What Growing Businesses Should Know About Horizontal Leadership
When we think of a business owner or leader in relation to the rest of the company, we usually think in terms of decision-making vs. decision execution. In this structure resembling a pyramid, a small group of individuals on top makes decisions and a considerably larger group of people below is responsible for carrying them out. That’s the vertical leadership model in action.
In total contrast, the horizontal leadership model, sometimes also known as distributed, collective, or shared leadership model opts out of the mechanical “said-done” paradigm and resembles a universe of linked “orbits” where the working process is built on communication and initiative, forming a creative environment for shared decisions and mutual responsibility.
In our own company, the horizontal leadership model has always been inherent but has become a matter of dedicated focus in recent years. As a result, the quality and unified work of our team has allowed us to come out of the pandemic year with incredible company growth and important awards and recognitions for our product. In the years ahead, we see the daily culture of horizontal leadership principles as the main driver behind our team and product growth.
Here is how the horizontal leadership model operates within our team and how to smoothly implement this leadership style to propel your growing business.
How does horizontal leadership benefit teams?
Horizontal leadership is not so much a management style as the lifestyle that turns your business from a ‘structure’ into a living, creative, unified organism. We could say that the staples of horizontal leadership are: preservation, activation, and growth.
Talent preservation
The problem with outdated leadership models is that they go unnoticed until things get unbearable. Your team won’t come complaining about their boss “being more horizontal” — they will just silently leave. And likely, not for a bag full of cash (according to research, only 12% of employees switch work for financial reasons) but, in 75% of cases, for better leadership culture.
In a horizontal leadership environment, most conflict is eliminated at the root since all decisions are made openly and responsibility is a shared task. A horizontal leader’s open-mindedness, trustworthiness, and wise guidance further eliminate conflicting situations by identifying and settling issues early. This conflict-free environment along with initiative-driven workplace culture boosts team loyalty and preserves talent a thousandfold.
As a result, our colleagues freely focus on professional development, initiative, and teamwork instead of struggling to get their views across to a bunch of C-suite executives.
Activating startups and young companies
Young companies have important choices to make regarding balancing quality and quantity. Usually pressed financially and having limited people resources, startups can’t afford to make poor hiring choices — these would impact the company, its product or service, and its whole perspective of future development.
The horizontal leadership model, thriving as it does on feedback, dialogue, and shared team responsibility, is a natural answer for startups and young companies where the timely and collective generation of ideas is one of the major (and free) growth drivers.
Growth at advanced stages
Implementing horizontal leadership is especially important for those of us managing established companies. Unless such teams (re)focus on growth, there is a risk of “getting too comfortable” in old shoes, which very quickly turns into stagnation.
Despite being in the IT market for over 15 years, our own company understands well that stability is only possible through constant growth. The characteristics that make us one of 2021’s fastest-growing private California companies according to INC. Magazine, are the same factors that lie at the heart of our constant transformation and refusal to get comfortable in the limelight of past achievements.
Moreover, as a team that plans on doubling in the next years, we’re now building what I like to call the “core team” of who we’ll be in future years. In this respect, my vision is to make our team inviting for “keepers” — future leaders whose talent, professionalism, and creative energy will sustain and develop our company at every forthcoming stage of growth.
Leadership transformation is part of daily culture
One of the main reasons why horizontal leadership has become so effective and natural within our team is that we’re constantly building on past resources and knowledge. Each new leader uses the existing foundation as a trampoline to jump higher, to bring further innovations into our work process, and to inject fresh talent into our team.
At the heart of our daily workplace culture is something I call the “three Ts”: transparency, trust, and talk. Every running task, product development, stack implementation, or issue that comes up is brought up for open discussion. Nothing is left to “ferment” and then boil over into conflict. All issues are discussed with equal respect towards each team member, their opinion, and suggestions.
As the Head of Software Development at MightyCall, I don’t listen to developers based on their “junior”, “middle”, or “senior” status. I listen to each team member based on creative initiative, knowledge of the subject, and willingness to take weighted action. In a horizontal leadership organization, it’s essential to give qualified team members a safe environment for trial and error. This means that senior leaders give space to responsible junior and middle specialists in accumulating experience and actively mentor them on how to transform negative experiences into positive ones.
If the company is willing to embrace a model of guided learning, it becomes an environment of enthusiastic creators who’re eager to learn, generate ideas, and develop their professional potential. On a team like ours, you will not find “accidental” people who just drop by, do some mechanical work, and leave. The power of the horizontal organization is in the energetic role of each team member. There is no room for people who’re just “filling in a gap”. This is why this model is all about growth — from individual to business-wide.
