Leadership is very important in the professional field (and in the personal one too). I would venture to say that its importance is greater as your responsibility grows and as you are higher up in the organizational chart and have more people under your charge. Therefore, if you want to progress in your professional career, leadership is going to be essential. I have written quite a few posts on my leadership blog that I think you may find useful. I would SUMMARIZE THAT LEADERSHIP IS, IN ESSENCE, INFLUENCE. That is the ability of the leader to influence others, to get them to think or act differently.
And ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO INFLUENCE OTHERS TO MOTIVATE THEM AND TRY TO ACHIEVE THESE COMMON GOALS IS THROUGH PERSONAL CONTACT. And when I say contact, I am not referring only to physical contact but to being close to people (whether they are workers, distributors, customers or others), listening to them, talking to them, looking into their eyes, and trying to understand their needs, their feelings, their emotions… since ultimately a leader can only exert influence if he can identify these needs, feelings or emotions. And is there a better way to identify these aspects than through personal contact?
In fact, for many years now people have talked about leading while being close to their followers. One of the first to speak of the subject was Tom Peters,, the great management guru when in 1982 in his best-seller “In Search of Excellence” he already pointed towards a more holistic vision of the concept of leadership. He said that, to manage successfully, managers had to lead by example and manage from outside the office. Along these lines, he created the MBWA (MANAGEMENT BY WALKING AROUND) concept, that is, managing by going around, walking around, and getting closer to people. In the aforementioned book, Peters gave good examples of this practice, citing North American companies such as Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Pepsi, 3M, Disney or Wal-Mart. Now, IS THIS THEORY STILL VALID 40 YEARS LATER? I believe this concept (MBWA) is more current than ever, or rather, it should be more current than ever.
Unfortunately, most managers still spend little time “walking” as they prefer to spend most of their time locked up in their office, or in meetings with other managers. In addition, technological improvements such as videoconferencing, the Internet or social networks, have caused this personal contact to decrease in many cases. And, now more than ever, managers need to get out of their bubbles and get closer to the real world, to get closer to people. I don’t like managers who are far from their people, and who abuse email, telephone, or video conferences. I like leaders who leave their office and, outside their comfort zone, seek “contact” with their own, whether they are collaborators, workers, clients, distributors, or anyone who is intended to be led to achieve certain objectives.
So, when has it been since you left your comfort space? When do you not break your bubble and get closer to your people? Come on, dare, DON’T FORGET THAT LEADING IS A CONTACT SPORT.
