Leadership can be complicated but effective leaders in today’s workforce need to now be less authoritative and now have the skills to influence others to gain consensus or agreement to move initiatives forward in a way where people are bought in and motivated. The ability to influence is an essential leadership skill that as a soft skill is increasing in demand as leaders need to inspire, persuade and rally their staff so they have a commitment to a shared goal. You may have the authority to make somebody do a task but that does not mean you can make them do their best that is often when influence becomes more important. Each day people are at work they make a decision on how much effort they are going to exert- I pride myself on my effort but I started to realize that leadership does make a difference as leaders can influence there staff and generate commitment from their employees. I take building trust incredibly seriously as have seen my own supervisors build trust with me and also fail to build trust. My last supervisor was very talented in building trust she built a trust where I felt accountable to her and I was committed and motivated in making sure I completed anything that supported her with speed and quality. I would be lying if I said I did not have supervisors who also lacked the skill to motivate and influence people in a positive way; as professional as people might be there is still a point psychologically that they become motivated or worn down and demotivated. I have also had this occur where supervisors take credit for the work of others and blame others for mistakes and truly break trust within their teams. Often individuals are motivated by career growth for themselves and forget that they are leading teams and that the best way to career growth is empowering their team and building trust.

The Skill to Influence

The skill of influence for leadership is no longer a “nice to have” it is essential to be able to engage employees and build collaborative environments. Authority does not motivate individuals the same way influence does so understanding the skills and steps needed to influence is important. Below is a base for understanding and ability to be able to be an influential leader in the workplace:

1. Organizational Intelligence

Understanding the structure and processes of an organization is important in being able to navigate through and apply influence to move initiatives forward. There is a formal structure but to apply influence it is also important to understand the informal structure (ie. Politics). Leaders who understand how to navigate the informal structures of an organization can often accelerate initiatives and reduce friction and pushback; I will discuss leveraging network and contacts further below. Furthermore building social capital helps in being able to navigate organizations as politically savvy individuals have often taken time to foster personal relationships.

2. Promotion and role

To gain influence often leaders need to know how to promote themselves and understand their role in the organization. Furthermore often they can gain the most influence by promoting and enabling their teams. Servant leadership, especially in agile environments, are gaining steam and this type of leadership often needs to use influence and negotiation to remove blockers that impede their team’s progress. To be able to remove blockers often influence is needed, in agile (scrum) scrum masters work to remove blockers for their staff in sprints often this takes influence to implement these agile practices across the organization to enhance efficiency. Roles are changing across organizations and influence is a skill that is becoming necessary to be successful in many new roles.

3. Trust Building

Credibility is important when trying to exert influence and often this needs to be created over time as actions are what truly build trust. Likability is often a part of trust-building but credibility is the even a larger part of trust. This does not mean credibility equals trust but credibility is often a direct input of trust in the workplace. Trust is complex and often this is forgotten as it takes time and is a process. Leaders can do a lot to build influence as in the past I have found doing a lot of little things to build influence is also important. Getting to know people and

Accountability across teams also needs to be built to help trust but this is something that also is a bit of a science as to when in leadership roles expectations need to be set, communicated and allowed to be clarified.

4. Network and Listening

Influence is complex and often is built from not trying to influence but to listen and to be an empathetic leader who can really make people feel heard. When people feel they are being heard they often become empowered to work harder and are more motivated. If people feel like there is no use talking to you they won’t and will not engage with you affecting how you network and your overall influence. It is important that in being open to listening you should also be open to being influenced. Building a network where you have credibility and trust and often knowledge can lead to your influence spreading exponentially across organizations.

To truly be able to influence and provide influential leadership you need to be seen and you need to show you care and empathy is a part but passion for the goal is also an important point as seen in Kouzes and Posner The Leadership Challenge “If a leader displays no passion for a cause, why should anyone else care”.

The Need for Authority (Sometimes It Is Needed)

There are times sometimes that authority is necessary to move things forward. In change management best practice it is imperative that a sponsor with authority for the initiative is established. Engaged sponsors can help accelerate initiatives and power change and even if individuals have influence often authority is needed to accelerate achieving company goals with aggressive timelines. Strong sponsorship can often help reinforce the organization’s commitment to the initiative and there are times that influence is not enough in moving initiatives forward in the workplace.

