There's a difference between respecting a person's position and respecting the person.

Note: The following is an excerpt (Chapter 4) from my book, MAXIMIZE Your Leadership Potential: Moving Beyond Management & Supervision.

Understanding Artificial Influence

There is a difference between someone respecting your position and someone respecting you.

"Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or evil - the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the constant radiation of what man really is, not what he pretends to be." ~ William George Jordan

If you want to begin to lead beyond your position, you must be respected by those you want to influence. No one gives you respect. You can demand respect all day long, but it’s a waste of time. I always laugh (on the inside) when I hear someone demand respect. You will never be respected because you demand to be respected, at work or at home. It’s simply not going to happen.

Think about it from your own point of view. If there’s a boss or manager you don’t like because of who they are as a person, can they demand respect from you and get it? Absolutely not. You may respect their position. But, you will never respect them simply because they demand it. You must respect their position to keep your job. But, you don’t have to respect them to keep your job.

A position will give you authority but not influence. Influence must be earned by first earning respect. The more you are respected the more influence you will gain. Everything I’m sharing in this book, if applied, will help you earn respect and increase your influence with others.

Having a position or title such as Mom, Dad, Coach, Boss, Supervisor, Manager, VP, President, CEO, Owner, etc. gives you authority and control over other people. I call this artificial influence. Artificial influence creates the illusion that you have real influence. However, if you choose to influence people using only artificial influence, you are not leading. You are simply managing. Sure you may accomplish a lot, but what are you leaving on the table?

You can easily validate the principle of artificial influence by considering those bosses you’ve had, or now have, that you would never follow if they didn’t control your pay, your time off, your promotions, etc. If you only follow a boss because you haveto, their influence is not real. It’s artificial. And unfortunately for the company, most likely, you will only do what you have to do. 

The title of boss is one that is simply given, often by another manager with artificial influence. However, when it comes to real influence, managers are not in the same league as leaders. If you develop real influence based on character-based principles that you have internalized, then you will earn the right to lead. When you do, those reporting to you will do much morethan they have to simply because they respect you.

A high impact leader operates from a position of real influence, not artificial influence or authority.

Listen to the voices of those with artificial influence:

• How am I supposed to make something happen when those people don’t report to me?
• I can’t make them do anything. They don’t report to me and won’t do anything I tell them to do.
• I can’t get anything done in that department. They report to someone else, not me. It’s useless to try.
• How can I be responsible for their results when they don’t report to me?
• If you want me to make it happen, you’ve got to give me the authority over those people.
• My hands are tied. They don’t report to me.

Phrases like those are always spoken by a manager, never by a leader. I’ve heard them spoken many times in my career by managers who don’t have a clue about leadership. The only influence they have at work is directly tied to the authority, artificial influence, which is associated with the position they hold. Without it, they wouldn’t accomplish much of anything.

I remember being in a facility as a consultant once. I needed some help from a few team members in a different department, so I asked the manager I was working with if it would be okay if I went over and asked them for some help. He said, “You’ll have to wait. I’ll have to get an interpreter because none of them speak English.” I said, “Okay, I’ll go wait over there.” I thought it was interesting. When I got there, they all spoke English to me. Leadership is influence.

Managers make things happen with people that have to help them. Leaders make things happen with people that want to help them.

Most managers have never read a leadership book and can’t understand a leader doesn't need authority to make something happen. Leaders only need influence to make something happen. Leadership is not about who has to help you. Leadership is about who wants to help you.

Research studies have repeatedly shown a 40% productivity increase when comparing people that want to follow a leader with those that have to follow a manager.

A manager thrives on artificial influence and is not interested in developing himself or others in order to capture this massive loss of productivity. That’s what leaders do, not managers.

How do you influence? What is your style? Are you a director or a connector? Do you tell or sell? What would change if you had more real influence in every situation?

"When we look at people who disobey their leaders, the first question we ought to ask is not, 'What's wrong with those people?' but rather, 'What's wrong with their leader?' It says that responsibility begins at the top." ~ Malcolm Gladwell

FREE downloads available:

Click here now for a FREE download of the entire leadership principle-packed Chapter 11, "Get Out of the Way and Lead" from the first book in my Demystifying Leadership Series: Defining Influence. In this nearly 20 page chapter, I share about:

·      Managing vs Leading

·      Scarcity vs Abundance

·      Formal Authority vs Moral Authority

·      The 5 Types of Leaders

·      Compare/Contrast 17 Manager vs Leader Perspectives

Click here to access the first 5 chapters of “Blue-Collar Leadership: Leading from the Front Lines.”

·      Ch. 1: I’m one of you.

·      Ch.2: I believe in you.

·      Ch.3: You’re in the perfect place.

·      Ch. 4: Common sense is never enough.

·      Ch.5: There is an “I” in Team.

Note: I encourage you to be a river, not a reservoir. Please share my blogs with others if you find value in them. I believe in abundance and write them to help others become more effective, successful, and significant.

Make an impact!

Mack Story

My passion is to help you live with abundance, achieve success, choose significance, and leave a legacy. In other words, I want to help you make a High Impact !