Remember the days when your parents, spouse or friend would expertly have you accomplish something that you felt was your very own? Until it dawned on you like Homer Simpson ‘Doh’ that you were the victim of reverse psychology. Reverse psychology refers to getting another person to do or say something by telling them the opposite of what is desired. It’s a form of manipulation and its success rate isn’t something easily tolerable by the ‘party’ that is manipulated.
Are we always aware of this type of manipulation? These are the questions that came to mind when I read the article by Scott K. Edinger entitled “Find Reverse Leadership in Your Midst”. The article was an interesting one to ponder in that the author feels there is an upcoming trend, reverse leadership. What I had difficulty with was my mind set of the term ‘reverse’. As I dove further into the article it’s about allowing leadership traits from unofficial leaders to contribute to a company’s missions and or needs.
So how does one cultivate the talents of people where there are characteristics of leadership? This was one key question of the author’s article. The article when on to say not all leader skill sets in people would progress them to leadership roles within their careers but that companies should encourage reverse leadership. Maybe it’s just semantics but I don’t agree that this is specifically ‘reverse leadership’, I believe it is coaching, mentoring and empowering people in their work and career paths. Why are we changing the terms and the scope of development when it already exists?
What do you think of this idea in summary, Reverse Leadership? Is it something to embrace or toss to the side?
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