In the last few posts we have been discussing people pleasing and its impact on you as a leader. The opposite type of leadership, where there is little concern for others, and the focus is on getting things done, can be just as detrimental to a leader.
Some leaders miss the “old days” of command and control. It seemed to be much easier to shout, “I am in charge here just do what I say”. Easier, perhaps, but was it better? I guess it depends if you only use efficiency, not effectiveness, as your metric.
Things may have been done faster, but at what cost? The long-term impact on morale of a disengaged and disenfranchised team is significant. Ultimately, it will affect productivity and results. Poor attitudes on the part of team members soon become evident to everyone they interact with and serve. This could start to have an impact on the broader environment – the parishioners at large
US President Ronald Reagan said, “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”
The ability to influence rather than command is an essential skill that effective leaders must learn. There is an excellent online article on this topic that was posted by the University of Florida. http://training.hr.ufl.edu/resources/LeadershipToolkit/job_aids/LeadingbyInfluence.pdf
In that article, we learn that in today’s work environment, “people have a choice, and they decide each day how much or how little they will give to their job.” If they are constantly pushed and prodded or disrespected, you can soon expect to receive significant resistance.
Another unintended consequence of this type of leadership is that people led in this manner tend to lose motivation and lack initiative. This too becomes counter-productive because no one will do anything until explicitly told to do so by the leader. It leads to total dependence and no willingness to act without direction.
Ken Blanchard, a leadership expert and author of the book, Lead Like Jesus, (https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Like-Jesus-Repack-Blanchard/dp/1400314208), was quoted as saying, “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”
Influence helps you to impact how your team acts – their behavior and their attitude. You are not manipulating them but positively motivating them in their roles to help you and the rest of your team in accomplishing their goals. This builds a culture of success and cooperation among staff and team members resulting in a pleasant and positive environment.
So, influence sounds like a great quality for a leader to employ – how do you establish your ability to influence? In some respects, this brings us full circle; back to the blogs on team building. Your ability as a leader to influence your team is based on their trust in you. Obviously, trust is something that you build over time with consistent and reliable actions. In our next post we will focus on building trust as it relates to your ability to influence and lead your team.