Playing Second Fiddle
The reality is that 99 percent of all leadership occurs not from the top but from the middle of any organization. Usually, an organization has only one person who is the number one leader.
So what do you do if you are not that one person?
Regardless of who you are or what you do, most of you will be in a situation where you are on, but not necessarily leading, a team.
No one in our society encourages us to be second.
No one ever talks about the benefits of being the unseen support.
No one talks about the glory and rapture of playing second fiddle.
In an orchestra, composers often assign the melody to the first-chair violinist, while the second-chair violinists play the harmony or accompanying pattern. Although the first violin gets the prominence of the overall melody, second violin, or second fiddle, to use a more colloquial term, often plays the more musically challenging part. Even if the harmony is technically easier, playing the supporting part can actually require more rhythmic skill.
Leadership is best defined as influence.
If you are on a team—if you are committed to a team—you have an opportunity to lead and influence in all directions within that team.
You can influence those that work for you, those that you work with, and those that you work for.
You can influence them for good and for the sake of the vision of your organization, or you can influence them negatively, to the detriment and sometimes even the death of the organizational vision.