Leading Upward
Does your company maintain a culture open enough to lead upward? Leading upward means that the people above you, whether in actual or perceived rank, allow you to lead them as well. Not only does your culture need to be in proper form to allow this, but the leaders above you need to be at a stable enough level to allow you to speak freely. This can often be a scary proposition, but if it is done with respect and compassion, both parties get stretched to a higher leadership level overall. What would it take for this to be acceptable in your organization? If you are at the top, are you allowing this type of leadership? What is stopping you? Please share with us in the comments.
photo by timabbott
November 19th, 2008 at 11:18 am
We have a culture that is systemic of the overall culture of San Antonio pervading a sense of hierarchy and rank because of it’s military presence. With that being said, our organization is still autonomous in some ways. I have found that the culture in our organization is open to leading upwards but our people choose not too. They are either too scared and don’t have the guts, or they choose to internalize the need and rather project their feelings and attitudes negatively. 99.8% of our folks also probably don’t have enough actionable items necessary to know how to lead upwards anyway. This is my sense as to why things become internalized and brew into a negative mess.