Why Influence in Leadership is Better
The role of the senior leader is very complex. They must know how to effectively produce results amidst dynamic economic and political environments, successfully manage others in complex organizational structures, and in the case of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), there is also the added role of managing a board of directors. First, when it comes to producing results for the organization senior leaders are usually confronted with two situations which require an adept ability at using authority and influence to effectively produce results:
Leading an area of the business where parts of the deliverables include other leaders who are not direct reports
Leading an area of the business with direct reports but who also in directly are responsible for the agendas of other senior leaders.
Secondly, in the case of a CEO, the responsibility of managing a board of directors comes with the added responsibility of meeting their information and relationship needs in order to firm up their support of the direction of the organization. The challenge in either of these situations is ensuring that the relationships are in place and that the network that one is connected to is supportive of the goals and objectives and will support that agenda. Although senior leaders may have the benefit of formal authority to compel other leaders and direct report managers to conform to their goals and objectives, this use of ‘might’ should not be a leader’s only source of power and authority within an organization.
A growing body of research is showing that all leaders should begin to tap into their use of ‘influence’ within the organization to navigate and successfully manage in their organization. While ‘might’ was considered to be the go-to approach for meeting organizational goals and objectives, evidence shows that leaders who use a command-and-control approach to compel conformity may achieve public compliance, but will likely lose the private commitment and support. This is true regardless of whether the recipient is a peer, a direct report, or another stakeholder within the organization. Consequently, when given the opportunity, these leaders and managers could undermine efforts of the domineering leader or simply chose to ignore the senior leader’s agenda and support the agendas of those leaders with whom they feel connected. Therefore, it is this absence of true commitment that makes the command-and-control approach undesirable as it oftentimes will yield less optimal results.