Effective leadership gets people to follow.
I had this misconception early in my career that people listened to leaders because of their titles, and that someday I would be given that title and then people would listen to me. But that’s not how it works.
Somebody who can only get others to follow them by threatening people’s perfomance evaluations with their organizational power may get compliance, but I don’t think many of us would consider them to be an effective leader.
What I learned later in my career is that those who can influence others to take action without hierarchical power are the most effective at using that power to get things done. Because they have a suite of leadership tools (inspiration, influence, leading by example, negotiation, alliance building), they can use power sparingly but to great effect when necessary.
Leaders create followers by offering them a vision of a future where the leader and the follower create success together. So when I hear somebody complaining that nobody listens to them, I ask them to stop and consider what their stakeholders consider to be success so they can create such a vision of a mutual success scenario. Rather than negotiating against their stakeholders, they can create an “us” scenario where everybody wins together.
What’s an example of effective leadership where you felt seen by somebody and inspired to follow their vision towards mutual success?