Often, too often, it seems to me, we miss opportunities and experiences because they are in plain sight. We’re so busy with our busyness that we are blind to things right in front of us.
There is a cacophony in our lives that drowns out the signals and messages we do not even know are there.
One of the implications for missing things that are in plain sight is foregoing opportunities to change things for the better, to make a difference, to do more than just make up the numbers.
When we miss other people’s leadership moment engagements, we also miss the opportunity to both learn from them and assess their leadership capability.
Apart from our own learning-by-doing, a great teacher is watching someone else expertly manage their leadership moment. When we observe someone deftly apply influential leadership it offers us a template for our own practice, and it encourages us to know that there are others out there.
It might be that sometimes these others practice influential leadership without having yet learned it. Such an instance confirms that the influential leadership system is latent in all of us; we just need some activation (which is the Alpha Programme, of course).
During the past week, I came across a new instance of influential leadership happening in the midst of ‘normal’ life, and I was also reminded of another that bears sharing too.
Only Eight but Great
Let me start with the most recent event.
A primary school in the Western Cape Province of South Africa is saying goodbye to a long-standing principal who happened also to celebrate a birthday at the time the incoming principal paid his new school a visit.
Every student was invited to write a poem for the out-going principal’s birthday.
A single poem would be selected.
One of the invitees already had a sharp pencil. Liam was in the habit of writing poems for all manner of people – teachers, peers, family. Perhaps it was not surprising then, that from amongst the hundreds of verses his was the one chosen.
Liam was delighted, but there is more.
When he discovered his poem was to be read by a teacher at the morning assembly, a legion of 1,300 fellow students and staff, he asked whether he could rather read his verse.
He did. Apparently, it hit the right notes, and he delivered it with the aplomb of a Mark Antony.
It does not end here.
The day thereafter – as related by the two principals – they were strolling through the school grounds together when they heard an ‘excuse me sirs’, and there stood young Liam.
‘I would like to welcome you to our school, sir. I am sure you will enjoy it here, but we are also sorry to see you go Mr Deans.’
There are many influential leadership elements wrapped in Liam’s leadership moments:
- At eight, he already has social agency and a well-developed sense of self-efficacy. The Alpha_Generation is indeed defined by the application of agency and not age.
- He grabbed the opportunity – he saw the leadership moment – he went first.
- He was courageous, thoughtful and purposeful.
- He was people centered.
- He set an example for his peers and elders.
- He was strategic.
No Audience Needed
The second illustration of influential leadership at work comes from Austria.
Let us call him Henk.
Henk has a friend in Vietnam. He spends a few weeks each year visiting with this friend in Vietnam, and they are in constant contact via social media and the phone.
It is the person in Vietnam who relates the story.
Henk calls one evening to chat, and, amongst other things, he mentions that he spent some time at the police station in the morning. He was there to report an accident, an accident he made.
The friend is concerned; she asks if he is injured.
No. Just the car was damaged, and a traffic sign. He lost his concentration on his way home on a lonely country road. Fortunately, there are few cars here in the evening he said, and the car was still in working order. He limped home.
She asks why he reported the matter to the police then; if nobody was injured, and nobody even saw it happen.
‘I made a mistake. I damaged that public property – the signboard. I was unsure who and how it would be replaced and paid for, so that’s why I needed to report it’.
Henk has never heard of influential leadership, but what he did has its profile. He was:
- Self-aware and took personal responsibility.
- Respectful of how a successful system functions for everyone.
- Courageous.
- Principled.
He set an example (to all with senses, especially his astounded Vietnamese friend).
Our Teaching
Leadership moments happen all the time – many are lost to us in plain sight because we’re untrained to see them. Develop your leadership sightedness.
- When we recognise them, we must be capable of responding to them. Are you?
- Leadership moments are about our social agency – our capability to think, to choose and to act.
- Everyone benefits when influential leadership is practiced; and we all suffer when it is not.
For those who have been on the Alpha Journey – just #keep_pedalling. We must be on our influential leadership bike every day and every leadership moment if we are to stay upright and go ahead.
For those who are busy with Alpha – keep learning and forging ahead.
For those who have not yet got started – join the Alpha_Generation.
It will be great to hear from you.
Regards,
Colin Donian
Shaping lives for the better
