The Manager - Edition 4 - Give them a chance to influence - Cultivated Management newsletter
The Manager
THE
manager.
Edition 4
Give them an opportunity to influence.
Hi and welcome to this week's edition of the Cultivated Management newsletter.
This week I'll keep it short and look at what great managers do - they give people the chance to influence - and this is really an opportunity to lead.
When you give someone the opportunity to influence you essentially give them a chance at leadership.
Not everyone wants to influence others, but in my experience, most people do - at least at some point in their careers. They may want to influence about a technology, a project, the way to build a feature, or the way to structure some new aspect of the service. It doesn't matter - the key thing is that you give them an opportunity to influence - because when you do that - you essentially give them a chance to lead.
A really important job of management is to spot when people are trying to exert influence over others. I'm not talking manipulation or heavy handed approaches - although you should spot these and call an end to it. I'm talking about people, bright people (and you have hired bright people right?), who want to get something done. They want to influence others for the potential good of the business. It's these people you should keep an eye on and where possible help them with that chance to influence.
Influence requires leadership
By giving people influence you are essentially giving them a chance to lead. They may not succeed but you should ensure the environment is safe to try. You should do your best to tease out their desire to influence and give it the fuel it needs to get going. And then help them to control their influence and learn the art of leadership.
A genuine belief I have about leadership is that it can rarely be taught, but it can be fine tuned. Leaders emerge - they are rarely created by training and spot tactics. Genuine leaders have an emotional connection that cannot be taught. And people always choose to follow a leader - you cannot command it. Therefore training people to lead is madness if they have no inclination or just aren't ready for it. But if they have the inclination, and they desire influence - then you should grab hold of it and run with it.
Your job is to help those who want to influence make the best of their leadership skills. See how good a leader they are and help them build their strengths and minimise their weaknesses. Your job is to give them room to try and lead (and to influence) and to help them adjust as they go.
Draw attention to their beliefs and desire to influence, encourage others to listen and foster a safe environment for people to challenge the ideas.
When you give someone the ability to influence - you are giving them a chance to lead. And you will always be remembered as the manager who helped unlock future leader's potential - because trust me - I have never met someone who wanted to influence who then couldn't go on to lead - even in some small way. They win, the business wins and you're doing a great job.
This Week On Cultivated Management
Arrrghhh - nothing on the blog this week. Reason being is that this week was my last week at work and I took a few days off to spend it with the kids.
I'm back on it this week - expect plenty of posts.