The Rear Leadership

Recognizing that specific traits are important to effective leadership is important for several reasons. First of all, this notion fits clearly with the one that suggests that leaders are inherently different; they are individuals who are “out front” and “leading the way,” which allows us to focus on other characteristics that make them unique. Some of these traits are ingrained upon a leader early in life, but just as many of them can be enhanced and improved throughout life. In addition, sometimes effective leadership is more of a mark of successfully matching a leader (and their unique skills and characteristics) with the appropriate situation, rather than changing or developing specific leadership characteristics. Nelson Mandela (R.I.P), using this rear leadership theory approach enabled South Africa to peacefully change an entire government from apartheid to the present system and smoothly transition to leadership that has gone beyond Mandela himself (This has come to pass). For your organization, there might not be so much riding on how you lead but if you are looking to truly build a sustainable and self-regulating organization that is not dependent on one individual, I would argue that leading from the back is the only way to do that.