The Core of Sustained Influence
— by John Hawkins
As Rick and Cynthia left his office, Jerry wondered if either of them would still be with the company in six months. Both were failing miserably as leaders. Rick’s team members got along great with each other, but their accomplishments were few and untimely. Cynthia’s team got every project in on time, but was made up of high-achieving backstabbers and opportunists. While Rick’s team slowed down the company, Cynthia’s team poisoned it.
Jerry found Rick was the kind of guy everyone liked. But those who followed Rick quickly realized that while he was great to be with, following him was like walking in place. Jerry recognized that Rick was a role model ethically, but he was unskilled and disengaged when he needed to inspire high performance. Over time, high achievers assigned to Rick’s team asked to move to other, more goal-oriented teams. The office had created a tongue-in-cheek motto for Rick and his long-term teammates: “nice people getting nicer.”
Cynthia was utterly different from Rick. The motto for her team was “accomplishment at any cost.” On the surface, she looked like a very skilled leader. She regularly talked with her team about vision and goals. She was a hard worker and demanded the same from her team. Cynthia noticed the small steps her team made toward realizing their vision and celebrated each accomplishment with them. For those who matched Cynthia’s expectations of drive and achievement, her team was a great environment. However, Cynthia was vicious to any team members who failed to live up to her expectations.
Within two or three weeks of joining her team, Cynthia decided the new addition’s worth. If the new member didn’t make her high-achiever cut, Cynthia used any means possible to “encourage” that team member to leave. Malicious gossip and public humiliation were two of her most skilled “removal techniques.” But there were other reasons for her team’s high turnover rate. Some members did not like who they were becoming in this cut-throat atmosphere. Others adopted Cynthia’s tactics and moved on to build their own regimes. Jerry recognized that the costs in “accomplishment at any cost” were too often the sacrifice of good people and the company's values. In fact, the many accomplishments of Cynthia’s team were beginning to have a detrimental effect on the company’s culture.
Jerry knew that neither Rick nor Cynthia could have much pride in their leadership. Rick led people to do too little, too late. Cynthia led people to exploit others for the sake of production goals. Their current commitment was to lead people from either a “character alone” or “results alone” perspective. Jerry believed that a total commitment to the organization, its people and lastly to themselves was only possible if Rick and Cynthia were willing to develop their glaring weaknesses. The company could not bear their negative impacts much longer.
Weight or gravitas is much more critical to influential lifestyle leadership than is control. A lifestyle leader's success depends on their example and abilities more than on their control and manipulation of others.
A wise organizational leader never gives up the control that their position affords them. Yet, if their leadership focuses primarily on exerting control, they often lose their strongest employees and are plagued with a band of weak underachievers. Over the long term, one must learn to broaden and deepen their influence and loosen (but not release) their control.
Parents understand the same truth. Those parents who are influential leaders realize they often need to exert control in the short-term but that the long-term leadership of their children must be through influence.
Influential leaders focus first on their development as a person and second on their development as a leader. They hope that over time, their parenting example and abilities will win them the influence needed to bring their family to solid values and strong achievement. If leading in a start-up or corporate context, their hope is the same. As lifestyle leaders, they’re leading the same way, for the same purpose and desired outcome, wherever they lead. It's about winning the right to influence a group of people toward principled, strong achievement.
Rick and Cynthia each possess one piece of the three-piece lifestyle leadership puzzle. Rick has very strong personal character. His people trust him and respect him as a person. Cynthia can inspire motivated people to accomplish significant goals. As crucial as these strengths are to a leader, independent of each other, they prevent leaders from winning the right to influence their constituents. Rick does not have the leadership competencies to lead his people to high performance. Cynthia does not have the strength of character needed to lead her people to embrace high values while accomplishing their business goals.
As is true in all of nature, Rick and Cynthia can only reproduce in their constituents what they themselves are. Because of their developmental limitations, they cannot influence their constituents to become people who live out high values and achieve high performance.
Your character and competence win or lose the right to positively influence the lives and performance of others. Influential leaders must remain ever vigilant to their continued development in these two areas. For truly effective leaders, “inbuilding” character and competence into their own lives precedes and sustains their influence on others’ lives. The third trait of a lifestyle leader is commitment – to the organization, its people and lastly, to themselves. One can have great character and proven competence, but if they are not committed, the impact of their character and competence is neutralized. The leader’s commitment engages their character and competence into a specific context or endeavor.
For Rick and Cynthia to grow to be influential lifestyle leaders, they need to gain weight. They need trustworthy character that gives them the weight or gravitas of moral authority. They also need competence that gives them the weight of proven developed ability. And finally, they need commitment that gives them the weight of focused attention. With these three, over time, they will earn the influence needed to lead their team well. They’ll become lifestyle leaders who lead by their lives and abilities rather than by their control and manipulation. They’ll be a blessing to their organization and not a detriment.
The original version of this article appeared in Leadership as a Lifestyle, John Hawkins, Executive Excellence Publishing, 2001. You can learn more about Lifestyle Leadership at the Leadership Edge website. You can learn more about John Hawkins here.