99% of all leadership occurs from the middle of an organization (not the top)
Myth #1 The Position Myth: I can’t Lead if I’m not at the Top.
- The true measure of leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.
- Position has little to do with genuine leadership
- Leadership is a choice you make, not a place you sit
Myth #2 The Destination Myth: When I get to the top, then I’ll learn to lead.
- If you want to succeed, learn as much as you can about leadership before you are in a leadership position.
- Make leadership mistakes now, not when you’re a senior.
Myth # 3 The Influence Myth: If I Were on Top, The People Would Follow Me
Myth #4 The Inexperience Myth: When I Get to the Top, I’ll be in Control
- The bottom line is always influence
- Without experience being the top person, you with overestimate the amount of control you have at the top.
- More than ever, when you’re at the top, you need every bit of influence you can muster.
- Your rights decrease and your responsibility increases as you climb in an organization
Myth #5 The All-Or-Nothing Myth: If I Can’t get to the Top, then I Won’t Try to Lead
The role of leaders in the middle of an organization – in nearly every circumstance- is to add value to the organization and to the leader (the only time this is not true is when the leader above you is unethical or criminal)
What to do when you’re following a leader who is ineffective:
Develop a solid relationship with your leader. Find common ground. This will put you on the same team.
Identify and appreciate your leader’s strengths. Think about how they may be assets to the organization
Commit yourself to adding value to your leader’s strengths. The pathway to success in your career lies in maximizing your strengths. This is also true for your leader. Once you’ve determined your leader’s strengths, look for ways to help leverage those strengths.
Get permission to develop a game plan to compliment your leader’s weaknesses.
Successful leaders are like icebergs. When you look at an iceberg, you see only about 10% of it, the rest is hidden under the water.
Effective leaders pay more attention to production than to promotion.
Leadership is more disposition than position – influence others from wherever you are.
How To Be Fulfilled in the Middle of the Pack: See the Big Picture
Develop strong relationships with key people. Make it your goal to reach out to others and build relationships with them
Define a win in terms of teamwork.
Engage in continual communication
Gain experience and maturity. Maturity doesn’t come with age, it begins with the acceptance of responsibility.
Put the team above your personal success
The Vision Challenge: Championing the vision is more difficult when you didn’t create it. (p. 64)
The more you invest in the vision, the more it becomes your own.
There are a number of ways people respond when leaders cast vision and attempt to enlist them:
Attack it – Criticize and sabotage the vision…Why?
- They didn’t help create it
- They don’t understand it
- They don’t agree with it
- They don’t know the vision
- They fell unneeded to achieve
- They aren’t ready for it
Ignore it – Do their own thing
Abandon it – Leave the organization
Adopt it – Find a way to align with the vision
Champion it – Take the leader’s vision and make it a reality
Add value to it
People follow leaders they trust, leaders with character
“Too many middle leaders say, ‘When I become the leader, I’ll change the way I live.’ Their thought is, I don’t have to live that way until I become the visible leader. If you don’t live by those standards now, you’ll never become the leader!
People follow leaders they respect – Leaders who are competent
Everyone has the right to speak, but not everyone has the right to be heard.
If you think you can do a job, that’s confidence. If you actually can do it – that’s competence.