Leadership is an interesting concept. So many people feel they are one, but few can really describe just what is looks like. This leads us to a question, are you a leader because you have been given a position, or are you a leader because of your behavior and accomplishments?
The majority of new leaders today would say they are a leader because of their accomplishment. But are those accomplishments ‘leadership’ accomplishments or simply accomplishment within the role you previously held? Leadership accomplishments can come from anyone in any position. You can just as easily be viewed as a leader by your peers as you can by receiving a promotion into a leadership role.
The point of our coaching session today is that ‘Leadership’ has nothing to do with title or position. It has everything to do with your ability to influence the behaviors of those around you. Many teams have one or more ‘leaders’ that are actually team members that have taken on an unofficial role of guiding others in a positive way. In fact, one of our first acts as a new leader of a team is to seek out any of these peer leaders and quickly gain their support.
So we say that leadership is about ‘Influence’. So what is Influence? Well, as a leader we really have 2 approaches we can take to accomplish our goals. We can use the ‘Carott and Stick’ approach, where we provide rewards to encourage positive behavior, and threats to discourage unwanted behavior. Or we can use Influence to create a desire for team members to do the right things to produce the desired results.
The challenge with the reward/punishment approach to leadership is that this only work as long they are in front of the team members. Take the example of money as a reward for being on time for a certain number of days. You will certainly see results from this reward, but if you ever take this reward away, behavior changes and you immediately have attendance issues again. Do you really want (or need) to pay for people to do what they clearly understood they needed to do when they were hired?
So let’s look at how Influence can impact attendance. As the leader, we first of all set the example ourselves by being on time. Our actions speak much louder than simply our words. We also influence attendance behavior by taking the time to articulate the impact being late has on customers and other team members. Knowing the ‘whys” behind a policy is powerful. Influence also means that you have built a great relationship with each team member, and they feel a strong desire to perform well to please you.
We shared just 3 examples of how Influence can move team members to ‘want’ to do the right thing. Notice that no money changed hands, no one was fired or written up. We simply created the environment where team members do the right things because they have more information, and they have a relationship (positive) with you as the leader. They simply have the DESIRE to do the right things. That’s how we influence as a leader.
Kreg Enderson is a certified coach and owner operator of http://www.LeadershipMentor.net , a learning community for new leaders.
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