Leadership as ‘Intentional Influence’

The article “Leadership: Intentional Influence” from BusinessWeek provide an interesting discussion on the topic of leadership. Research by the company VitalSmarts uncovered the following key insights that help to understand why few leaders are able to exert influence.

1. Leaders act as if it’s not their job to address entrenched habits. “Most leaders put a great deal of time into crafting strategy, selecting winning products, and engaging with analysts, shareholders, and major customers. But few realize the success or failure of their grand schemes lies in influencing the behavior of the hundreds or thousands of people who will have to execute the big ideas—their employees.
2. Leaders lack a theory of influence. “Very few leaders can even answer the question, "How do you change the behavior of a large group of people?" And yet, this is what they’re ultimately paid to do. It isn’t just about making a decision; it’s about getting people aligned to execute the decision. And this means influence….”
3. Leaders confuse talking with influencing. “Many leaders think influence consists of little more than talking people into doing things… Anyone who’s ever tried to talk a smoker into quitting knows there’s a lot more to behavior change than words…”
4. Leaders believe in silver bullets. “When leaders actually attempt to influence new behavior, it’s common for them to look for quick fixes—to fall into the trap of thinking that deeply ingrained bad habits can be changed with a single technique. The failure mode is to rely on any single approach…”

You can learn more about the Influential Leader at www.vitalsmarts.com/influentialleader

Technorati Tags: Change Management, Change, Influence, Leadership, Management

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