5 things to do to grow the Influencers in your organisation

The Influencers make themselves known. They are the ones holding audience in the staff room; they are the ones you the leader give time to and who advises you about what is going on in the ranks. Recognising an Influencer in your organisation is fairly easy when we tune into the pulse of our organisation. They are the leaders - both working positively or, negatively within your organisation.

Identify these key people and you have identified your potential top 20%.

Identifying, building, developing and empowering these ‘potential leaders’ is the very best growth strategy you can apply to your business. Once they have fully embraced you they have fully embraced what your business is on about. You are then on a growth path.

It’s very easy to write about but incredibly challenging to put into practise.

Here’s why.   Leaders are strong willed, determined, stubborn, high achieving. They are inventive, visionary and innovative.  They seek new ways to do things and need room to do so. They are most definitely, impatient.  They have no issues telling you they disagree. Some have no qualms telling you that you have it all wrong. It’s in their nature to challenge.

Thank goodness. Otherwise we would not have the new inventions, the new ways of doing things, the breakthroughs in business and science and technology that we have today. We are better off because of the leaders in our worlds, albeit they might add some grey hairs to our heads.

Leading them requires great wisdom. Developing them requires top notch people skills. One wise leader said developing leaders in your organisation is like trying to herd cats.

Leaders are hard to find, hard to keep, hard to gather however, they are hands-down 100% worth the effort to develop because of the multiplication factor they create in your business.

5 keys to developing your leaders

  1. Identify the influencers.
  2. Give them the attitude test. Find out if they are a positive influence or not. See how they respond when you try to gather them into unity. Watch how they respond when you give them a task they don’t agree with or like.  Are they secure? Can you break through with them? If so, you have the makings of a leader. If not – move them on.
  3. Give them the character test. Are they secure in who they are? Do they take the credit? What are their character constraints?  Is the individual willing to work on those constraints? Does the individual respond when you try and grow them? If the answer is positive, you have an uncut diamond. Get to work, make them sparkle. If not you have a ball of charcoal that must be removed before the fires of growth can be lit.
  4. Give them room. Once you have cleaned out the negative influencers you have the makings of a brilliant next gen leadership team.  Be careful not to clip their wings as they fly, because they absolutely must have room to soar. With the right encouragement when they fail, they will respond with small success after small success until they ‘get it.’
  5. Watch your own response to their success. Encourage, train, align, inspire, and release. Avoid control. Apologise if you stuff it and, most importantly, keep growing yourself. Leaders only follow other leaders who are stronger, better wiser or more gifted.

About Ingrid Aitken Gattari, Achievers Group

Ingrid Aitken Gattari is the wife of Tony Gattari. She is executive director at Achievers Group. Ingrid has a wealth of experience across a number of industries and has worked in the fields of journalism, public relations, counselling and administration. Ingrid is highly qualified and has a degree in communication (journalism), a diploma in public relations and community services. Ingrid specialises as a trainer, facilitator and coach is the areas of team work, personal development and conflict resolution.

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