This Leadership Style Builds Trust With Your Team - Leading From the Side (vs. Leading From the Front)

👯‍♀️“Lead from the side”

I remember the first time my 1-up leader gave me some feedback using this phrase.

She told me that I was bringing people with me, rather than pulling them along.

🏃‍♀️💨It’s funny because probably 3 years prior to that, I had received feedback that I was running out in front of my team with all my bright and shiny ideas and that my team was struggling to keep up.

I had all these cool things I wanted us to do based on what our team was saying they needed. But it was a lot of change too quickly.

At the time, I didnt see it that way. I didnt understand why people wouldn’t want changes they asked for. In my mind, I was getting shit done and on to the solving the next problem. ✅

😮‍💨I was sprinting and my team was out of breath.

Once I got that feedback, I changed my leadership style to inserting myself back into the mindset of everyone else on the team.

I slowed down, and I metaphorically think of it as taking a walk with my people. We go where we need to go together. 👟👟

🎉When I started doing that, getting projects done because easier, and actually quicker.

The reason..

Trust. 🤝

When you lead from the side, you build trust with your people.

👀When people see that you can see them and have their best interests in mind, they will not only go for that walk with you, but they will give you ideas to make their walk more fun and better for everyone. 💡

No one feels like they have to follow. They want to be there for the walk.

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Thank you!

Kayla

Founder of KFA Consulting, LLC | Your Leadership & Career Coach