A leader who is focused on achieving mutual goals across an organization can be powerful when they have a skill set that can build influence in their organization. Understanding influence and how to upskill to gain influence is becoming more essential in the workplace and in my last role I often did not have formal authority in many of my organizations initiatives but was able to push them through or to get significant progress in continuous improvement initiatives by working with an engaged management team and using influence to gain consensus and move initiatives forward.

I wrote in the past on the value of post-secondary education and its need to adapt here. I also wrote on traditional examinations within the context of the CPA exam failures recently on testing there programs and usability. I was asked by somebody than where do I see things going in regards to education and that in my opinion is a difficult question but my take is below.

I really believe there is a large role for Universities and formal education institutions if they are able to adapt to learning. I remember on my first degree that I had one professor who still made students go to the library to photocopy slides and used an overhead projector and simply refused change and it was normal for at least 10 years prior to present with Powerpoint and have notes online. Now there is even more engaging technology for slides like Beautiful.ai, Prezi and keynote as examples. The refusal of one professor to modernize is a common issue I have seen with post-secondary institutions where one individual not adapting can change a student’s experience as tenured professors priority is often research and teaching is something that helps fund their priority. Organizational agility and change management is something government-funded, risk-averse organizations like post-secondaries might naturally struggle with as rocking the boat is often not rewarded and most often taking risks is not encouraged in this traditional environment. This has led to opportunities for entrants into training and education and more certification agencies. I am of the opinion that many vocational schools and privately owned certification bodies are gaining steam as employers often are looking for specific certifications and skillsets suited to their industry. Digital marketers for example now are probably very well served to have google analytics certifications and other credentials on top or sometimes instead of a traditional business degree. Some of the best digital marketers have no degree and many of the top respected experts in their field now are not academics like Gary Vaynerchuk or Neil Patel. Sometimes a degree is needed but a great thought piece on this can be read here.

So here we go, I understand there will always be a role for post-secondaries we are not going to go to a Bootcamp or self-learn being a doctor, lawyer or nursing. Many careers might be unable to shift for years to more agile learning but I will talk about this more below still on the opportunities of AR (augmented reality). My learning has shifted greatly over time to look at ROI and skillset I have realized with technology and trends moving so quickly being a lifelong learner is necessary to be effective for clients/ customers and employers. Often a 4-year degree has items you have no interest or would never use but is part of the requirements of a traditional University education – my first degree was an arts degree where I completed an Economics degree with a Sociology minor but  I had many statistics and math courses mixed in which I thought might have a use but I was forced to take fine arts classes and second languages to get my degree. I had no interest in them and they provided little value and I hear the argument of being a more rounded individual as for one of my fine arts classes in drama I went to go see plays and wrote papers that were enjoyable. But these courses really reduce the ROI on my degree- I also did a business degree later online where I felt the ROI was a little higher as I did very little that would not benefit me. Still, I will say my highest ROI was from certifications like PMP, Lean-Six Sigma, and Prosci Certifications mainly as these were specialized and provided knowledge that was applicable and helped me in my career as actionable knowledge. You cannot master or learn a whole subject area in 3 days as mentioned in the article here and I think the article makes great points but often these boot camps and certifications expect application and knowledge to be gained and give you the base to start. Upskilling is becoming essential to keeping up with trends as mentioned before and being in the workplace for a bit it is clear that often there can be a gaps in skillsets when organizations do not invest in their employees for growth and in working with many different organizations and industries I find gaps can be large when this investment is ignored. Recently PWC committed to spending about $3 billion on upskilling its employees which can be seen here. Just my opinion but this is forward-thinking even with technology and AI people are at the center of growth and success of most organizations.

One of the best posts I might have ever read in regards to the change traditional schools need to make is here. One thing that sticks out for me for traditional universities or Colleges to keep up is understanding the market and adapting with speed with technology but also designing their own curriculum for it to be relevant to their career goals. I am very interested in understanding what will occur in the future as have two young kids and with online degrees and certifications is it worth investing in an RESP. How greatly will education change with AR and being able to learn hands-on items from home? Currently, I am learning to code and it is incredible the free resources available and released by private organizations. Will knowledge be more free-flowing in this way and what will be the role of formal education. I am in the middle of my MBA and really question the ROI and value currently but want to finish as understand this is an indicator of certain high-level knowledge to employers. I also feel like at times things are changing rapidly and wonder if I will have to ask my kids how to program some random item like my holographic personal assistant. Either way, learning is different for everybody and is changing rapidly in ten years I wonder which tenured professor will still be using traditional PowerPoint. Or maybe Microsoft will adapt PowerPoint rapidly to how learning is changing.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them” 

