Great Leaders Build Strong Teams From Inspiration and Influence, Here's Why.
Molly’s employees are fiercely loyal to her, everyone respects her, and they are highly successful as individuals and a team. By contrast, other leaders in the organization report that their people seem disengaged, they experience high staff turnover, and their results are often very disappointing. So, what does Molly do that other leaders don't? To begin with, Molly regularly reminds her team members of the purpose of their work. She knows that she is a role model for her team, so she demonstrates integrity in all of her working relationships.
She sets high expectations, but "walks the walk" to demonstrate the standards that she expects. Molly enjoys the perks of being an inspirational leader, and it allowed her team to help their organization achieve its objectives and fulfill its purpose.
The 20th century style of leadership is dead
Effective leadership is the most critical factor for organizational success in the 21st century, the pyramid structure of the 20th century, according to Erin Binney, worked when manufacturing companies employed most of the workers and the employment contract was strictly transactional. In this system, employees came to work, did their jobs, collected wages, and went home.
Leading by fear and intimidation was the order of the day. There was a physical and emotional distance between leaders and employees. Leaders sat in offices removed from the manufacturing floor and viewed employees only as a cost of labor, not as individuals with lives outside of work.
Unfortunately, many companies are still operating with this ideology where communication is stagnated; silos are the order of the day, employees are disrespected in front of their entire team and leaders have a vested interest in building bureaucracy to protecting the status quo and keep their jobs, even though this isn’t necessarily in the best interests of the company.
The most successful companies are purposed driven
Many organizations have changed and modified their culture, changed the style of their leadership, etc. because they recognized that this generation is completely different from the baby boomers who believed in a job for life. A lot of leaders now are very inspirational, companies now are purpose and values-driven, more involved in societal issues, moved away from the annual performance reviews, developed and implement policies that strive to provide a work-life balance, flexible work hours and a host of other things that genuinely seek the interest and development of their employees.
Your Title don’t make you a leader
It's amazing how many people believe that once they obtain a certain title or level of leadership, people will automatically respect and listen to them. According to Forbes Coaches Council, they believe that with that title comes influence. Your title may mean people report to you, and it may give you the power to control them, but influence is about producing results and creating change.
As a leader, you can gain more influence by tapping into the “heart” of those you want to affect. We need fewer title-driven leaders and more influential leaders because as a leader, you have the ability to impact a person's character and behavior — a responsibility that shouldn't be taken lightly.
Molly‘s leadership provides a great example of what great leadership can accomplish with inspiration and influence.
When you understand that leadership is about people; inspiring people to believe that the impossible is possible, inspiring people to perform at heights they never imagine; inspiring people to believe in something beyond their own self-preservation to make a positive impact on your community, your company, your department, and by extension the world. When you recognized that leadership is all about people; great thing can happen and your company will be among the very best in the world.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Gifford is the author of The Inspirational Leader, Inspire Your Team To Believe In The Impossible, the founder of Leadership First, a member of Harvard Business Review Advisory Council and A leadership consultant with GLG.
