How Are You Viewed by Those in Your Sphere-of-Influence?
Many, if not most leaders, regardless of expertise or tenure, are likely proficient in at least a few of the essential domains of the 360° of directional leadership, but very few are sufficiently proficient at managing across ALL domains – managing down AND managing up AND managing across AND managing within.
Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.
Success is a science. If you have the conditions, you get the result.
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.
Here are some tips:
Directional Leadership Explained
Let’s break it down.
Managing DOWN – The Most MISMANAGED Direction
The Sphere: With direct reports, other employees, and support staff directly or indirectly affiliated with you and your organization – and the direction of leadership that may seem easiest, but is actually quite difficult to do consistently well.
The Impact of Doing it Poorly: Increasing employee stress and strain; obstructing their productivity; eroding their trust/loyalty; turnover; lackluster performance – especially when you need it most.
Managing UP – The Most UNDERUTILIZED Direction
The Sphere: With bosses, more senior executives, board members, company stakeholders and influencers – and the direction of leadership that leaders mistakenly think they have little, or no, control over, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
The Impact of Doing it Poorly: Creating unnecessary conflict; diluting organizational focus; being left out of important discussions and decisions; disappointing performance reviews; underwhelming salary and bonus treatments; countless lost opportunities to be mentored or made privy to really helpful information.
Managing ACROSS – The Most DISCOUNTED Direction
The Sphere: With peers, and externally, with vendor contacts, customers, and other industry professionals you may, or may not, consider colleagues – and the direction of leadership that can help make you surprisingly more effective and successful because pretty much everything that you want to accomplish is going to require significant lateral/horizontal collaboration to achieve.
The Impact of Doing it Poorly: Weakening camaraderie; playing bad politics; derailing others’ initiatives; failing the gain the support you need to further key goals and objectives; loss of social capital; increased isolation.
But to be truly successful, leaders must not only excel in these three domains of directional leadership they must master the full 360°, which includes a critical, game-changing, fourth domain:
Managing WITHIN – The Most POWERFUL Direction
The Sphere: Your private thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes that determine the choices you make and behaviors you engage in – which is what makes it, decidedly, the most challenging, but direct route to accelerating your overall impact, influence, and Leadership Competency Growth.
The Impact of Doing it Poorly: Not recognizing your impact; not taking responsibility for your impact; Not having sufficient F.O.C.U.S. in what you do; not learning from your mistakes; seeming tone deaf; being pigeonholed into low-level positions and low-visibility assignments.
LeadershipTraction demystifies the full 360° of directional leadership – through a variety of counter-intuitive leadership concepts and practices – to help leaders create the specific conditions needed to accelerate their progress and achieve increasingly greater leadership traction and professional (and personal) success.
If you think a brief conversation about your leadership development needs – or those of others in your organization – could be useful, call or connect to coordinate calendars.