“Example In Influencing Others Is The Only Thing”
“Stephen Covey, in his book The 8th Habit, describes a poll of 23,000 employees drawn from a number of companies and industries. He reports the poll’s findings:
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Only 37 percent said they have a clear understanding of what their organization is trying to achieve and why,
- Only one in five was enthusiastic about their team’s and their organization’s goals,
- Only one in five said they had a clear “line of sight” between their tasks and their team’s and organization’s goals,
- Only 15 percent felt that their organization fully enables them to execute key goals,
- Only 20 percent fully trusted the organization they work for
Then, Covey superimposes a very human metaphor over the statistics. He says, ‘If, say, a soccer team had these same scores, only 4 of the 11 players on the field would know which goal is theirs. Only 2 of the 11 would care. Only 2 of the 11 would know what position they play and know exactly what they are supposed to do. And all but 2 players would, in some way, be competing against their own team members rather than the opponent.” (Chip Heath, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die)
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“The mismanagement of Human Resources is one of the main reasons that ‘good’ companies never become ‘great.’” (Jim Collins, Good to Great)
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“Most companies that are in life-or-death battles got into that kind of trouble because they didn’t pay enough attention to developing their leaders.” (Wayne Calloway, former Chairman, PepsiCo)
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“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” (Kenneth Blanchard)
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“Set the tone. You may think you can’t change the corporate culture, but you’re actually helping build it with everything you do and every word you utter. Your people look to you as a model.
So pay attention to the signals you send about what you value and believe in.” (Lost and Found: The Story of How One Man Discovered the Secrets of Leaderships . . . Where He Wasn’t Even Looking, Lyle Sussman, Sam Deep & Alex Stiber)
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“Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.” (Albert Schweitzer)
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Catalyst Quotes 
Regarding the Stephen Covey statement, the reason 37% of the people have no clear idea of what their company is doing is because the low level managers are managing and not providing leadership. I don’t think there is a company or organization that knows how to effectively change that situation. That’s because most manager were taught to lead using management theory and not taught how to lead using leadership theory.
Rod – I agree. In my 20+ years in Human Resources with major companies it was difficult to get buy-in from the companies to do Leadership Training with the low to mid level supervisors/managers. It is essential that companies begin to look at their associates as the key to their success and it all begins with effective training. Thank you for your comments.