Hi Farley,
Good question. Most leaders face this challenge at some point in their career.
You must earn their respect. Pulling rank never works and you don't want to give them a pass or do their work for them.
You earn their respect by helping them perform at a higher level. Help them analyze their data and identify opportunities or "low hanging fruit" that will make them work smarter, rather than harder.
If you let me know more detail about your job or the areas of responsibility I can give you more specific ideas on how to help your team members.
Best Regards,
Greg
How do you earn the respect of your team if you are brought into a position from being an equal with them and they have an adversion to being lead by a younger woman?
Bending over backwards doesn't work and often just creates more distention. A heavy handed approach doesn't work well either though it gets things done sometimes. Morale is a tough thing to conquer when a team hates change.
Hi Brenda,
Good points. With great leaders and managers, power or influence is obtained more as a result of day-to-day actions, rather than form an org chart or title.
When a leader spends most of his or her time helping, guiding and supporting the team, members are much more inclined to take direction from that individual.
Regards,
Greg
Hi Daniel,
You are right on point. A strong leader earns the respect of his or her team, rather than demanding respect simply because of a title.
Make sure your forecast or budget has a well-defined bridge from your current outcomes to your anticipated outcomes. This makes it much easier to lead without power.
Once you get into your project or year, look out the window, and give credit to your team, when things are going well and look in the mirror, and take personal responsibility, when outcomes are below expectations.
Best Regards,
Greg
Leadership is not defined by title, and title does not mean you can lead. People will naturally follow an individual that offers clear vision to a goal and praticies the principles he/she preaches while leading people to these goals. On the other hand, if a person has a leadership title but does not offer clear goals, guidance and expectations, the path to a successful outcome for any project will be very difficult, if not impossible.
Yes, you can lead with no power. Leading is just going before, quiding, showing the way. You can/may lead because of your expertise or experience and therefore are able to quide a group while not having the decision making power that a manager would. Managing does require power - it implies bringing about a change, direction, control - all of which would require a power base at some level.
