ACTivity/ Influencing in Action

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash.

Manila, 29 March 2022 — It’s the leadership behaviors you practice every day that matter.

Story

It happened this week. A group of leaders from Australia, Cambodia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Portugal chose three leadership behaviors to practice in order to influence a positive change in their workplaces. This is part of their journey in the #Grow3Leaders Challenge.

What we, my fellow mentors and I, have seen in earlier rounds of Grow3Leaders is that when it comes to influencing people for change, nothing beats putting what you learn about leadership into action. It really comes down to a daily practice of influencing behaviors and a frequent sharing of experiences with colleagues to learn together Out Loud. This, we are discovering, is what 21st-century leadership is about.

What small teams — Collabs as we call them in Grow3Leaders — can do in just six to eight weeks of influencing work never stops surprising us. Their success, we found, comes from sticking with their daily practice to turn bits of leadership knowledge into consistent actions. And, just like ourselves, we saw that the participating leaders gain the most from practicing behaviors that take them out of their comfort zone. As shown by research, there is nothing like a struggle to make us grow as leaders. That’s why we call Grow3Leaders a challenge.

Challenge

Taking on a challenge together means overcoming barriers. Leaders taking on the Grow3Leaders Challenge have a choice of several barriers to overcome. Some have to do with expanding their awareness, others with taking multiple perspectives, and learning the right language to connect and build trust with the people they want to influence. And there are many more. 

The challenge to overcome barriers becomes apparent whenever leaders engage in conversations with the people they want to influence. For example, do they speak the right language? Do they have enough personal power? Do they show empathy and care? In an earlier post, we explored these Three Trust Barriers of language, power, and care.

In my coaching practice, leaders are telling me that their workplaces need positive change on several fronts, including how to adapt to rapidly evolving conditions and increase performance while at the same time reducing stress and supporting wellness among staff. To make these changes work with everyone contributing, collaboration is required, which in turn needs trust. That’s where overcoming the Three Trust Barriers comes in.

Question

My question for you this week is what you will do to overcome the Three Trust Barriers in your workplace, as part of your effort to influence people for positive change?

Why not take a cue from what the leaders in the Grow3Leaders Challenge are doing, which is to practice a small number of leadership behaviors every day and learn together Out Loud from the experience?

To build trust, there is one thing you can do that helps to overcome all three barriers. It is to grow your curiosity about other people every day. Becoming more curious will naturally drive you to find the right language, build consistency in your leadership, and develop empathy for others. It helps with other leadership behaviors too. And, as with all leadership behaviors, it’s putting it into action daily that will make the difference.

P.S. If you’d like to get updates about the Grow3Leaders Challenge, sign up here. If you prefer to get individual coaching to take your leadership to the next level, book your Free Strategy Call to tell me what change you want to influence in your workplace, and in yourself.