There was a day when wars were fought with the leader out front alongside the troops. Napoleon Bonaparte earned fanatical loyalty from his men partly because when the air was full of gun smoke, he’d be right there, doing whatever was necessary, from loading canon balls – the job of a corporal – to firing off rounds from a musket.

But as technology advanced to enable communication to travel further, more quickly, that lead-from-the-front mentality began to change. For most of the 20th century – most notoriously perhaps during World War I – the war experienced by the men at the front, and that experienced by leaders far behind the action, became very different.

There’s good and bad in that. You’ll hear me say that a lot, because there always is.

But you can’t deny the power of being up front where the action is, if you want people to follow you.

Getting off the battlefield and into the workplace, I posted a few weeks back about my belief in the absence of unnecessary doors. Let me elaborate on that a little though, because there is no limit to the depth of this topic.

If you want to be a real leader, being among your people as often as you can can deliver three unbeatable opportunities:

1. You get to know what they need to do their best work.

You get the clearest possible view of what they need to do their jobs, what challenges they face in getting great results and both what they’re doing best, minute-by-minute, and what they’re doing worst. You cannot get the same perspective from behind the lines, in an office with a closed door, or on a different floor of the building.

2. You can celebrate mini-victories.

We all get to celebrate the big ones. But most of your team, most of the time, aren’t delivering big victories. Yet, recognising those mini-victories; saying thank you and well done and offering sincere appreciation for the effort, can grease the wheels of the machine better than anything and create ‘wow’ morale in your team. You’ll only see them however if you get out from behind the scenes.

3. You can get your hands dirty.

Go back to the story of Napoleon loading canon balls. When his men saw him doing that, they knew he was fully committed. He was a great orator and a masterful motivator of people, but words for such a man come easily. The same rule doesn’t necessarily follow for actions.

When you demonstrate that you know how to do the job and that you’re as willing to commit to the successful outcome as they are, your voices of dissent fall silent.

I’m like everyone in that I really just want to be inspired by the people around me. Ultimately, that’s critical to leadership. I really can’t see how you can do it by choosing not to get involved though.

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