Challenge #7
THE INFLUENCE CHALLENGE:
Leading Others Beyond Your Position Is Not Easy
THE KEY TO SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATING THE INFLUENCE CHALLENGE:
Think influence, not position.
As you have read about the previous six challenges, perhaps you have felt that their impact on you is minimal. If so, you can consider yourself fortunate. Nobody, however, escapes the Influence Challenge, no matter how wonderful an organization you work for or how great your boss is. Leading others beyond your position is not easy. If real leadership were easy, anybody would do it, and everyone could excel at it.
Most good leaders believe in themselves and their leadership. They are confident that if others would follow them, then the team would benefit and accomplish its goals. So why doesn’t that always happen? Why don’t people who report to them line up to follow? Because they don’t have to! Leadership is influence. If you have neither position nor influence, people will not follow you. And the further outside your position they are, the less likely they are to let you lead them. That’s why 360-Degree Leaders work to change their thinking from I want a position that will make people follow me to, I want to become a person whom people will want to follow.
PEOPLE FOLLOW LEADERS . . .
It’s a fallacy to believe that people would automatically follow you if you were the positional leader. Leaders who have actually been on top know that it doesn’t work that way. Do people follow you now? If they follow you today, then they will follow you tomorrow when you have a better position. But if people don’t follow you where you are currently, then they won’t follow you where you’re going either.
360-Degree Leaders work to change their thinking from, I want a position that will make people follow me to, I want to become a person whom people will want to follow.
The only solution to the Influence Challenge is to become the kind of leader other people want to follow. And what kind of leader would that be?
PEOPLE FOLLOW LEADERS THEY KNOW—LEADERS WHO CARE
Many people try to move others by criticizing them or trying to “power up” on them. People generally respond by becoming defensive, behaving combatively, or isolating themselves. Protestant reformer John Knox said, “You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.”
On the other hand, if leaders care about each individual as a person, then people respond well to them. The greater the depth of their concern, the broader and longer lasting their influence. Bo Schembechler, former head coach of the University of Michigan football team, remarked, “Deep down, your players must know you care about them. This is the most important thing. I could never get away with what I do if the players felt I didn’t care. They know, in the long run, I’m in their corner.”
People can sense how you feel about them. They can tell the difference between leaders who are using them for their own gain and those who want to help them succeed. People warm up to warm people. They get to know the heart of someone who cares, and they respond well to them. I think of it this way: second-mile leaders produce second-mile followers. If you go out of your way to care about others and help them, then they will go out of their way to help you when you ask them to.
PEOPLE FOLLOW LEADERS THEY TRUST—LEADERS WITH CHARACTER
Political theorist Thomas Paine said, “I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ’Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” What gives a leader the strength to exhibit such admirable qualities? The answer is character.
“You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.”
—JOHN KNOX
We tend to put a lot of emphasis on intelligence and skill in this country. And while those things are important, they cannot substitute for strong character. As I teach in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, trust is the foundation of leadership. A leader who understands all too well how character issues impact leadership is Chuck Colson, the former Nixon aide who was imprisoned in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Colson turned his life around after that ordeal and now lectures on leadership and faith issues. He said: “As you go through life, whether it’s in the military, in your business, in the church, or whatever walk of life (and certainly in your family), someone is going to depend on your character more than upon your IQ.”
Most people would acknowledge that trustworthiness is important in a leader. What some people don’t recognize is the importance of trustworthiness in would-be leaders. Rod Loy, who leads a large organization in Little Rock, Arkansas, said:
Too many middle leaders say, “When I become the leader, I’ll change the way I live.” I meet with so many people who are second in command who don’t live according to the character code of top leadership. Their thought is, I don’t have to live by that until I become the visible leader. My belief is, if I don’t live by those high standards, I’ll never become the leader. I choose to limit my freedoms—because I understand the sacrifices of the position I one day desire to possess.
If you desire to overcome the influence challenge, then develop and exhibit the kind of character that you would find admirable in a top leader. That will pave the way for relationships with others today and prepare you for nonpositional leadership for tomorrow.
PEOPLE FOLLOW LEADERS THEY RESPECT—LEADERS WHO ARE COMPETENT
Respect is almost always gained on difficult ground. A leadership position will help a leader only until difficulties arise. Then the leader must arise to meet those difficulties. Leaders who are incapable of meeting challenges may desire respect from their followers and peers, but they rarely get it. They may be liked if they possess good character and care for others, but they won’t be highly respected. People may treat them kindly, but they won’t listen to them. Everyone may have the right to speak, but not everyone has earned the right to be heard.
