The Influential Leader
The Influential Leader
One of the most important aspects of influencing others is spreading and soliciting new ideas. That’s right, influence is a two-way street. The influential leader is a conduit of ideas – some are his while others are from his team. Some are well-baked concepts and validated theories while others are raw musings and trial balloons. Sometimes it’s about listening while other times it’s about speaking. Your focus might be on brainstorming today and on refining tomorrow. The influential leader, one way or another, forwards ideas and ultimately helps convert them into action.
This is typically a pretty organic process. It is woven into lots of informal interactions vs. formal meetings (think midnight discussions in the hallway of your college dorm). As a result, the key is to carve out time for lots of brief interactions where you can to ignite such discussions at work. Some interactions might be more in-depth, but most of them are simply about connecting with people for no immediate business reason. Most discussions can be about 10 minutes and can be stimulated by questions/comments like:
1. What do you think about this idea I have?
2. How would you deal with X challenge or initiative?
3. What’s the first thing you would do if you had my job?
4. What’s on your dream list of things to work on?
5. I would like you to participant in X meeting (one they would not normally participate in) and share your thoughts.
6. I would like you to share my idea with your teammates, see what they think, then give me completely unfiltered feedback.
Rather than schedule these interactions (it can feel too formal and potentially stifling), budget five or 10 minutes before one meeting a day to zigzag your way to the meeting (or even to the restroom or lunch). Pop in on your team and strike up a conversation using some of the suggestions above (or your own version of them).
You can even add in a lunch once in a while with someone you would not typically have lunch with someone a couple levels below you or in another department.
Start small- try zigzagging once a week for a month. Set a goal of doing a daily zigzag by next year. Slow and steady as you build a habit….watch your leadership influence grow!
The Influential Leader - To learn more about this author, visit Lee Colan's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Leadership has traditionally been defined as getting people to follow your vision. However, in today’s mega-matrixed world, leaders often do not have directly authority over those they need to realize their vision. Today’s leader must frequently lead through influence – a more subtle yet powerful approach to getting things done.
One of the most important aspects of influencing others is spreading and soliciting new ideas. That’s right, influence is a two-way street. The influential leader is a conduit of ideas – some are his while others are from his team. Some are well-baked concepts and validated theories while others are raw musings and trial balloons. Sometimes it’s about listening while other times it’s about speaking. Your focus might be on brainstorming today and on refining tomorrow. The influential leader, one way or another, forwards ideas and ultimately helps convert them into action.
This is typically a pretty organic process. It is woven into lots of informal interactions vs. formal meetings (think midnight discussions in the hallway of your college dorm). As a result, the key is to carve out time for lots of brief interactions where you can to ignite such discussions at work. Some interactions might be more in-depth, but most of them are simply about connecting with people for no immediate business reason. Most discussions can be about 10 minutes and can be stimulated by questions/comments like:
1. What do you think about this idea I have?
2. How would you deal with X challenge or initiative?
3. What’s the first thing you would do if you had my job?
4. What’s on your dream list of things to work on?
5. I would like you to participant in X meeting (one they would not normally participate in) and share your thoughts.
6. I would like you to share my idea with your teammates, see what they think, then give me completely unfiltered feedback.
Rather than schedule these interactions (it can feel too formal and potentially stifling), budget five or 10 minutes before one meeting a day to zigzag your way to the meeting (or even to the restroom or lunch). Pop in on your team and strike up a conversation using some of the suggestions above (or your own version of them).
You can even add in a lunch once in a while with someone you would not typically have lunch with someone a couple levels below you or in another department.
Start small- try zigzagging once a week for a month. Set a goal of doing a daily zigzag by next year. Slow and steady as you build a habit….watch your leadership influence grow!
The Influential Leader - To learn more about this author, visit Lee Colan's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Lee's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 NichePreneur Mindset Networking Road Warrior Disappearing Leader Memorandum Template 1 Your Annualized Bus Dev Plan |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Business Plans
Top Business Plan Blogs | |
 |
Top 50 Niche Blogs 2009
Top 50 Niche Blogs 2009 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||