Titles are good for stroking egos, but they don’t mean much as far as leadership. As Margret Thatcher, the former British prime minister observed, “Being a leader is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
Many misguided leaders aspire to gain power and positional authority. After all, that’s what was taught…in the 1970’s and 80’s! But power isn’t leadership, it’s control. And today’s best leaders are realizing that power is an outdated and ineffective tool in the modern world of business. In fact, in the Maxwell leadership model, power-based positional leadership is the lowest level of all. Power doesn’t work very well when those we’re trying control have the choice to just not do what we say they must. “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” And in today’s fast paced mobile business environment, the ‘cat’ is rarely around watching the every move the mice make.
Influence is a much more,dare I say, ‘powerful’ goal for a leader to aspire to. Having influence with those we work with is much more valuable. And influence is developed first by showing that we care about the people we work with. As the saying goes, “people don’t care how much you know, until (and nowadays ‘unless’) they know how much you care.” To become influential we must connect with those we hope to lead. We must show that we care about them and that we know where to head in the future. We must have their best interests in mind as we navigate forward. Because they are the ones that will bring our vision to life…or not.
And if we don’t we might fall victim to the old saying, “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.”
Are you trying to develop influence or acquire power?
