Change for Influential Leadership

​The race is on and winners seem to be leaders who espouse ethics at the highest level. Employees are frustrated, for working hard has not produced the goods.
 
In my father’s days, it was enough to have a job. In fact people were thankful to the organization they worked for and gave their life for it. Today where there are choices, people are looking further afield, even compromising on salary to find a job they enjoy with a good boss at the top.
 
Seeing it from the employers’ perspective, employee engagement has become a top priority. So how does a leader change to be more influential with his people?
 
Steven Covey’s book Heart Centered Leadership definitely comes to mind. Authenticity sits at the heart of success. This plays out in obvious initiatives like investment in employees through continuous learning. It is kind of the statement “put your money where your mouth is” playing out.
 
Leaders have a responsibility to create a human culture where people come first. When looked after with this type of care, employees are willing to bend backwards for each other and the organization.
 
Empathetic leaders are sought after today. This permeates in the form of language spoken and actions towards employees. A small gesture I noticed one day as I was consulting in an organization, was how the CEO stopped to have a personal chat with one of her employees.
 
This carried a lot of mileage, fueled by the fact that the employee was chuffed by the CEO’s memory about her child’s illness. She mentioned this to colleagues but I could see her loyalty was sealed.
 
In my career when I was still an employee in a bank, I remember my boss reiterating that we were his first family, one that he spent most hours in a day with. He encouraged us to work in harmony with each other especially when things got tough.
We did! To this day I think back about him. What an excellent leader he was. It was such joy going to work every day. He had influenced us to high performance!