Thomas Kohntopp, a faculty member from Walden University in the USA rightly says, “It is the followers who define the leader. Without them, success is up to chance.”
When it comes to being a leader, the ability to influence the followers matters a great deal. The game of sticks and carrots may not always work to persuade, motivate or manipulate people into doing something. Leaders make their followers see the things their way without exercising unjust power or authority.
Influencing the followers is an art and here is how you can do it.
Also Read: Understanding A-Z of Strategic Leadership
Have a Vision
Leaders have a vision and look for ways to achieve that vision. It is necessary to have like-minded people in your team, who can work with you to make that vision a reality. Influencers make sure that their vision is innovative and exciting to inspire others around them. The world has witnessed several business leaders such as Bill Gates, Ratan Tata, N.R. Narayana Murthy and Mark Zuckerburg, among a few others, who have led others with the power of their vision.
Value Your Followers
Ditch the ‘I, me, my’ attitude. If you want to influence others, learn to value and cherish your followers/human resources. This means taking time to understand each person and knowing what motivates them. It is necessary to have followers with skills that you are lacking. This way, the leader-follower team forms a cohesive unit where every individual complements each other.
Also Read: 3 important leadership traits you can’t do without
Empower the Followers
If, want to influence others, empower them by assigning them responsibilities. This demonstrates your trust and faith in them. Instead of barking orders, guide them when the going gets tough for them.
Also Read: How a Strong Leadership Can Lead a Business to Success
Look to Improve
Encourage your followers to look for problems in the system and then create a comprehensive plan on how to improve it. This blueprint will make them realize you did not achieve greatness by doing run-of-the-mill things. When others see that you are working to bring about a change for the better, they will be willing to follow and learn from you.
Bring a Change
Everyone knows how the great personalities Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa sacrificed their life for the betterment of society. Influencers have a vision that brings a change for the good. Good leaders look for opportunities to change things and improve the lives of others. This wins you followers who are ready to go out on a limb to ensure your change becomes a reality.
Leaders influence others to achieve goals by reaching their optimum potential. If you are a leader struggling to learn the art of influence, you can enrol in leadership courses. A strong base in a leadership program could get you the followership you are looking at!
Leadership is defined as a process by which a leader is able to assert influence over a group of people to achieve a pre-decided common goal. Decision making is a process involving a certain amount of deliberation and social action in order to choose from among a certain number of options when faced with a problem.
A good leader is able to assert his influence to empower and support people in order to think and act in the direction of accomplishing strategic goals. He/she is someone who has the ability to make decisions in the face of adversity and choose the best alternative even then. They have the courage to bear complete accountability of their decisions and actions even if they go wrong. They are able to accept their mistake in public and move on to the corrective course as soon as they realise the error.
It has been observed through research done in this area that people tend to value and respect such leaders a lot more. They associate and connect with such leaders who display high moral ground, integrity, honesty and authenticity and the ability to publicly acknowledge their own shortcomings. Such leaders are considered to be assets to the organization by all employees and are regarded highly for not adopting a defensive attitude towards organizational problems.
One of the key problems faced by organizations across the world is erroneous decision making. On a number of occasions, the leaders and senior managers take decisions that only solve the symptom and not the root problem causing the symptom. A number of times this is done knowingly, i.e. leaders know that they are just scratching the surface of the problem and not actually addressing the problem. The reason is often a lack of deep understanding and information to solve the problem, the lack of sufficient initiative to get to the root of the problem or simply the lack of good decision-making skills.
In any case, this is a serious problem plaguing a large number of organizations. In fact, scholars agree that any organization which is faced by such negative decision making from its leadership and strategic management team is likely to face continuous failure and its people will be left wondering about the actual cause of the problem. This would, in turn, have a negative influence on the overall efficiency and productivity of the people of the organization. The organization would become unproductive in the long run and people in the organization will have a way to break job performance protocol and never achieve the organizational goals.
One of the major challenges for organizations is to avoid the bad policy and inconsistent decision making. It is one of the leading causes of dissatisfaction among employees and their leaders in the current time. The incompetence of leaders and managers in discussing a problem statement and delivering a quality decision to solve the problem has caused many organizations to close down. This is the kind of power and influence that the decision making skills of leaders and managers can have on the people and organization.
In contrast, a good leader is one who has self-confidence and is able to invest time and energy to gather information and resources which will help in overcoming a problem. He/she has great analytical skills and can process the information in great detail, consider all the pros and cons and finally arrive at the most suitable decision.
People tend to have a preference and regard for such a leader with self-confidence. They get confused by leaders who are immersed in self-doubt and as such form a notion that such a leader would not be able to take requisite action nor would he/she ever command that respect. It is important for the people to know that their leader is a good decision maker and when the time comes to make a tricky decision this leader would consider the interest of all stakeholders before arriving at the final decision. Such strength in character and quality of decision making makes the followers intensely committed to their leaders.
A leader with good decision-making skills also fosters an environment of continued creativity and innovation in the organization and is able to propel his/her team towards excellence. An organization is a complex structure and a leader has to steer through this complex and dynamic web of activity through sound decision making. The leader may have to make tough decisions at the end but it is the quality of these decisions which is the hallmark of great leadership. For organizations which are looking to forge a path of excellence, it may be good advice to get online leadership certificate programs for professionals specifically focused on good decision-making skills.
There are all kinds of leaders. While some find the notion of dictating their team comfortable, others like a more collaborative approach. We all know that successful businesses need effective leaders. Professionals, who can formulate & communicate new strategic directions while also motivating employees to perform better and meet the company’s goals, are vital to the growth and success of any organization.
The role of a leader is multi-faceted. While you need to ensure continued business growth and success, you also need to bring out the best of your employees and ensure they are happy with what they do. Part of it also includes creating more leaders and encouraging them to do better. All this requires a deeper understanding of what leadership is all about and how to apply it to everyday life.
Our leadership programs offer uniquely practical and relevant course curriculum that help participants understand the importance of continuous improvement and innovation in fostering growth, evaluating and overcoming leadership challenges. These online leadership courses are designed to drive powerful insights that one can apply immediately to become a better leader. These courses aims at enabling participants to build and lead winning teams.
Also Read: Qualities of a Transformational Leader you must possess
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