Leadership is about influence.
This week, I have progressed a lot. From Tuesday to Saturday, I had people sign up for donation every day and made 10 sales in a week. And I am about to be promoted to Team Leader next week. Leadership is about influence; this business is about influence.
One of the criteria for promotion is running an impact. It means that I need to stand in front of the office and give a short speech on one of the systems we use to make sales. The purpose of it is to teach people what works for me and help them learn what I have done well. I successfully ran an impact on Friday morning. Standing in front of many people, I was making an influence and would exert more impact after becoming Team Leader because I would run more impacts, interview others, train interns, and promote them to team leaders as well!
When I am making a difference and helping people do better, I am constantly influenced by the leader. Igor as Project Manager ran the office and held a meeting every morning. He is always excited and energetic and uses that excitement to motivate everyone to do better. That is what makes him charismatic. Although he is more charismatic than visionary, vision is also important in this business. Because of what we do on streets and the long working hours, it is not an easy job and people tend to quit very often. Therefore, it is important and necessary for the leader to draw a big picture of the bright future for followers. The vision is that people can open a new office in fewer than two years. The vision is that people can earn a lot of money, reach true financial freedom, and use the money to realize their goals in several years. The vision is that there are tons of opportunities in the industry. No matter Igor is being charismatic or visionary, he is influencing everyone in the office trying to get people excited about what he is doing and make them do whatever is needed and of course at the same time achieve their own success.
Congratulations on making 10 sales and completing your impact. That’s great. In terms f making your sales, was there anything you drew on from your leadership studies that assisted you with this accomplishment? In regards to the ‘theory in action’ reflection, so Igor is charismatic. Would you say he is a transformational leader? You’ve already discussed his charisma (also known as idealized influence with Transformational Leadership) – does he also over inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration? Just thought I would ask. As for vision, the vision seems to be more focused on individual accomplishment and ascendancy (to one’s own office) than to the organization as a whole?
Leadership studies assist with sales? not really… more with the observation and the interaction between colleagues
Hard to see how inspirational motivation fits in with the system used to do sales whose core is repetition; motivate yes (story, routine, expression “fired up, ready to go”), inspire no (inspire in which way)
Intellectual stimulation no (diff between intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation?)
Some individualized consideration, distribute this to team leaders too (does it work for followers and the organization this way?)
Vision is more focused on individual accomplishment and ascendancy than to the organization as a whole, and thus people may be less identified with the organization and less tend to stay – another potential problem