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Good To Great by Jim Collins
Transcript
As a leader, you want to have influence with your team.
Why?
Because without influence, you will not get very far as a leader.
Because when you try to lead with position and position only, position will only take you so far. People will just do the bare minimum to get by, but they won’t really follow you. To get people to follow you, you need influence.
Influence is a relationship and respect you have with and from your team that causes them to want to follow you and to act with and for you. So that leads to the question, how do you build influence with your team as a leader?
Well, I have seven ways to build influence with your team right here. And they even have a bonus one for you at the end.
Be a person they can trust
Number one, to build influence with your team, you have to be a person they can trust.
Why?
Well, think about it. If they can’t trust you, why would they follow you? Tell me if you had a leader who you couldn’t trust very well, let’s say that when they tell you something, you couldn’t rely on them on what they said. You weren’t sure if it was true.
If they said they were going to do something, you weren’t sure if it was going to happen. You weren’t even sure how honest they were in their dealings with maybe different things in the company.
Would you trust that person? Do you want to follow that kind of person? How much influence would that person have over you?
My guess is not very much.
You have to build trust with your team. Trust builds confidence.
So how do you do that?
Well, you do what you say you’re going to do. You be honest. You don’t hide information from them. And if there’s stuff that you can’t tell them for legal or other reasons, you’d let them know why.
You own up to your mistakes. You don’t cut corners. You do what is right, even when nobody’s looking.
Be a person that people can trust and they will respect you even more and you will build your influence with them.
Trust your team
Number two, trust your team. To build influence, you need to have trust towards your team.
Think about it. If a leader you had always came to you and was always looking over your shoulders, micromanaging you, controlling you, making sure you did things a certain way because they didn’t believe you could do it on your own, would that person have much influence on you? Would you want to follow that kind of person?
My guess is no. So you need to be the kind of person that trusts their team.
As a leader, when you micromanage your team, or try to control them or make sure they do things right or control how they do things, it’s going to hurt your influence with your team because you’re not trusting them.
As leader, you wanna set clear expectations of how the outcome should look. And then you want to release your people to do it and trust them in their own way to get there.
Now it’s true, each person needs a different level of involvement. If they’re new, you may have to be more hands-on with them. Certain people may lack confidence and you may have to help support them and encourage them along the way. But you’re not controlling them, you’re supporting them.
Now, you may say, “Hey, Thomas, I can’t trust my people. They never do what they’re supposed to be doing.”
Well, let me tell you this. If that’s the case, the problem is you, not them. Because you have to look at it in the sense of, what are you doing as the leader to make it where you can’t trust them? Are you setting clear expectations? Do they really understand what they’re supposed to do?
It’s easy to make assumptions that they see it the way we see it, but that’s often not the case. So make sure your expectations are clear. Make sure they’re trained as much as they need to. Make sure you give them the time and resources they need. Make sure it’s the right person for the right job.
And really, if this person is incapable, are they in the wrong seat? Or did you just hire the wrong person? See, if you can’t trust them, it’s on you as the leader, not on them.
Build relationships and care
Number three. Build relationships with your people and care about them. Think about it in your own life. If you have a leader who doesn’t take any time to get to know you, maybe not even know your name, doesn’t know anything about you, doesn’t really seem to care about you or appreciate anythin