As mentioned in an earlier post, we see leadership all around us, every day. Some demonstrations can be inspiring and hopeful, some can be comical and entertaining, and others can be harmful and disheartening. But, the fact is, that if you take just a few minutes out of your day and observe the interactions around you, you see the impact of leadership all over the place, especially leadership in relationships. Remember, we are defining leadership as simply "influence". With that as our working definition, the daily impact of our leadership is critical to understand and be aware of.
What impact do you have on a daily basis with the people you lead? We all influence/lead a whole group of people everyday whether we realize it or not. In line at the grocery store, what is your impact on the people in that line? Are you polite? Are you friendly? Are you impatient? Are you quiet? Do you have 12 items in you basket and are standing in the "10 items" express line? (maybe that is why people always look so annoyed whenever I go to check out).
In your car, do you let people in line at the light? Is everyone that drives slower than you "a moron" and faster than you "a maniac"? Do you smile and wave at other drivers or do you offer them some other single fingered greeting? Do people smile at you as they observe you "dancing" in the front seat to your favorite tunes or, on the highway, do people pull into the lane farthest away from you because your continuance has "road rage" written all over it?
These are all opportunities for daily leadership. They are moment to moment opportunities to influence others that we all have and experience every day of our lives. People watch people and make judgment on what they see and experience. Let's be honest with ourselves, we do it all the time to each other! We allow others to influence our opinions and interpretations of them though our observations and their actions and interactions with us and/or within eye or ear shot of us... and these are our greatest opportunities for leadership at its most basic and most frequent level.
So, what is your impact? How have you led the people around you in the last hour? If someone were to be walking 60 seconds behind you and observing your trail of influence, what would that person find? Would they find people smiling or people frowning or people laughing or, worst of all, would they find people unchanged and totally unaware of your impact even though you just passed them and had an opportunity to impact/lead/influence them in some way?
Another thing to always be aware of when considering your impact is your environment. Walking down a busy city sidewalk is one environment where a 60 second follow up might not be so consequential (although, think of the times you have simply passed someone and formed huge opinions concerning them based on the way they are dressed, look, sound, appear, behaved, etc...) . But if someone was to follow you in your workplace, your school, your home, your church, your favorite place to hang out, etc... What would they find?
It is our challenge as leaders (which we all are whether we want to be or not) to leave a wake of inspiration and hope as we walk through our day! There are many simple ways to do this. The smile as we pass a colleague, the quick genuine comment, "Hello, good to see ya today!", the genuine head-nod acknowledgement (it's a guy thing), and one of the most powerful influencer is to actually stop, use the person's name and genuinely greet them. Leadership can be that easy and as we move through the more intimate places of our day, those small, highly powerful, influential leadership moments should be increasing. So let's make sure we are doing them especially with family, friends, and with the people in our life on a daily basis... even if they drive us crazy sometimes!
So, let's all do some self awareness exercises and become aware of that person walking 60 seconds behind us and try to figure out what they might find as they observed and talked to the people we just had an opportunity to influence. Because that 60 second follower will find out what our leadership impact is, the question is what will they find? Hope and/or inspiration? Judgment and/or disappointment? Or no impact at all?
What do you want your impact to be?
Want to read more of my blathering?
Thanks for your time, because I know it's valuable!
Daryl Vanella
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill
