How to Tell If You're A Middle Leader: Hallmark # 2

This blog post is the second in a three-part series on how to tell if you’re a middle leader.

For those who didn’t read part one, let me bring you up to speed on how you can tell if you’re a middle leader.

Hallmark #1: You know you’re a middle leader when you have people who look to you for leadership and you are located in the middle of the organization’s structure. If you’ve read part one of this series, you may have taken the time to draw a chart of your organization’s structure and put a red circle around where you are located. Okay, so now on to Hallmark # 2.

Hallmark #2: You know you’re a middle leader when your role calls for you to be both follower and leader. In other words, a middle leader is one who is both led and leader. Middle leaders are led by those above them in the organizational structure, and they lead those below them in the organizational structure—back to that big red circle in the middle of the chart!

Of course, at this point, it begins to get a little more complicated than merely looking at a position on an organizational chart. Middle Leadership is a complex undertaking, and the follower/leader relationships add to the complexity. In this position, there are a lot of people to please. Find your circle on the chart. Then look up the line, down the line and horizontally across the structure. There are a lot of people to please; some you follow, some are colleagues and some you lead. In all cases, the people aspect of the middle leadership is evident—relationships are important.

Speaking of relationships, followership can be a bit of a touchy subject. The term follower can produce negative feelings. While the term leader invokes images of strength, power and success, the term follower can conjure up images of weakness, powerlessness and even failure. Consequently, some feel that the term follower can be demeaning and even demoralizing. Ian Chaleff disagrees. In his book The Courageous Follower, Chaleff writes about the importance of being a follower and how a follower is in position to have significant influence over the whole of the organization. He states:

“Just as a leader is accountable for the actions and performance of followers, so followers are accountable to their leaders. We must support leaders and, when necessary, help them to correct their actions, just as they must support us and help us to correct our actions.”

As a middle leader you are both follower and leader, or if you prefer, both leader and follower. In any case, both characteristics of middle leadership are important. It’s easy to like the leadership part. I hope you don’t struggle with the followership side of middle leadership. When done well, followership can be one of the most rewarding and influential parts of the follower/leader equation. So just as one can be proud to be a leader, one can be proud to be a follower. Followership is not only one of the hallmarks of a middle leader, the follower has very significant and influential role in the organization.