{"id":1879,"date":"2012-08-10T03:00:20","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T10:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=1879"},"modified":"2012-08-10T00:16:40","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T07:16:40","slug":"4-ways-to-lead-by-not-showing-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/10\/4-ways-to-lead-by-not-showing-up\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways to Lead by NOT Showing Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted March 6, 2012<\/em><\/p>\n

Leadership is mostly about \u201cshowing up\u201d; it\u2019s often about leveraging your presence in a room in order to influence, to cast vision, to bring alignment and to build teams.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But effective leaders I know are just as strategic about leveraging their absence<\/em> in order to move their organizations forward.<\/p>\n

Here are four situations where your most effective leadership might be leveraged by your absence.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Being absent from the \u201climelight\u201d<\/strong>
\nMany leaders simply can\u2019t resist the lure of a microphone. If there\u2019s an audience to be addressed most leaders will jump at the chance. And many times that is the right move.<\/p>\n

But effective leaders know that this can often be the opportunity to profile an up-and-coming leader in the organization. These leaders never miss a chance to profile and develop talent.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Being absent from a decision-making meeting<\/strong>
\nYou need to tread carefully here, but not<\/em> being present every single time a decision has to be made can communicate something very powerful to your team. It shows you trust them to make the right call without you.<\/p>\n

Organizations that demonstrate speed and agility excel at this.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Being absent from the \u201c30,000 foot\u201d view<\/strong>
\nEffective leaders have a knack for knowing when to step down from the big-picture vantage point, and instead spending time on the ground floor of the organization.<\/p>\n

Ever watched the tv show, \u201cUndercover Boss\u201d?<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Being absent from the office altogether<\/strong>
\nLeaders must set the pace regarding long-term thinking, strategizing and planning. And sometimes the best (and only) way to do this is to pull away from the daily responsibilities of leadership, slow down, and get away.<\/p>\n

When<\/em> should a leader leverage their absence? It tends to be more of a \u201cgut\u201d instinct. Effective leaders have a gnawing awareness that they need to pull back from one of these arenas.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been sensing a need to lead from your absence, pay attention to that instinct, and act on it.<\/p>\n

Because sometimes a leader will be most effective when they aren\u2019t around at all.<\/p>\n

Are there other situations you have found that require your absence?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally posted March 6, 2012 Leadership is mostly about \u201cshowing up\u201d; it\u2019s often about leveraging your presence in a room in order to influence, to cast vision, to bring alignment and to build teams. But effective leaders I know are just as strategic about leveraging their absence in order to move their organizations forward. Here…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[738,478,7],"tags":[818,820,669,629,819,91],"class_list":["post-1879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership","tag-absence","tag-agility","tag-develop","tag-leverage","tag-limelight","tag-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1879"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1886,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions\/1886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}