Leadership and Influencing Style
- The notion of leadership style assumes a top-down, role-based view of leadership.
- Traditionally it refers to how you manage people and make decisions.
- But this view is past its use-by date.
- When the notion of leadership style was first invented, writers on leadership did not differentiate between leadership and management. Today, we need to recognize that what used to be called leadership style is really management style.
- Management style is about how you make decisions for your team.
- The fundamental argument of this website is that leadership means promoting new directions, not managing people. You can promote new directions aggressively, by example or through any number of other influencing styles.
- The only leadership style is influencing style.
- Some influencing styles:
- Direct appeals using logical arguments and evidence.
- Expressing enthusiasm and conviction for your idea.
- Making rousing speaches to large audiences with stirring images and music.
- Quiet but persistent persuasion over time.
- Enlisting the support of persuasive others.
- Asking open questions designed to lead others to your conclusions.
- Setting an example - the old adage ''actions speak louder than words'' is very true.
- We follow the example of others perhaps more than any other leadership style.
- Unlike conventional notions of leadership, using authority is not a leadership style.
- Using authority is not leadership - unless you equate leadership with being in power. Thus there is no such thing as autocratic leadership, only autocratic management.
- We don't actually need the term ''leadership style''. There is really only influencing style.
- The term ''leadership style'' arose in the days when showing leadership was associated with particular persons in positions of power. We defined leadership as being a certain type of person. Today, leadership is better thought as an occasional act that anyone can show in certain circumstances - like temporarily leading in a tennis match. Conversely, management is a position of responsibility - hence it still makes sense to speak of management style.
When you think of leadership do you have a particular ideal in mind? What is your image of the ideal leader?
Do you think its possible for management to shed its negative image and be reinvented for the 21st century and, even better, finally differentiated from leadership? See article that tries to show how this is possible: Leadership and Management Reinvented. Do you think women might be better leaders than men or vice versa. See Are Women Better Leaders than Men? and Is Leadership Feminine? |
Challenging conventional thinking about leadership
 See LEAD2XL for latest articles on leadership by Mitch McCrimmon
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