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If you don’t have influence, you will never be able to lead others.
A widespread misunderstanding is that leading and managing are one and the same. Up until a few years ago, books that claimed to be on leadership were often really about management. The main difference between the two is that leadership is about influencing people to follow, while management focuses on maintaining systems and processes.
The best way to test whether a person can lead rather than just manage is to ask him to create positive change. Managers can maintain direction, but often they can’t change it. Systems and processes can do only so much. To move people in a new direction, you need influence.
The proof of leadership is found in the followers.
The true measure of leadership is influence—nothing more, nothing less.
You’re a leader only if you have followers, and that always requires the development of relationships—the deeper the relationships, the stronger the potential for leadership. In my career, each time I entered a new leadership position, I immediately started building relationships. Build enough of the right kinds of relationships with the right people, and you can become the real leader in an organization.
Leadership requires more than just a command of data. It demands an ability to deal with numerous intangibles. In fact, that is often one of the main differences between managers and leaders. Leaders seek to recognize and influence intangibles such as energy, morale, timing, and momentum.
If you can’t influence people, then they will not follow you. And if people won’t follow, you are not a leader. That’s the Law of Influence. No matter what anybody else may tell you, remember that leadership is influence—nothing more, nothing less.
If you think your people are negative, then you’d better check your attitude.
You can’t move people to action unless you first move them with emotion. . . . The heart comes before the head.
Hire the best staff you can find, develop them as much as you can, and hand off everything you possibly can to them.
“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” —THEODORE ROOSEVELT
“Great leaders gain authority by giving it away.” —JAMES B. STOCKDALE
The leader’s effective modeling of the vision makes the picture come alive!
Followers may doubt what their leaders say, but they usually believe what they do.
The leader finds the dream and then the people. The people find the leader and then the dream.
