The Silent Election of Leadership
How do you lead?
Many organizations struggle with leadership, often puzzling over why their management techniques don’t seem to induce contribution and collaboration from their associates. The practice of management is separate and distinct from that of leadership, and so both practices require unique approaches and perspectives. While the practice of management can create some visually identifiable order, and has merit for the purposes of supervision and performance monitoring, it lacks the genuine finesse and interpersonal skills required by a leader. To drive contribution and collaboration, a leader must earn their associates’ trust, and be silently elected as an influential force.
As noted, a leader is not always the manager. The title of manager doesn't imply the privilege of being the leader, so if a manager wishes to also lead those he supervises, he must exemplify that which can be trusted. Trust is an emotional commodity. Like money, trust is exchanged between people based upon the emotions that those involved in situations feel toward all other individuals involved in the same situations. The trust of your associates take root when they recognize that that you handle situations fairly and care about those involved, taking the time to respect and understand both perspectives of a conflict and the people that promote them. A person gives their trust based on an emotional and intuitive approval or disapproval of how they and those around them are treated. There are five fundamental steps to follow in any situation as a leader.
1. Respect. Do not be biased, but do not be detached from the situation. A leader is attached to both sides of a conflict, and all perspectives of a topic equally. A leader is attached because he or she genuinely cares. To be detached and objective may solve immediate issues but does not gain the trust of those involved and will not result in your election as a leader.
2. Listen. Because he or she cares about both sides, the leader genuinely listens to all perspectives and ideas, asks appropriate questions, and does not force their own ideas unwillingly onto others.
3. Understand. By listening and asking questions, the leader attempts to appreciate all perspectives and to gain clear understanding of each case.
4. Sympathize. With clear understanding of all perspectives, the leader takes a moment to reflect on and to communicate what she understands each party’s feelings to be regarding the situation. This step shows all parties that the leader is attached to the situation, but not biased. If the people involved in a situation feel that the person mediating has taken the time to respect them, listen to them, really understand their feelings, and sympathizes with their concerns, trust is given to the mediator to handle the situation in a way that will not hurt or offend the individuals involved.
5. Collaborate. With this trust, the leader doesn't take it upon herself to solve a problem and decide what perspective or idea is the correct one; instead the leader uses her understanding of all perspectives and shares her understanding with all parties involved, providing comparisons and contrasts, allowing for all parties to collaboratively solve problems or make decisions.
This approach must be used consistently, as trust is given in small increments, and a leader is only elected as the result of a positive trend, not a single situation. With the trust of his or her peers, and having been silently elected as leader, a person in this position has begun to, and can continue to, promote collaboration within an organization. This leads to increased contribution, since lack of contribution is often a result of either resentment or distrust. When associates do not feel vulnerable or unneeded, they become part of a powerful, forward-moving force that drives a business to improve and succeed.
As is the case with money, trust can be thought of as currency, not only because it is earned and exchanged, but because it can be saved and spent. Once a person has been silently elected as a leader, he can accumulate the trust of those who have elected him. When a sufficient amount of trust has accumulated in the leader’s account, the leader has the ability to make a split-second decision and have his followers act without hesitation, even if they are unclear about the decision, its motives, or the outcome. When a leader makes a quick decision and calls his or her associates to follow in a decision without time for questions or explanation, the leader is spending trust. This type of action cannot be done routinely, or the trust will diminish. Without trust, or with a trend of abusing trust, a leader will be silently demoted. Management may be practiced without trust, however leadership cannot.
To be a leader, one must gain influence among her associates. Influence is not the same as authority or control. Somebody that has control over people has it because of position or title. Indeed, a person with control may have the ability to make others do what they wish, however without having earned trust or being silently elected, those who are made to follow a decision will resent the person in control, and will be reluctant to collaborate or contribute to any extent beyond what is obligated by contract or otherwise. People do not choose who has control or authority over them, but they do choose and allow the person to influence them.
In essence, only a leader can inspire willing contribution from associates. This applies to parenting, supervision, or any other management role. A leader makes a decision only after having gone through the five fundamental steps in any scenario; a leader makes a decision because he or she has been silently elected to do so by peers; a leader’s decision reflects the best interests of those involved in a situation, not to serve as a personal agenda.
One must earn influence among those around him in order to create enthusiasm in others to participate as a team and drive a business forward. The fact that a leader influences her associates is only because she was first recognized as someone who could be trusted and then silently elected as an influential force. These qualities have shown themselves separate and distinct from management. A manager may not always be a leader, but a leader has the trust and influence required to manage if given the proper management training. It is wise for any organization to promote the five fundamental steps of leadership when working through any situation.
Found at
http://www.qualitydigest.com/print/9870
(pardon the cord mess) All of that aside, I have spent the last evening and morning testing it and putting it through its paces. I am in the process of running the battery down for the first time and I never thought I would actually sit here and wish the battery would die so I could charge it back up to take with me. To give you an idea what I've been doing to run the battery down. I did want to test the longevity with lots of things hooked up, so I set the power to battery saver, turned the brightness all the way down, but left Bluetooth, WiFi and fancy system lights on. I also plugged in 2 external hard drives, a flash drive, a secure digital card, an external monitor, a Logitech g15 keyboard, and a Razer DiamondBack 3G mouse. With all of that going, transferring files, streaming pandora, and writing code for a website, I have been here for over 4 hours waiting with about 30 minutes remaining. Just think how long it might have gone had I just had the laptop.
