Leadership = Connecting

What is leadership? Is it the ability to get others to do what you want? That might have been the authoritarian model once upon a time—but it’s outmoded and doesn’t work now.

Leadership today is about connecting—for the executive and for his or her network, both internally and externally. Success is not about command and control; it’s about who connects the most effectively. Having the insight to change means developing the motivation to engage in it. It helps avoid mistakes, and advances careers and achieves personal growth and progress.

History is full of examples of those who reached the top by connecting—and those who don’t becoming history’s also-rans. Obama vs. McCain; Hillary vs. Obama—not to take away her many considerable accomplishments but there is a reason Bill Clinton, despite his evident flaws, became president and Hillary did not. Bill connects better than his wife. Even George W. Bush, with a notable lack of intelligence, connected better than Al Gore and won.

But why connect? What does a network really accomplish? Internally, the answer is more evident. Connecting within an organization allows:

• Assistance with collaboration
• Secure internal networks providing information
• Help with motivation and engagement
• Support for organizational goals
• Information about organizational capabilities

Connecting externally might be less evident, but is often much more powerful. However, many internally driven executives often state that the time and energy for external networking is lacking. Most successful leaders are driven by an appetite for continuous learning and development. Once a reluctant leader connects externally at work, progress becomes immense. The isolated feeling of being lonely at the top melts away and there begins a networking process that is akin to winning a successful political campaign. That feeling a candidate receives when the warm glow of the public starts to trend in their direction is like the moment an executive realizes, “I am not alone. There are others just like me, wrestling with their problems in their industries.”

When like-minded leaders in a safe, high disclosure environment meet, here’s what happens. They:

• Challenge each other
• Solve existing issues
• Explore new ideas and opportunities.
• Challenge or confirm their thinking
• Leverage the experience of peers and advisors
• Become what they capable of becoming.

The question is often asked, “Why connect? I have all the success in the world, why is that necessary?” Because there is a higher level of success, and it may not be apparent. It fulfills the deepest higher human need—to be connected. Most everything going in the communications and marketing revolution today is about connecting. The sociology hasn’t changed; it’s the enabling technologies that have changed the picture. Executives today who understand this have at their disposal something very powerful, more powerful than any tool that falls under the quantitative or qualitative marketing mix.

As the examples above of leaders and others that abound in the literature of business success, those who connect and invest in relationships are those who achieve positions of great leadership. In our own time from Jack Welch to Bill Gates to Warren Buffet to Steve Jobs, these individuals have special relationships with the public that mirror that Obamas, Tony Blairs and Bill Clintons of the political world. It was not for nothing that one of John F. Kennedy’s most famous remarks was, “I am a Berliner,” which he uttered at the Berlin Wall 20 years before it fell. In other words, JFK was saying: I am like you, I am with you. That was overwhelmingly a connecting comment.

PEO’s seven-point plan for executive growth and connection includes the following:

1. Commit your time and energy
2. Network (external growth)
3. Listen
4. Ask
5. Understand
6. Practice thoughtfulness
7. Look for the opportunities

Living this process is what we do. If you are a leader yearning for more meaning in your career, now it’s time to call PEO to ‘connect, think and grow.’