Horizontal leadership is always feedback-driven
Horizontal teams, including ours, are built around active communication and feedback. I’d say, at this point, we come to a very important difference between horizontal and vertical leaders.
While a vertical leader’s greatest fear is one colleague challenging the rest of the team with an individual opinion, for horizontal leaders transparent discussion is a factor that, under knowledgeable guidance, becomes a major growth driver.
The power of disagreement
As soon as one team member (respectfully) opposes a general opinion and utters, “I disagree”, consider those magic words the starting point for productive discussion. It often happens that the subject of discussion helps identify a number of prospective improvements in the working processes and sparks personal growth.
As a leader, demonstrate openness towards “uncomfortable” conversations, even if you find them lying at the opposite end of your own views. This is one of the fundamental values in building a transparent, growth-centered, and feedback-driven working environment.
Communication within remote leadership
2020 was the year when any business that could go remote had gone remote. Our team was no different. Back in April 2020, our developer and product teams transitioned to fully remote work for the first time. The past year of remote work has demanded adaptation in our daily routines, and importantly, we had to pay special attention to communication as our product underwent important new releases.
Here are a few suggestions for managers who’re facing productivity gaps in remote teamwork
- Don’t take it on trust alone — Consider improving your schedule and book time for rethinking the way your team reports on deliverables. Think of remote work colleagues who require more attention, but schedule regular one-on-one Zoom calls with each member of the team.
- Develop the most comfortable communication schedule — team communication must be regular but stressless for both sides. Due to COVID-19, we have a ton of high-quality messengers and collaboration tools. Offer to choose one or several communication channels but make sure the whole team is comfortable using these apps.
- Upgrade your list of ice breakers — For the past year, most of us have been working shut away in our homes, trying to dodge the pandemic, and feeling lucky enough to find a quiet spot in the house. A year later, this means we all need some help with coming out of our “shell”. Things like ice breakers and team-building activities are incredibly relevant for remote teams. Keep these fresh, fun, and informal.
- Get ready to talk about non-work-related topics more often — Any leader knows from experience the same facts that research demonstrates: what colleagues miss most about “normal” work is an informal, humane environment. In a remote work environment, a leader should be very sensitive and understand what is happening in the lives of their team. This not only creates a warm, human bond with your team but lets you understand your colleagues’ pain points and fix them before it blows up into conflict.
Authority in horizontal teams
Authority is the classic deal-breaker that comes up when discussing horizontal leadership with old-school business owners and CEOs. For vertical leaders, the most feared aspect of horizontal leadership is chaos driven by a horizontal leader’s imagined absence of authority.
In practice, horizontal leadership has nothing in common with the lack of authority. Essentially, the core meaning of authority is transformational within horizontal teams. Authority in horizontal leadership is based not on corporate status but on the team leader’s personal example. If a leader does not have sufficient respect or there is a chaos of opinions within the team, the problem isn’t the horizontal leadership model. It’s the leader’s lack of attention and inability to be a role model for their team.
Based on our team’s experience, I would say that any kind of transformational leadership is only possible when leaders are proactive, open to ideas, and constantly learning new things — both hard and soft skills. A stagnant leader will never be successful in encouraging team potential. In contrast, a proactive leader drives the development of the entire team with their example.
In a horizontal business like ours, the direct responsibilities of someone in a management position are to motivate colleagues to explore opportunities instead of pushing down with personal authority, to guide the team through personal example, and to be productive in self-development.
Final word
Horizontal leadership is built on synergy. The synergy of ideas, talent, and resources.
Unlike the corporate leadership model which replaces unique talent with constantly coming and going human “blocks”, the horizontal leadership style our company is built on doesn’t think in terms of “human resources” or a “human pyramid”.
We think of our team as a human solar system where each team member’s orbit — their decisions, responsibilities, and initiative — influences another’s through its gravitational pull. This is why we are so particular to seek and retain energetic talent that will, in its turn, attract new generations of open-minded, modern leaders to our company.
As we’ve seen, the horizontal leadership model is a gentle yet mighty workplace universe built on open dialogue, a fearless creative environment, and mutual responsibility. By embracing this model, the only risk business founders and leaders must be willing to take is the risk to discover new worlds of opportunity for their business and to face growth beyond the ordinary.
If that feels like a future you’re as eager to create as we are, you’re on the right (horizontal) path!
