Leading from the Bench
By Rachel Plotkin
Exploring leadership styles and how they show up for in various circumstances can help you on your own leadership journey.
We often look at our kids and want them to be the best they can, play the most minutes in a game, receive awards at competitions, get the best grade on a test, but what if we asked them when and how they felt like a leader during those games, competitions or tests. Often it won’t be the answer we expect.
During winter and spring months, I often find myself on a folding chair or bleachers watching my son’s baseball or basketball team. Since my son was in 2nd grade, I have been a spectator at many youth and now High School sporting events. This means that I sometimes watched times as my son sat on the bench and didn’t get a time at bat or even a few minutes on the court. While he is a solid player, there are times when not everyone gets to play, but my son always shows up and brings leadership from the bench.
So often, when we think of leaders, we often think about the leaders that make the most noise. But what about those that lead from behind or from the bench?
Leading from behind is a concept that was popularized by Nelson Mandela in his autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom”. In his book, Mandela describes great leaders like shepherds, “He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.” Leading from behind is not negating your authority or your leadership responsibility, it is simply harnessing it in a different way. Shepherds lead a flock from behind, quietly prodding and making sure all the sheep are following, as far as the sheep know, they are moving themselves and creating their own path. Leaders who lead from behind (or from the bench in my son’s case) lead with a quiet sense about them, giving high fives to those who come off the court, cheering for the batter who gets a home run, creating a sense of community for the team so everyone feels like they are part of the game – on or off the bench.
At Na’aleh, we are finishing a professional development Supervisors series with coach Maya Dolgin. While many of us think of supervision as leading others, supervision is the ultimate test in leading from behind. Good supervisors ask questions, coach and let their supervisees come to their own solutions for problems, while cheering them on and prodding them along the way similar to the Shepherd. One of Na’aleh’s core principles is Chavruta , the principle of partnership and mutual support. As organizations grow and change, it is important to keep this principle in mind and to use it to lead like the Shephard, from behind where everyone feels like they contribute and are respected.
At Na’aleh we will continue to help professionals and lay leaders foster their own leadership in their own way and demonstrate that leaders can come from behind, from the front or anywhere in between.