While poor leaders demand respect, competent leaders command respect.
While poor leaders demand respect, competent leaders command respect. Being able to do a job well brings a leader credibility. If you think you can do a job—that’s confidence. If you actually can do it—that’s competence. And there is no substitute for it.
PEOPLE FOLLOW LEADERS THEY CAN APPROACH—LEADERS WHO ARE CONSISTENT
One middle leader I interviewed while working on this book, whom I will call Fred, told me he once had a very moody leader as his boss. He never knew whether the “good boss” or the “evil boss” would show up at the office on any given day. But Fred learned how to deal with the issue after following the advice of a fellow staff member.
If Fred had a problem at work that would need the attention of the moody boss, he would add that to a running list he kept and took to their weekly staff meeting. Fred was always very careful never to sit next to his boss during the meeting. That way, he had a chance to observe how he treated others as discussion went from person to person around the table. After the boss talked to two or three employees, Fred could gauge what kind of mood the boss was in that day. If his boss was in a bad mood, Fred would keep his list to himself and save it for another day. But if the boss was in a positive and helpful mood, Fred asked every question on his list and got a good answer for every one. Fred often ended up holding his list for five or six weeks until the boss’s mood was right. The bad news was that there was often a delay in resolving some important issues, but the good news was that his moody leader rarely bushwhacked Fred.
A Yiddish proverb states, “If you act like an ass, don’t get insulted if people ride you.” I guess you could say that is what Fred had to do to get along with his inconsistent leader. Consistency isn’t easy for anybody. In fact, writer Aldous Huxley said, “Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.”
If you want to be the kind of leader others want to follow—a 360-Degree Leader—then plan to fight the good fight to be consistent so that you are approachable. Even if you care for people, are honest with them, and can perform your job well, unless you are consistent, people will not depend on you, and they will not trust you.
PEOPLE FOLLOW LEADERS THEY ADMIRE—LEADERS WITH COMMITMENT
I love the story of the farmer who had experienced several bad years and went to see the manager of his bank. “I’ve got some good news and some bad news to tell you,” he told the banker. “Which would you like first?”
“Why don’t you tell me the bad news first and get it over with?” the bank manager replied.
“Okay. With the bad drought and inflation and all, I won’t be able to pay anything on my mortgage this year; either on the principal or the interest.”
“Well, that is pretty bad,” responded the banker.
“It gets worse. I also won’t be able to pay anything on the loan for all that machinery I bought—not on the principal or interest.”
“Wow, that’s really bad!”
“It’s worse than that,” continued the farmer. “You remember I also borrowed to buy seeds and fertilizer and other supplies? Well, I can’t pay anything on that either—principal or interest.”
“That’s awful—and that’s enough! Tell me what the good news is,” the banker pleaded.
“The good news,” replied the farmer with a smile, “is that I intend to keep on doing business with you.”1
The joke is corny, but it is true that people admire people who exhibit great commitment. Think of some of the great leaders you admire. When I think of people like Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Wesley, one of the first qualities that comes to mind is their commitment. They gave everything they had to leading according to their principles.
Several years ago, I coauthored a book called Becoming a Person of Influence with Jim Dornan. Many people tell me that of all my books, it is their favorite. Why is that? I believe it’s because it’s a book on leadership for people without leadership positions. It’s especially popular among people involved in network marketing, because their business is entirely influence based. The book is based on an acrostic that I will give you now, because it describes the qualities of an influencer and is easy to remember.
INTEGRITY—builds relationships on trust
NURTURING—cares about people as individuals
FAITH—believes in people
LISTENING—values what others have to say
UNDERSTANDING—sees from their point of view
ENLARGING—helps others become bigger
NAVIGATING—assists others through difficulties
CONNECTING—initiates positive relationships
EMPOWERING—gives them the power to lead
If you work hard to do all of these things with the people in your organization, you will overcome the Influence Challenge. The whole secret is to think influence, not position. That’s what leadership is all about. If you begin to practice the qualities of influence, you will be ready to take on one of the toughest tasks of 360-Degree Leaders: leading up. That’s the subject of the next section of this book.
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