I’ve been thinking a lot about influence as of late and one thing is becoming increasingly apparent, you either have influence or you don’t. John Maxwell popularized the notion that leadership is influence and that is quite true. I’ve witnessed that those that we respect in leadership don’t need to incessantly demand things, yell at their subordinates, berate, manipulate and control things to get their way — No, they simply whisper and their influence sets in motion the very things they requested. That’s influence!
This is where young leaders miss the boat in their first leadership assignment. They haven’t built enough “influence capital” with others through respect, trust, listening, valuing others and collaboration. Positional influence is the weakest level of leadership. Instead of whispering, those without influence have to roar–they have to flex their muscles, they have to make themselves stand out as if screaming, “Do what I tell you to do, I’m the boss!” When you influence from a place of relationship and respect you can go a whole lot further faster. You can whisper, but it will be received as a ROAR that makes things happen.
What are you doing to build your influence capital with your team so that your whisper can be received as a roar?
Technorati Tags: leadership
I like this philosophy…whisper, don’t roar.
I like to listen to my team. To hear them out. To find out what makes them tick and where their passions lie. Then I like to have them micro-lead an area within their passion. I stay close if needed to provide the bumper rails to keep them within a certain area, but I give them latitude too, because they come up with ideas, implemenations, and perspectives I have never thought of.
I like to look at leadership as being part of, not over. I work “with” people. I go out of the department and give credit to the individuals who came up with the great idea or design or implementation. But I say “we did it” if the report is that a mistake was made.
I believe it was Vince Lombardi that said, “The mark of a good leader is one who takes less than his share of the credit and more than his share of the blame.” My dad had that sitting on his desk when I was a teenager. I’ve never forgotten it.