A dotted line connects me to my closest peers at work. We’re at the same levels though our range of experiences is vastly different. We are cohorts but competitive and being in a non-revenue sector of the business often feel that we are collectively undervalued for our contributions to the company. We mostly work independent of one another, but bigger projects require significant collaboration within the team. A common teamwork refrain, whether in the classroom or corporate office, we rely on teammates to set up and become leaders on occasion. This situation presents an opportunity for long-term gain, should someone volunteer to take on more responsibility.
Rather than equally assign responsibilities based on workload in a corporate setting, upper management often relies on team members to volunteer for pseudo-leadership positions. This informal leadership can have long term benefit for the individual but is often detrimental to individual morale, as noted by Chiu, Nahrgang, Bartram, Wang, and Tesluk, 2021, yet the structure rarely shifts. If informal leadership is a common organizational path within teams, then managers should be particularly aware of how to best support their teams. Situational leadership theory developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1969) and refined by Blanchard et al (2013) can help managers understand the ways in which to best support their subordinates (PSU WC, 2021, L6).
Informal leadership arises out of company necessity rather than the sheer will of the individual, which in turn necessitates a shift in actual leadership from a manager. As cited by Chiu et al (2021), a “significant inverse correlation between team members’ informal leadership status and their energy levels” (p. 1) was found in a study of 500 individuals. This correlation leveled out in Chiu et al (2021) when subjects were provided with high levels of support from leadership. While many leaders may look at informal leadership as an opportunity to delegate to subordinates that could lead to lower morale and energy, as shown by Chiu et al (2021). This examples demonstrates that primary leadership needs to either Coach (high-support high-direction) or Support (high-support low-direction) informal leaders according to the Situational Leadership theory.
Individuals who volunteer for such informal leadership positions are likely to be around the Developmental Level Three (D3), wherein they are able to perform the tasks assigned but lack confidence to do so (PSU WC, 2021, L6). Development level, much like skill or other ability, is fluid, and can increase or decrease according to the task and leadership of their manager. In this way, Situational Leadership II (Northouse, 2019, p.98) is highly considerate of the followership-leadership relationship.
References
Chiu, C., Nahrgang, J., Bartram, A., Wang, J., & Tesluk, P. (2021, September 27). Research: Informal Leadership Comes at a Cost. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/09/research-informal-leadership-comes-at-a-cost
Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: theory and practice. Sage Publishing
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2021). PSYCH 485 Lesson 5: Style and Situational approaches. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2132629/modules
Hello,
I enjoyed reading your post and felt a direct connection on the workplace story regarding informal leadership and the impacts leader behavior can have on individuals in those positions. I recently transitioned from being an “official” leader within my organization to an individual contributor, so fortunately I can look at your situation from two different lenses. I understand that its common in your workplace (and traditionally many others) for employees to take on leadership opportunities, whether it be out of necessity of the situation or to provide career growth opportunities, but I wanted to know more about how you directly felt about being placed in these situations? Do you find yourself volunteering for these assignments or do you stray away from them because you’ve personally felt a lower sense of moral and energy, as researched by Chiu et al (2021).
I personally don’t see these types of assignments as only a means to delegate tasks, but also to expose individuals to new challenges and show commitment to their future growth; use it as a way to uncover hidden talents. I used to lead a team of six manufacturing engineers of varying developmental levels. My rockstar lead engineer was easily a D4 and then I had a handful of D3s and D1s. When everyone was swamped in assignments and meetings every day, it became very easy to rely on my one D4, acknowledging that he was a bottle neck and overworked. In an effort to shift that responsibility/burden, that’s when it was imperative to build up the confidence in the others. According to Chiu et al (2021), building an informal leadership pipeline ensures that the team will continue to be successful if informal leaders are promoted into other roles or decide to take a step back from their new responsibilities.
So, a leader can have the right vision and plan for the team by promoting informal leadership opportunities, however, if it’s not executed correctly as you mentioned in your post, it will only have a negative effect on people.
References
Chiu, C.-Y., Nahrgang, J. D., Bartram, A., Wang, J., & Paul Tesluk. (2021, September 27). Research: Informal leadership comes at a cost. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/09/research-informal-leadership-comes-at-a-cost