Leadership and Influence: Strategies for Leading with Impact
To be an impactful leader, the ability to lead change and guide individuals is paramount. While there are numerous approaches to achieving this, the utilization of effective influence strategies forms an essential part of a leader's skill set. These strategies enable successful leaders to steer organizations, teams, and individuals towards high performance.
Emotional Intelligence and its Role in Leadership Influence
Accomplished leaders exhibit competencies in four key areas:
Self-awareness
Self-management
Social awareness
Relationship management
Managing relationships involves various aspects, such as handling interpersonal conflicts, employing effective leadership strategies, fostering collaboration, coaching and mentoring, and of course, influencing others. Influence strategies are a vital component of relationship management.
Strategies of Influence
Numerous business and psychological theories discuss influence strategies, each presenting its unique perspective. While it's not my intention to delve deep into these theories, I emphasize the importance for leaders to be aware of their preferred influence strategies. This awareness enables them to understand what works and when it is necessary to try something different. Additionally, I provide a brief overview of the pitfalls and risks associated with coercive influence strategies.
Leaders should have an understanding of their leadership profiles, including their strengths, areas for development, and personal preferences in terms of thinking, feeling, behaving, and influencing others. As cliché as it may sound, knowledge is power. Being aware of alternative approaches to influence allows leaders to have choices and consider employing targeted strategies that are most effective in a given situation, rather than relying on the same old responses regardless of the context.
For instance, when attempting to influence a colleague or stakeholder who feels unrecognized, an empowerment strategy would be more engaging than relying solely on logical persuasion through facts and figures. Similarly, at the onset of a relationship, using coercion and threats would yield far less positive outcomes compared to a strategy centered around building relationships and getting to know the person. Leaders must assess the situation and individuals involved, adapt their responses, and proceed accordingly. What may have worked in the past may not be the optimal approach in new circumstances. Traditional notions of power, hierarchy, and influence are gradually shifting away now that we have so many different generations in the workforce. Leaders must adapt to remain effective and influential.
Choice of influence strategy is typically learned and becomes ingrained in a leader's behavioral repertoire. These strategies can become habitual, almost like automatic knee-jerk responses. However, preferences can be adapted, and leaders can acquire new behavioral strategies.
Understanding one's preferences positions leaders strategically, enabling them to discern when to rely on these knee-jerk responses and when to adapt their approach to maximize impact. Not every situation in life or business demands the same response. Leaders who can adapt their responses and behaviors to specific situations or individuals have consistently proven to be more successful in achieving desired outcomes and building and maintaining relationships.
The choice of influence strategy is not solely determined by personal preference. External factors, such as organizational culture and structure, also play significant roles in shaping a leader's behavior when influencing others. In hierarchical environments, for example, there is a tendency to rely on top-down influence strategies based on positions of power. However, power should not be the sole basis for influence strategies. More positive approaches, such as empowerment, negotiation, building a common vision, and fostering interpersonal awareness, lead to more impactful influence strategies. As influence strategies fall within the cluster of skills related to managing relationships, they are most effective when leaders demonstrate self-awareness, adaptability, self-management, empathy, and an understanding of their impact on others.
The Double-edged Sword of Coercive Influence
While not all influence strategies have catastrophic consequences when used in inappropriate situations, coercion can ultimately disrupt productivity, erode trust, damage working relationships, and even lead to lower employee retention rates and increased sick leave.
Coercive strategies typically involve leaders using threats, punishments, or pressure to compel individuals to accept or comply. While this may appear effective in driving action, it also carries the risk of diminished productivity and strained relationships.
Therefore, caution is necessary. Coercive strategies are often perceived as manipulative, malevolent, and personal attacks by those on the receiving end. They should be used sparingly and only as a last resort when absolutely necessary. Relationships should always take precedence over power.
There are clear instances when using a coercive strategy is inappropriate. For example, threatening termination without any valid basis as a means to gain compliance is an ill-advised strategy. Similarly, forcing an employee to perform tasks under fear or threat of hindering their career progression is detrimental. Coercive strategies used with employees from diverse backgrounds can lead to misconduct and discrimination. Using guilt within working relationships should always be discouraged. Guilt is often employed when a leader invests their time and then uses it to coerce someone into complying with something they would not choose to do willingly. High-potential employees thrive in environments that support their skill development, appreciate their expertise, and cultivate trust and benevolence in leadership. Employing coercive strategies with such employees is guaranteed to negatively impact the relationship permanently and result in disengagement. Given that high-potential talent typically demonstrates high emotional intelligence, they are likely to perceive the leader as incompetent due to their inability to adapt their approach.
Leaders do not always choose coercion intentionally. However, as a learned response, it often seems like the path of least resistance. Many other influence strategies require more time, effort, and thought to employ. They necessitate leaders to recognize problematic behavioral patterns and make a conscious choice to act differently. Unfortunately, many leaders lack this level of reflective insight and fail to learn from their previous mistakes.
Leaders who rely on coercive strategies without thoughtful consideration or as their default response, instead of adapting their influence strategies to specific situations and individuals, are likely to encounter dissatisfied, disengaged, and underperforming teams, staff, or clients. Such behavior often points to deficiencies in emotional intelligence, specifically in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
Recommendations
Organizations should provide leadership assessments to identify leaders' influence strategies.
Develop behavioral profiles that outline expected behaviors.
Acquire and practice a range of influence skills.
Adapt influence strategies to specific situations and individuals.
Reserve coercive strategies as a last resort.
Ensure that the espoused organizational culture aligns with the actual culture, and that leaders' behaviors are consistent with the espoused values. \
Review past critical incidents to explore the influence strategies employed and consider alternative approaches that could have yielded different outcomes.
Ask the people you lead about their leadership and influence strategies.
Inquire about how people experience or perceive your influence on them.
Ask the people you lead what the best way to lead or influence them is.
Before resorting to coercion, managers should take a step back and reflect on their actions. Would they appreciate being treated in the same manner as their staff? If the answer is no, then they should seek coaching to learn how to change their approach to influence.
The truth is, no one enjoys being led by a leader who uses coercion and a show of force, and eventually the effectiveness of coercion dimininshes.
Employing a coercive leadership strategy always carries the risk of relationship breakdown, poor engagement, and low performance. This article does not suggest that coercive strategies should never be used, but rather emphasizes that leaders must be aware of their own preferences and be capable of adapting and matching their influence strategies to the situation and individuals they seek to influence. In my coaching work, I guide leaders to recognize that they will be remembered for how they made their staff feel, not solely for their accomplishments. Choosing the right influence strategy is a crucial leadership tool for engaging staff and ensuring high performance. Empowering people and leveraging their potential is always a superior strategy to applying force.
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