On Enlisting Others

Leadership is said to be influencing others to participate, contribute and reach to a shared goal. Do not take this as a definition but as one of the many explanations that is out there on leadership. I have seen this in practice and the below is how I captured the approach. I know that I am running the risk of oversimplifying what leadership is - but here it is.

If you are in a leadership position and if you have an idea, share it with others and if necessary repeat it with them so that they have it in mind. Try to make your idea to be understandable – making it concrete using data or using beautiful explanation. Try to make your idea visible, put your idea somewhere, and ask people to comment on it. Then, enlist and ask people to participate in a brain storming session to discuss the idea, and generate next action items. Try to illicit others to take up on action items and provide feedback.

At this point, the idea is shared, amended, and possibly accepted and supported by others. If this is the case then it will cease to be your idea and becomes 'our' idea. You have passed the biggest hurdle and you are on to the next step. This is where you have to be careful and meticulous - you are getting into the execution step. Most ideas do not get implemented due to lack of will or participant, among other things.

Illicit execution ideas the same way from others, especially from those who saw the benefit from your idea - guide on what needs to be done and leave the ‘How’ to do it for participants. You can count on excellence in execution when people are choosing and allowed to provide feedback on implementation approaches. The main point here is to make them to feel like they own the idea as well as the implementation. Once execution is started, your task is to motivate, provide constructive feedback, be active participant – chances are the implementation process will be enjoyed by the participants and success may be achieved.

Remember - people strongly support what they help to create. This means they contribute with what they have to the implementation and thus to the success of what they set out to do. This is true in the case of failure or success. Credit for success will be shared and failure does not cause finger pointing.

Currently Reading: A Political History of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (1975-1991) by Aregawi Berhe.