Albert Einstein

Design thinking is a tool that is gaining steam as often business problems can be assisted with a different view of thinking in the new digital economy. I have been in many situations where individuals are brainstorming for solutions to issues and really look to what is the standard or best practice but sometimes this can fail. When there is an efficiency problem process is introduced or implementing technology to solve other problems. Many leaders are hammers and look for nails as leaders often looking to formulate solutions to problems that might be more complex. Design thinking process often has a level of due diligence that helps answer business problems as design, prototyping and testing ideas as a critical thinking framework that is flexible so information can be gathered, decisions could be made and solutions implemented rapidly. Design thinking is a powerful tool that can assist in diverse business issues and specifically transformations or re-inventions of business models and value chains in organizations. Design thinking is a great tool for these issues because it naturally tries to get to root-causes of issues and this form of critical thinking if the standard practice is the best solution it is usually validated. I will not go too far into this but to understand the systems thinking and design thinking approach you can check out two possible areas for a quick overview- systems thinking or design thinking.

Transformation and digital transformation are usually not solved by technology but by human factors as it clarifies problems as it is a user-centric approach that puts the user/ customer at the forefront.  Design thinking allows users looking to solve issues to engross themselves in problems leveraging technology but still with the user first. User-centered approaches for problem-solving has a very empathetic approach and digs in to truly try to understand why people do things and emotions of the users. Design thinking needs to be fluid and as a framework often in itself is a fundamental shift for organizations is not a choice. Most companies do not like to take risks and really have no other choice but to transform and most often this has to do with going more digital. But digital transformation and fundamental changes to a business are not about technology adoption to solve a problem but about problem-solving issues that require innovative solutions. Often many operation managers do not have the skillsets needed to fully adopt changes needed within organizations as the day to day management and skillset needed is very different than implementing key complex strategic initiatives. Business transformation is also changing as organizations in hyper-competitive environments are continuously changing to make sure they can still compete- continuous improvement initiatives for many organizations is constant and items need to be adapted often in iterations. The most successful organizations continue to look within and try to adjust and adapt as the feedback cycle never really stops. Requirements for organizations are changing rapidly and it is important to adapt- what I learned in my last role is often process, the specifically linear process is not the best solution. Design thinking is best when it is a guideline and ingrained into culture as this takes time and often leaders are not willing to truly take a chance on empowering employees and design thinking as a guideline. Instead, many leaders are used to providing a structured set of steps but this rarely gets the results they are striving to get. Learning and using lessons from iterations can often be difficult for leaders as there is not a defined future solution right away this can cause discomfort for leaders and to truly implement solutions in many cases that maximize the ROI this is needed as root-causes often are better solved with ideation. Technology and automation can be part of a solution but being people and user-focused will often help you understand the true problems. Leaders though need to be more patient and allow for experimentation and sometimes failure, a failure that can be learned from and can humanize technology and provide a culture that can embrace change.

Transformation of an organization is also helped with a diverse workforce as thought diversity and different opinions help design thinking and allow for critical thinking of problem solving. Groupthink, the loudest person in the room and the HIPPO (highest paid person’s opinion) affect can all still affect design thinking’s effectiveness if sessions are not facilitated effectively. I have been in situations before that people fall in line and are not able to speak their minds on business problems and solutions because they are affected by the previously mentioned issues. I have realized now that fit within an organization is a double-edged sort- yes like-minded individuals can sometimes allow for initiatives to move forward quicker but diverse workforces can come up generally with solutions that are better thought out with diligence and allow for true design thinking. Consultants often can be useful in cases like this when facilitation skills are not within your organization to truly develop plans that encompass a real solution to complex problems. Design thinking helps develop solutions and can help because it can be transformative. Flatter leadership structures in many organizations are also becoming more common as clients/ customers are demanding speed. Therefore most business transformation and change within many organizations is more of a culture shift than and operational shift. What is envisioned is a human-centered process not normally a technology-driven process and in saying most transformation in organizations is employee-driven and the technology is only the tool to help get there. If an organization wants successful transformation they will focus on changing culture and this is where training designing thinking within the organization can help transformation as employees can help take steps to the future. In reality the organizational culture shift and design thinking go hand in hand and diversity of thought will help design thinking as innovation and transformation become more essential for businesses as the digital economy provides them no choice. Changing to survive is set to become the norm for many in the near future.