Using leadership to implement leadership

T+D, May, 2003 by Clark Aldrich

In this follow-up, Aldrich addresses questions raised in his article, "The New Core Leadership," from the March issue of T D. He says the way to get organizations to embrace leadership as an enterprise competency is to demonstrate leadership.

Leaders need to build power to gain influence. They can do that by documenting, executing, and seeing great ideas through, in addition to completing all strategic projects. Long-term power can be attained by targeting star employees and helping high-potential people.

Leaders also need to successfully uncover and introduce ideas by working with others. They should take the time to listen to other people in the organization. By bringing in quiet members of the group, leaders will gain credibility and respect.

Another key factor to demonstrating leadership is the moderation of workplace tension levels. Tension extremes are necessary to generate ideas, but moderate tension is needed to get things done. While it may seem manipulative, Aldrich maintains that it's a constant goal of any successful leader.