Creating Strong Organizations through Influential Leadership
by DBH Consulting
Flip through any business publication these days and you are likely to see an article about the “L” word: Leadership. It’s one of the hottest topics in business today.
Why is leadership getting so much attention? There seems to be a shift occurring in the way we look at leadership – a shift from the old “top-down” model to embracing leadership as a multi-faceted dynamic force that lives and breathes within all levels of an organization.
Leaders at Every Level
There is no doubt that an organization needs a strong leader to hold the vision and to direct the overarching strategies of a company. The leader serves as a guidelight and plays a critical role in moving the organization forward.
But when the onus of leadership stops there – if all leadership stems only from the top dog – the organization will become stagnant and the leader’s effectiveness diluted.
Imagine a choir: The director, baton in hand, sets the vision and pace and creates a focus for the group. To the observer, the choir director is clearly the leader. But much leadership is taking place among the performers as well. One strong voice becomes the right pitch to blend with. Another singer exudes enthusiasm and energy that ripples out and inspires the others to hit the high notes. The audience leads too – reverently creating an appreciative presence that motivates the choir to perform its best. Each participant is an influential leader, and only one of them is holding the baton!
Influential leadership works from the inside out (see article, “Know Thyself: Leading from the Inside Out,” on page 3 in the 3rd Quarter 2004 issue of PAR Excellence), and is accessible at every level. Most companies are set up hierarchically. Whether you are at the top, the bottom or somewhere in the middle, you have opportunities to lead influentially. In fact, by adopting an influential leadership style, you will begin to see how your leadership impacts your interaction with people at all levels in your life – those who report to you, your peers and same-level colleagues, your family, and even those whom you report to, even if you are the CEO who reports to shareholders, customers, and a board of directors.
Great companies not only desire leadership within its ranks, they thrive from it!
What Does it Mean to be an Influential Leader?
A leader knows how to accomplish goals through others, but an influential leader understands how to create an atmosphere where people have enormous desire to follow, are fully committed to the organization’s vision, and achieve well beyond the expected goals.
Prodding, pushing and coercing people toward the desired outcome can also work, but that is an exhausting and draining approach for everyone. What if, instead, you had the ability to motivate and inspire others to choose to follow you?
A critical distinction: Leaders get people to do things, but influential leaders are able to get people to want to do things.
What does it look like to lead by influence rather than coercion? Influential leaders…
- Create a compelling vision that people can relate to and see themselves in
- Demonstrate that they want to bring us along with them in achieving the vision
- Challenge us to be the best that we can be by their own example
- Command respect and admiration because they stand firm in their “center”
- Make us believe that we can learn from them
- Are authentic and have humility, and show they are willing to learn from others
- Encourage us to look beyond ourselves and to focus on the common good
- Express their own passion so contagiously, it becomes our passion too
- Make ideals seem possible, which inspires us to aspire to greater heights
- Expect more of us, more of our humanity and potential, than even we expect of ourselves
How Do You Find Your Center of Influence?
As quality coordinator, your focus is on outcomes. But let’s step back to look at what takes place within you for those outcomes to occur. The quality coordinator’s role is to mobilize energy – you are, on a daily basis, mobilizing the energy of others toward the desired result. That is certainly influential leadership in action.
To understand how this works, we need to go inside. What are the inner qualities of an influential leader? The qualities that make people want to follow your lead?
Self Knowledge – What do you know about who you are and how you got to be this way? What motivates you? What hinders you? Knowing yourself well allows you to make choices that impact your influence on what goes on around you.
Awareness of Self – How do you stay tuned in to your “self” in a given moment? If you stopped to check in with yourself right now, what are you feeling physically? Emotionally? Your ability to tap into your self awareness magnifies your intuition and provides you with the wisest counsel available – you.
Awareness of Others & the System – What’s going on around you? What information can you gather about the environment? Other People? The group as an entity? An influential leader is interested in what others in the system are experiencing. They stay tuned in by paying attention and asking well-crafted questions. They realize that they are only one part of the team and in order to inspire and lead, they must know what’s going on with others.
Curiosity – Are you only minding your own business? Or are you using your curiosity to connect with and understand others on your work team? Genuine curiosity builds bridges and enhances your collaboration with others, which ultimately improves the outcome.
Desire to Dialogue – Do you engage your team and others in your organization in meaningful dialogue? One of the most vital skills of an influential leader is creating the space for meaningful and informative dialogue. This dialogue is rich with information. The participants learn not just about the content, but also about the energy or lack of energy (resistance) that exists around a topic. Dialogue that is stimulating but non-threatening is an opportunity to get people on board.
Being an influential leader enables you to gain others’ buy-in and commitment to your ideas and directives and gives you the ability to have influence over people with a broad spectrum of priorities. This is a skill you can learn, and it starts with understanding how you lead from the inside out.
First published in the Winter 2004 issue of PAR Quarterly.
