The Backstage Leader

I was recently told the story about a group of doctors working in the surgery department of a public hospital in Buenos Aires. They were threatening to go on strike arguing that the department was suffering lack of leadership and was difficult to work in those conditions. The management of the hospital decided to hire somebody with strong personality and gave him instructions to focus on execution of pending projects. A few weeks after the new appointment, the same group of doctors went on strike, but this time because they did´nt like the forceful style of the new head which, from their perspective, did not respect the views of the group.
Classic Leadership
The above story reminded me of something that happens very often with lawyers and professionals in general: they need to be lead to learn and be effective in their work, but they are resistant to it. Why? This takes us to the classical leadership formats that you see in law firms.
One is the “friendly-no-conflict” style. Lawyers are professionals and they should be respected as peers. This approach praises consensus and individual proactivity, but is really an evidence of weakness in the leadership abilities of the firm. It is a mistake to confuse a productive leadership with the need for consensus that law firms need.

The other style is the “charismatic leader” that is typical in many firms. The charismatic leader generates enthusiastic followers, due to an attractive personality and the ability to covey strong messages that provokes adherence to the project. Sometimes these leaders are very effective and create powerful projects where people can identify and feel part of.
But charismatic leadership brings tension in the long run and makes succession very difficult, even for those that have the best intentions of leaving a lasting legacy. At the core of this tension lies the problem that charismatic leaders are the heroes of the story, and the rest are … well, just followers who admire, learn and reap the fruits of the leader´s success.

Creating Heroes
Professionals do not like to be just followers or observers of other´s successes. They like to have leading roles in the firm´s life; they like being héroes, even in a small part of the story. And that is what backstage leaders do: they create heroes. How?
The first condition is that a backstage leader should be more worried about the lawyers he or she leads that about him or herself. It may sounds easy, but it is very hard for many leaders, even the good ones. They are too used to people telling them how great they are, and that is something difficult to leave behind.

The main purpose of a backstage leader is to instill self-confidence in his/her subordinates. They need to believe that they can do a great work and make a difference, and a good leader makes them believe that. An effective way to do this is to gently push professionals into the center of the scene where action takes place and give them courage to face the challenge. Whether in meetings or calls with clients, counterparties or authorities, or any circumstance where professional value is requiered, a good leader creates an opportunity for his/her people to show what they can do and to learn from the experience. His or her own image is secondary to this particular purpose. This type of leader will seek personal shining only as it is necessary for the client´s or firm´s purpose, but will otherwise prefer his/her subordinates to take the primary role. As Patrick McKenna and David Maister suggested in “First Among Equals”, a good leader or coach obtains satisfaction and reward from the success of others.

Proffesionals are bound to thrive with backstage leaders. These leaders can extract the best out of them and make them very happy in the process. It may look as if great firms need great charismatic leaders and in many cases is probably true, but to be able to excell in a sustainable way firms need to produce backstage leaders who, in turn, create professionals who can feel that they are the heroes in the story.
¿Are you ready to be a backstage leader?