How often do you wish you had more power in your life? A greater opportunity to be a leader in all that is important to you?

The truth is you do have the power to be a leader! You have leadership skills and you should use them! By exercising your leadership skills regularly, your personal effectiveness will increase, giving you more control over your life and work.

Everyone can be a Leader

Picture this example: you are the conductor of the New England Conservatory’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra which is on tour in Cuba. The orchestra is going to perform together with the Cuban National Youth Orchestra: one Cuban and one American at each music stand. It is the first day of joint rehearsals – and the Americans flub it. The Cuban conductor – very talented – simply can’t get the American youth to understand the colorful and complex rhythms of the opening Cuban piece. What do you do?

In this case, the American maestro, Ben Zander, jumped to the stage and through an interpreter said to the Cuban players, “Your job is to teach these rhythms to your American partner.” The energy in the room shifted. For the Americans, the focus had shifted from the conductor up front to following the lead of their Cuban counterpart. The Cuban players were energized by their new role. Working in pairs – a leader and a follower - the complex rhythms were conquered by the kids.

The next piece up was from Bernstein’s Candide, fiendishly clever, extremely difficult. To Ben’s dismay, the Cubans hadn’t seen the music: it was still stuck somewhere in the Cuban postal system, three months after being shipped. And this was a piece the Americans had spent several months learning. So what to do? The roles were reversed with the American at each stand leading her Cuban counterpart. The end result was a tremendously energetic performance because of the leadership and energy of every single orchestra member.

This happened in 1999, and Ben Zander says that this method of giving leadership to each chair has transformed how he brings two orchestras together. Now, he sees much more vitality in the rehearsals and in performance. In fact, he finds that his conducting is being influenced by the ideas of the performers (Zander & Zander, Chapter 5).

Leadership by All can Revitalize and Transform the Organization

A truly successful organization is one in which all its members or employees step forward to lead. That’s the organization that has the energy to do great things: achieve its goals and change when change is needed.

Like these young musicians, you have more power than you have ever realized. At a minimum, you have the power to add to the energy of your company, your community, your family. You can be someone who makes an impact! Always!

By applying your positive energy to whatever you do, you can accelerate movement within the organization. That’s why we consultants always seek out the real thought-leaders, no matter where they are in an organization. We know that no matter how emphatic top management is about their planned direction, if the thought-leaders aren’t on board, management isn’t likely to reach its goal.

Give Hope through Your Leadership

Napoleon said, “a leader is a dealer in hope.” Hope! That means that even as a follower, if you act and speak and write in such a manner that you give hope, then you are acting as a leader. You are an advocate for your cause. Being an advocate for your cause makes you one of the most important leaders in your organization or community.

Now typically, your cause and the leader’s cause are not identical. There are at least some differences. In these cases, it is even more important for you to be a leader. Your cause may never succeed without your input, without your leadership.

Gain Power by Helping Them Want to Follow Your Cause

So what do you do? How do you work effectively with the “Powers that Be” for the success of your cause? The answer lies in President Eisenhower’s statement, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” Isn’t that what you are looking for? You want the leaders to do what you want done – because they want to do it. You want the leaders – and your fellow followers – to do what you want done – because they want to do it.

The truth is that leadership is a process. It’s a process and approach to life that any of us can learn. The extent and effectiveness of your leadership skills are based upon how much and how often you practice. Leadership starts with connecting with your audience, finding the common ground that all can agree upon, so that everyone sees each other as being like each other, worthy of paying attention to, worthy of trust, worthy of understanding where their goals differ from yours. Worthy of doing something to resolve those differences – because you all want to stay on a shared path: maybe as an orchestra, maybe in making the world a safer place for our children.

This is the direction that leaders take: the leadership process puts a positive spin on your relationship with the others who are traveling with you. It enables you to make a difference in a way that helps others see the value in supporting your goals.

Be a Leader - Always

We all have some leadership skills, some learned ability to make others want to do what we want done. Becoming better and more effective is no more difficult than reading a book on leadership skills and practicing those skills every day. In every relationship and every challenge, you have the opportunity to use those leadership skills, so look for those opportunities and use them to your benefit.

Take more control in your life. Influence decisions that affect you. Be a leader – Always. You can do it!

---

Reference

Zander, R. & Zander, B. (2000) The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life. Penguin Group: New York