Don’t Pull, Don’t Push, Take Them with You
In the movies, leadership often appears heroic, where a young leader charges ahead with passion and a clear vision, expecting others to follow the path they blaze. At times there's the leader who shoulders the burden alone, dragging the team toward the goal through sheer grit and willpower. Both seem noble. Both feel bold. But both are deeply flawed in real life leadership.
Real leadership, the kind that builds trust, cultivates ownership, and endures, requires something quieter, harder, and far more human.
The Illusion of Momentum
Pulling a team exhausts the leader. They become the engine, the fuel, and the map. Every decision will bottleneck at their desk. While initial progress may be rapid, the team lags - disengaged, unsure, and dependent. Theirskills stagnate because the leader has carried the weight for them. This approach breeds a cycle of burnout, both for the leader and for the team.
Charging ahead and expecting others to follow leaves people behind. They may admire the leader's drive, but they aren’t truly with them. Clarity for the leader becomes confusion for the team. Speed for the leader translates to struggle for others. As the leader races forward, they risk the vital connection between themselves and their people, leaving the team to feel isolated and uncertain of the journey’s purpose. Eventually, what seems like a solitary victory becomes a collective loss for the team.
Leadership as a Shared Journey
A better approach is to take them with you, not by dragging or demanding, but by inspiring. Leadership means bringing people alongside, not leaving them behind or beneath. It’s not about pushing them to the finish line or pulling them across it. It’s about building a shared journey that aligns everyone’s purpose, skills, and energy toward a common goal.
At its core, this type of leadership is rooted in the concept of bottom-up leadership, a leadership model that empowers the team rather than dictating to them. Rather than pushing down directives from the top, you bring people along by sharing the ownership of decisions and the direction that you will go. It's a gradual evolution, moving from a hierarchical structure where orders are passed down to one where leadership is distributed and collaboration is at the heart of decision-making.
When leadership evolves into a shared journey, it’s about pacing and synchronizing the team's efforts. It’s about fostering alignment, not just speed, and creating an environment where everyone feels like they’re walking side by side with the leader, not simply following or lagging behind. This requires listening to the team, understanding their strengths and challenges, and guiding them in a way that respects their autonomy while ensuring that the group's vision stays unified.
To effectively take people with you:
- Communicate context, not just direction. Help the team understand not just where you are going, but why you are going there. This deeper connection to purpose builds ownership and engagement at every level.
- Share authorship of the plan. In a bottom-up approach, let the team's fingerprints shape the map. Everyone’s perspective matters, and by integrating diverse ideas, you enrich the journey and empower your people.
- Coach for capability, not dependency. Invest in developing your people, not just in achieving tasks. When you focus on evolving their leadership skills, you move beyond dependence and create a culture of shared responsibility. The goal isn’t just to get the work done, it’s to help the team become capable of steering their own ship, empowered to lead in their own right.
The Paradox of Effective Leadership
Jim Collins describes Level 5 Leaders as blending deep personal humility with intense professional will. They are ambitious not for themselves but for the mission and the team. These leaders don’t shout from the front or groan under the load. Instead, they walk alongside, shaping culture and multiplying leadership as they go. They inspire through action, not by dictating from the front.
The beauty of bottom-up leadership is that it allows leaders to guide, rather than command, their teams. It's not about the leader being the lone expert or the one with all the answers. Instead, it’s about enabling others to step up, contribute, and lead in their own ways, with the leader serving as a guide, a mentor, and a facilitator of growth. The focus shifts from “I” to “we,” and success is shared, not individualized.
Hemingway, known for his concise and powerful writing, would likely put it like this:
“The good leader didn’t bark orders or carry the burden alone. He walked beside his team, making them better. Together, they achieved more than he could alone. And in doing so, they built something that none could have built alone.”
Walk With, Don’t Walk Ahead
Leadership isn’t about the distance traveled alone. It’s about how many you bring with you, how much they grow, and what you build together because of it. The most effective leaders are those who guide with humility, who recognize that leadership is not a solo venture, but a shared journey.
So, if you are ready to dive into a leadership opportunity, consider the following approach:
Don’t pull them. Don’t push them.
Take them with you.
Move forward on a shared journey, with everyone moving toward the same destination.
- David