Push vs. Pull Leadership

What type of leadership do you practice? OR, what type of leadership do you witness at work? Leadership has many different components, but two major different strategies with completely different outcomes. Which do you think is more effective?

The practice of push vs. pull management and leadership is common in business development, coaching, and employee training. No matter what position you currently hold, it’s important to know and understand the difference of push vs. pull leadership.

Push Leadership

Push leadership is too often overlooked. When people think of a boss, they assume that boss or manager should push you. Many people think this aligns with challenging you which is usually not the case. Pushing people too much will push them away in many cases.

As a leader or manager, when you push people, you are more directive-based and you aren’t allowing any creativity or collaboration in to the relationship you have with your employee. This can create a disconnect with your employee relations which will not lead to success.

It is also very important to recognize when your manager or boss is pushing you too far. This may feel like you don’t have a voice and you can’t authentically engage with your boss because they aren’t open to your creativity or ideas. Check out my previous blog post here where I discussed how to be creative in your workplace. How do you relate to these situations?

“Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.”

Dwight Eisenhower

Pull Leadership

Now when you think of pull leadership, it is a totally different perspective. As a leader, you pull your employees to WANT to follow and do what you do. When you are practicing pull leadership, you are allowing for your employees and coworkers to offer more creativity and collaboration. Instead of pushing them, you are now creating a safe place for them to feel comfortable sharing their ideas.

Check out this blog on push vs. pull leadership. Although leaders can utilize both push and pull, push leadership may not be as successful and effective in most situations. In the end, you want your employees to have a relationship and connection with you as a leader and with your passion for your business. In order to do that, practice pull leadership. It will take some time to adapt and change your style of leadership, but it will have a greater return in the long run.

There is no bad way to lead. But with whatever you do, you will just have different outcomes. So the question is, what outcome do you want? What type of leader do you want to be? I would love if you shared any personal experience below!

Thanks for reading!