Reverse Leadership? Another Buzz Word for Disruptive Thinkers?

This will be no news to most military leaders, but is still worth pointing out the source and a different perspective on leadership.  A Harvard Business Review blog post discusses the concept of "reverse leadership."  This is a buzz phrase for what some call functional leadership and what could be simply stated as "letting experts or other people with good ideas in your organization take the lead on creating a solution even if they don't hold a formal leadership billet."  Yes, yes, another buzz phrase, grumble, snipe, snark, but it is worth considering concepts and we don't have to carry the buzz phrase branding with them.  The author, Scott Edinger offers a list of suggestions.

1. They're the ones with strong interpersonal skills born of self-awareness. [To lead through influence and not authority] they must be self-aware enough to understand the effect their words and actions have on other people. …
2. They focus more on results than on process. Anyone can follow the process, as the old saying goes, but it takes leadership to know when to break from it. Reverse leaders don't break rules simply to be rebellious. They break them because they're focused on the outcomes rather than the process for producing outcomes. …
3. They exhibit particularly high degrees of integrity. …
4. They have deep professional expertise in at least one discipline vital to the organization. …
5. They maintain an unswerving customer focus. [R]everse leaders …tend to be found further down the organization and by extension closer to the customer. … And such focus can have tremendous value to any organization, if properly recognized and encouraged.

Read it all here.