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Category:
Published: June 2007
What stops would-be leaders from surrounding themselves with the right people?
There is always an odd dichotomy between the biographies written on famous leaders and the autobiographies written by the leaders themselves. For the most part they read the sameperson grows up, person comes of age, person succeeds, person grows old and, depending on the publication date, person dies.
The difference comes into play not in the narrative structure, but in the importance placed by the writer on the many peripheral characters in the leader's life. The biographer tends to only focus on a few secondary characters in his story: the parents, the wife and perhaps a close friend. For the most part, the leader's life seems to be of his or her design and making. When the narrative is written from the perspective of the main character, however, a different story is told. People that seem insignificant from an outsider's perspective are characterized as indispensable or even life-changing. Characters that don't even have speaking parts in the story are considered as a necessary element to the leader's success. In short, the greatest debt owed from the leader's perspective are often to the collective group of advisors and followers who helped shape and guide him or her and, sometimes, carry the leader along when he or she did not have the strength to stand on their own.
We would all like to be successful and many of us want to be a leader. However, we often find ourselves in a situation where we are without the necessary followers and advisors that can help our plans succeed. It would be easy for us to blame society or the world for this deficit. Perhaps no one is brought up well these days, or maybe good people are just too hard to find. Unfortunately, this is not the case. There is not a shortage of quality people looking for a leader; there is a shortage of strong dynamic leaders who are able to inspire followers and advisors to stick with them. If you find yourself doubting this argument, simply ask yourself the following question: How many people in your life have truly inspired you and made you consider leaving whatever it is you were doing to follow them?
Inspiring loyalty and building a solid foundation of followers is often the most difficult task for any would-be leader. Our society has drilled into us from a young age the importance of courage, perseverance and intelligence. Many, however, never learned the power of sincerity, empathy, and the ability to motivate people.
What can a leader do to inspire followers and cultivate trusted advisors? Perhaps the most important trait to have is an aura of stability. Only a madman will join up with a leader whose notions change with the wind and only a gambler will risk his time and efforts on someone who has no solid financial capital. In the business world, an entrepreneur needs to show potential employees that there paycheck is a guarantee. More importantly, a business leader needs to be a psychological rock that his followers can rely on. Outbursts, hand-wringing, random firings, and a chaotic personality do not make you a dynamic leaderthey only make you appear to be deranged. A leader also needs to provide organizational structure; it is his job to make sure everyone below him knows what it is they need to do and how it is he wants them to do it. If you expect the people below you to figure out your desires on their own you should also expect them to eventually walk out the door.
Beyond stability, a follower needs to understand whatever vision it is that you have and believe that you have the competence to make it a reality. This is another point where many would-be entrepreneurs fail. It is difficult to create a wonderful ideait is far more difficult to demonstrate to someone that you have the ability to bring it to fruition. Do you appear confident? Are you knowledgeable in all of the material pertaining to your endeavor? Do you have past accomplishments that can highlight your abilities? Answering any of these in the affirmative sets you on a good path towards making a potential follower believe in you.
Finally, we will turn briefly on a very specific kind of follower, a rarer type that is far more difficult to find: the trusted advisor. This is not the type of follower that you can get with a want-ad. Instead, these are usually gained throughout the course of one's life. An advisor, then, is not a person you can find and keep, but rather someone with whom you must cultivate a relationship. Too often, a headstrong leader pushes away any would-be advisors by sheer stubbornness. It is easy for a leader to think that, since this whole operation was their idea, they are the ones whose opinion is always the most important. That is not always the case. The leader's decision is by far the most important, since it determines everyone else's actions. But, oftentimes, his opinion is limited at best. The easiest way to lose an advisor is to ignore him, and a leader should, at the very least, listen to what the person has to say and show how much he values the advisor's opinion. In the end, making the right decision 100% of the time is a statistical impossibility. Consider trusted advisors your insurance policy. If you fail to keep them up to date they will probably not be there when you need it most.
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