harry’s time doesn’t work today. Things happened so fast, that there’s not enough time for the “buck” to work its way to the highest level. To succeed in a complex marketplace, informal leaders are needed at all levels—people who will act on the company’s behalf any time day or night. Even if you had the budget, you couldn’t hire and train enough formal leaders to cover all contingencies. 

It’s time to focus less on the position of a leader and more on the purpose of leading. The following competencies are necessary for leadership to occur. Therefore, the person(s) who performs them should be considered a leader.

– Create a vision with outcomes and goals.

– Bring people into alignment around the vision.

– Encourage open disagreement and discussion.

– Concentrate on the task at hand.

– Communicate the results to the key players.

As the old saying goes, “If it walks like a duck, acts like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck.” Substitute leader for duck and you’ve got the picture.

You don’t have to send people to a leadership program to teach them how to lead. Just ensure that they are clear on their purpose before you hand them the role. The benefit of this concept is that once the purpose is understood the role of leader can be performed by just about anyone who really wants the responsibility and cares enough to do the job right.