Silent leadership: what it is, and characteristics when managing teams

Leadership is a highly valued skill in certain sectors. However, this quality can take different forms.

One of them is known as silent leadership. In the following lines we will try to delve into this concept to know what makes it different from the rest of the ways leadership, what positive characteristics does it have in comparison with these and what is its usefulness for different positions.

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What is silent leadership?

In order to know everything about silent leadership, it is important to have a foundation about what leadership is. Is about a skill or rather a set of them, related to the ability to manage or direct other people, managing to influence their thoughts and behaviors.

The leader is able to generate enthusiasm and coordinate the efforts of a team towards a common goal, under his direction. But not only that, a good leader must know when and how to delegate some of his functions, involving the rest of the group members. Being able to motivate others is another of its fundamental traits. Another way to define this profile would be to have the ability to

socially influence others, managing to convince them to collaborate on a common project.

Leadership has to do with a series of traits of the person, among which are intelligence and charisma. It is a demanded and almost demanded skill in some areas, since a leader is much more than a boss. The boss can limit himself to ordering, while the leader sets an example, motivates, engages others and turns them into a true team.

Characteristics of this type of leader

There are many classifications of leader types. Without going into describing them, we must know that one of these types is precisely the silent leadership. Traditionally, when thinking of a leader, one has tended to fall into the stereotype of a person brimming with energy, very charismatic, who quickly monopolizes the spotlight with her overwhelming personality, with which she gets everyone to follow.

However, that's not the only leader profile out there, and it doesn't have to be the most effective either. In contrast, silent leadership appears, which uses other different traits with which to achieve the same objective, but from an alternative path. These characteristics may, perhaps, go unnoticed at first glance, but they are vitally important to your work.

We are now going to review some of the most outstanding, although they are not the only ones that we can find.

1. Active listening

People who excel in this field have skills such as a great capacity for listening, because to lead it is important to know how to transmit the message, but it is also important to know how to receive it, and a group of people who feel heard and understood by their leader will surely tend to be more motivated.

Active listening also allows the leader to have all the information about what is happening in the work environment and more specifically in his team. In this way, you can anticipate potential problems that may arise, solving them at an early stage or even before they hatch.

Therefore, active listening, as opposed to verbiage or even lip service, is a characteristic of the silent leadership, putting more weight on the information that can be received versus what can be delivered.

That does not mean that this type of leader does not speak or try to communicate, because obviously he also does, but in a simpler and more pragmatic way, as it characterizes it and as we will see in other features.

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2. Modesty

Humility is another of the fundamental traits of silent leadership. In the stereotype of a leader that we mentioned earlier, some of the hallmarks of that profile were the leading role, the striking personality, and in some cases even narcissism and a taste for being the center of attention and the figure to which everyone they want to continue.

Conversely, the silent leader does not fit that description, but he generates leadership from him from a much more humble position, becoming part of the group and even dissolving among the members of the team, giving prominence to them while he remains in a discreet background.

This humility and preference for simplicity are maintained even when his good work leads the group to achieve its objectives and others want to recognize this work. He will prefer that the members of his team enjoy and enjoy this recognition.

3. Empathy

Silent leadership has more features. Another one is empathy. We already anticipated that this type of leader prefers to listen to speak, but behind that listening this other quality is hidden, that allows you to put yourself in the shoes of others and try to feel what he is feeling, for a maximum understanding of the message that he is transmitting.

This deepening of the feelings of others, in this case of the members of his team, allows him to know at all times in what state they are and act accordingly to ensure that the people who work under him have the maximum well-being, knowing that their leader will be there when need.

Empathy humanizes the leader and makes others perceive him at the same level, not from a hierarchical perspective but from a companionship. This closeness and warmth results in an increase in their motivation, since they know that their manager understands them and is by their side.

4. Pragmatism

The person who excels in silent leadership is also characterized by pragmatism. This means that he tries to carry out simple behaviors that are aimed directly at the needs of the team and the project, without having any pretensions beyond that.

It is another of the marks of simplicity of this type of leaders, who do not need that protagonism of the we talked about previously and therefore do not see the utility of extravagant behaviors or dramatic. What they do, they do because it directs them towards the end they pursue in a direct way, or at least brings it closer to it, for no other reason..

This pragmatism turns the silent leader into an example of efficiency who, with the least amount of resources possible, manages to meet the objectives expected of him.

5. Calm

Distinctive traits such as calm also appear in silent leadership. These leaders have the ability not to get upset even in high pressure conditions, staying stoic and transmitting that state to their subordinates, that they will work with the confidence that their manager transmits to them.

From the calm, the leader will be able to make more objective decisions, without falling into impulsiveness, and therefore running less risk of making mistakes when rushing with an option that was perhaps not the most successful, due to the Pressure.

This tranquility is a trait especially valued in sectors where stress and rush reign, since It is a pillar where all the members of the group can support each other to have a stability that does not abounds.

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6. Reflectivity

Together with calm, reflexivity appears, another of the characteristics that are included in silent leadership. And is that It is not enough to not succumb to panic and stress, but it is necessary to know how to reflect appropriately during that time in order to conclude what is the smartest step one should take.

A silent leader is precisely silent, because he must be thoughtful. That ability to evaluate the alternatives and know which one he should choose is one of the skills of this profile. Furthermore, his decisions will be pragmatic, as we have already seen. Therefore, this type of leader will ponder the steps that both he and his team will take, choosing wisely and wisely.

Resume

It is interesting to analyze the interconnection between all these skills. Some of them have been explicitly mentioned, but the truth is that there are many other relationships, such as the one that can occur between active listening, reflection on it and empathy.

The sum of all these qualities, and others that have been left out of this list but are equally important, is what gives value to silent leadership.

Bibliographic references:

• Castro Solano, A. (2006). Implicit theories of leadership, context, and leadership skills. Annals of Psychology.
• Chang, T., Chou, S.Y., Han, B. (2018). Silent leaders in the workplace: Forms of leadership silence, attributions of leadership silence, and accuracy of attributions. International Journal of Business Communication.
• Gardner, H. (1998). Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership. Paidos.
• Robinson, V.M.J., Lloyd, C.A., Rowe, K.J. (2014). The Impact of Leadership on Student Outcomes: An Analysis of the Differential Effects of Leadership Types. REICE. Iberoamerican Electronic Magazine on Quality, Efficacy and Change in Education.