Leadership and Influence

Recently was in a gathering and having an interesting conversation around Leadership and Influence, when someone mentioned that one needs to have a corporate title and/or significant authority in an organization to influence others.

This caught my attention and made me think and ponder - Does leadership really have anything to do with a title or seniority in an organization ???

My experiences so far have been otherwise.

So, for an individual to have an Influence on others in an organization, does that individual really need to have a title or seniority ???

To answer this question, lets travel back in history for an interesting little event (some historians say it is a myth).

About 250 years ago during the American Revolution, a stranger in civilian clothes riding his horse, came upon a small group of tired and battle-weary soldiers digging a trench around an important defensive position. His attention was drawn to another soldier standing above the trench and shouting orders at the exhausted men in the trench.

Approaching the man above the trench, the stranger inquired "Sir, why are you not helping the men in the trench ?".

The man above the trench replied in an arrogant and indignant manner, “Sir, I am the Corporal and in charge of leading these men and they do as I order them. If you feel so strong about helping, why don't you help them".

The stranger apologized, dismounted his horse, took off his jacket and jumped into the trench along with the other men and helped until the task was completed.

Before the stranger climbed out of the trench, he walked down in the trench to thank each of the men for their hard work.

Soon after, the stranger climbed out of the trench, wiped his dirty hands, donned his jacket and approached the Corporal, saying, “Mr. Corporal, the next time you come upon a job like this and not have enough men to do it, go to your Commander-in-Chief, and I will come and help you do it again".

The stranger was none other than the Commander-in-Chief George Washington !!!

Let us put ourselves in the shoes of the those soldiers in the trench:

What would be our feelings towards the Corporal ???

We would be filled with resentment and would want to just get out and run at the first opportunity.
On the other hand, what would be our feelings towards the stranger, especially when we learn that the stranger is none other than our Commander-in-Chief ???

We would feel very grateful and would be willing to do anything for the Commander-in-Chief.

From the anecdote above, it is clear that Leadership and Influence have nothing to do with a title or seniority in an organization.

Still not convinced ??? One may argue that the Commander-in-Chief in the above anecdote had both the title and the authority.

Let me share one of my personal experiences here to drive home the point.

In one of the jobs in the past, was part of the Technology Architecture group with no significant title or authority.

At around the same time, one of the large multi-million dollar projects in another area was in a crisis situation. They had already missed quite a few deadlines and were nowhere near completion. They had a large number of people in addition to a good number of senior leaders engaged in the project.

At the peak of the crisis, was deployed in the project to provide assistance and direction. How do you think the members including the senior leaders in the project react ??? They were very skeptical and negative.

As with the stranger from the anecdote, jumped into the trench and started helping and guiding the members of the project to resolve the various challenges. In addition, collaborated with the senior leaders by providing full transparency into the challenges and how we were resolving them.

Just to give you an idea - at the start of the engagement, each transaction would take about 65 minutes to complete (yes, 65 minutes !!!) and in most occasions would fail. In about a week into the engagement, the transactions would complete in under 20 minutes.

As with the stranger from the anecdote, with every small success, would take the opportunity to congratulate and put the spotlight on the members of the project.

How do you think the members of the project reacted now ??? They were excited, energized, and fully collaborative.

Building on that momentum, we were able to course correct and resolve all the challenges. At the end of about 6 months, we successfully delivered the project and the transactions completed in under 3 minutes with consistent results.

What just happened here ??? Even though had no corporate title or significant authority, was able to influence a positive outcome.