“Can a leader influence a team without authority?”
“Yes, of course”, I replied.
He seemed confused, “We see so many leaders who led their team by authority. Are they not influencers?”.
My reply was, “A leader does not influence his team by authority.
Because using authority to get a job done is not Influence, it’s Intimidation”.”
Why is it intimidation?
Because an intimidating leader would use the sword of punishment to get the job done, whereas an influencer would motivate his/her team to get the job done.
The student seemed confused. “Can you please elaborate?”, he asked.
I explained, “There were two most debated captains in Indian cricket in last two decades. Ganguli and Dhoni.
When it comes to success, in terms of number of trophies and achievement, Ganguli does not have much to show, baring few wins here and there.
On the other hand, Dhoni won everything that is there to win in Cricket.
However, when it comes to being popular within the teammates, Ganguli is the clear winner.
You would never hear a single comment of discontent even after 15 years of his retirement from any of the members of his team, senior or junior.
Every leader worth his or her salt, has to take unpopular decisions.
The test of a leader’s leadership is, how those decisions were accepted by the team.
A team would accept the leader’s unpalatable decision only when there is an environment of transparency and trust within the team.
Where the team believes that the decision taken are for the team’s greater good and not due to vested interest of the leader.
An influential leader always deemed himself answerable to the team, whereas a leader armed with authority, owes no explanation to the team.
Influence lives beyond a professional shelf life, whereas authority ends with the termination of the professional relationship.
That’s why we see, today when Dhoni is criticized by his erstwhile teammates, no one from his team ever comes forward to defend him.
Whereas, even today in talk shows whether it’s a Shewag or a Yuvaraj, everyone waits for their captain to take his seat first, before they take their own.
And that’s the difference between leading by Influence and leading by authority/Intimidation”.